I have finally managed to flush our "friend" out into the light. The virus, to use chess terminology, conducts a Double Attack. It Overloads the immune system on one front, while simultaneously evading it on another. SARS-CoV-2 is, after all, a designer killer Trojan Horse. 

While we have been focusing on the acute phase of the virus, in a currently unknown number of those infected, it is very likely silently destroying cortical neurons. It seems to have somehow been given the ability to destroy the cells controlling breathing and heart rhythm. 

This article from the Journal of Experimental Medicine helps to fill in the details:

Neuroinvasion of SARS-CoV-2 in human and mouse brain

https://rupress.org/jem/article/218/3/e20202135/211674/Neuroinvasion-of-SARS-CoV-2-in-human-and-mouse

No type I interferon response was detected when neurons were infected. SARS-CoV-2 was found in cortical neurons. 

So, the problem is that it is invading through the nervous system and not inducing an immune response. This is how it is a silent killer. This is how the spike protein will silently destroy cortical neurons. They found that the virus uses the machinery of neurons to replicate. 

This is its mysterious "prion-like" ability! It kills adjoining cells.

Together, these data indicated that SARS-CoV-2 can infect cells of neural origin and suggested that infected cells can promote death of nearby cells. 

Using electron microscopy, we visualized viral particles within the organoid, with discrete regions of high-density virus accum. and other regions showing viral budding from ER-like structures, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 is able to use the neuronal cell machinery to replicate. 

The spike protein is found within the cortex and in cortical neurons.

While in control slides, there was no positive immunohistochemical staining for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, samples from COVID-19 patients showed distinct and specific spike protein staining, albeit to different degrees (Fig. 8 and Fig. S3). Neuropathological evaluations identified staining with anti-spike antibodies in cortical neurons (Fig. 8 A, Fig. 8 B [upper panel], and Fig. 8 D [black arrows]), along with signal in endothelial cells (Fig. 8 B, lower panel). 

Patient 3, who failed to regain consciousness after cessation of sedation, was diagnosed with severe global encephalopathy and was noted to have multiple diffuse microbleeds, as demonstrated by diagnostic imaging (magnetic resonance imaging). 

...with devastating consequences of localized ischemia in the brain and cell death.

Given the fact that the virus can attach to nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, it will most likely begin its silent neuroinvasion through an intramuscular spike protein vaccine. 

Until the spike protein vaccines are tested on aged, humanized mice, they should immediately be halted. Hundreds of millions, if not billions, of lives are potentially at risk.