Contemplating the respiratory ravages of severe acute respiratory syndrome from SARS-CoV-2, lung epithelial cells are portrayed as a planetary landscape immersed in a cyanotic, watery underworld. Viral budding from the plasma membrane of lung epithelial cells enables coronaviruses to exit the host cell after infection and replication. This initiates a cytokine storm, a sudden over-response all at once from an immune system gone awry, producing an inflammatory response flaring out of control.