I was under the impression acute respiratory distress and/or a...

I was under the impression acute respiratory distress and/or a secondary bacterial pneumonia was responsible for most deaths but I'll check it out after lunch.

ARDS does involve cytokine and transudate release, but as cytokines are released in your body for anything related to infection/irrriation etc it would be impossible and arbitrary to determine when the "storm" starts, and so is never stated as a direct cause of death.