Checkmate by a Protean Invisible Enemy

COVID-19 appears to use mutations adaptively to escape immune exposure, and expand its transmissibility. It circumvents the errors accumulated by random amino acid switches that previously eradicated other coronaviruses. The infectiousness of this pandemic is exponentially increasing, evolving into even more elusive pernicious variants. By apprehending the ACE2 receptors to contaminate human cells, COVID-19 neutralizes our primary anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic defences. The body counterattacks by unleashing chemokines, interleukins, leukocytes, TNF, CSF; but COVID-19 has a strategy: First, it overwhelms the innate response; then, it manoeuvres to avoid exposure by inhibiting the adaptive mechanisms of viral recognition. Undetected, COVID- 19 multiplies, while the immune system is blindly shooting in the dark, ravaging the vital organs of the host who is fatally injured by the cytokine storm. Vaccines' safety and effectiveness is evaluated along with new therapeutics. The focus is on COVID-19 susceptibility factors, hormonal imbalance, elevated glucose and lipids, obesity, and the male gender. Preventive methods designed to empower immunity are explored.