Your second match (next unless ...) clobbers the previous $2.

$ perl -le '$_="foobar";/(foo)(bar)/;print "\$2 $2";/oo/;print "\$2 $2
+";'
$2 bar
$2
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Save $2 off (my( $re, $s ) = ( $1, $2 );) and then use $severity = $s instead.