Three-way strategy employed by SARS-CoV-2 during infection A new study exposes how severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) tampers with the host cell's machinery to outsmart the immune system. The SARS-CoV-2 is the cause of the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Worldwide the number of infected cases so far is over 160 million. While many have recovered, over 3.34 million people have lost their lives. So how does the virus invade the human cell at the molecular level and succeed in causing the disease? Although different SARS-CoV-2 proteins are implicated in the attack on the host cell, a comprehensive evaluation of the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on cellular gene expression is lacking.