FAP, May 10 / PRNewswire-FirstCall-Asianet /-- according to a paper published in the latest issue of the Journal of Clinical Research, researchers at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University applied machine learning technology to medical data and found that uncured secondary bacterial pneumonia was a key driver of novel coronavirus's death. It may even exceed the fatality rate of the virus infection itself. They also found evidence that novel coronavirus infection did not cause a "cytokine storm", which used to be thought to cause death. The importance of bacterial superinfection in the lungs as one of the causes of death of COVID-19 patients has been underestimated, the researchers said. This study emphasizes the importance of preventing, finding and actively treating secondary bacterial pneumonia in patients with severe pneumonia, including those with novel coronavirus infection.