 SARS-CoV-2 infection has been shown to drive NLRP-3 inflammasome activation and thereby cytokine storm, but how it does so is unclear. Here the authors show that the viral and protein combined to NLRP-3, resulting in enhanced interaction with ASC and thereby with the NLRP-3 inflammasome. This article was authored by Panpan, Miamyoshin, Chunyong Yu, and others.