Is covid-19 a Respiratory Disease or a Cardiovascular Disease?

 I've been listening to podcasts and reading the writings of Laurie Garrett recently.  She is the Pulitzer Prize winning reporter and expert on infectious diseases.  She's been writing about Ebola, Swine Flue and Covid-19 for decades.  When she speaks, people listen.  I was listening to her recent interview with Al Franken, and I learned a lot.

Covid-19 is not a respiratory disease, as first thought, but a cardiovascular disease.  Yes, those who contract Covid-19 often develop pneumonia.  The cells that this virus destroys are crucial cells for the proper functioning of the heart and blood and other organs like kidneys and liver.  The highest risk to developing cardiovascular disease are people with high blood pressure and diabetics.

Who is most likely to contract Covid-19?  Yes, elderly adults that may have several underlying conditions, but besides them, African Americans and Latino people of all ages. Part of the reason why, is they generally are less likely to have good medical care, and are often found to have untreated hypertension.  According to Laurie Garrett, true public intervention would consist of far more than just testing everyone for Covid-19.  

Laurie's idea is that even before testing for Covid-19, a person would be cuffed and it would be determined whether the person had hypertension.  That test takes less than one minute.  If the person was hypertensive, he would go to another line where he could be started immediately on medication and future treatment could be discussed.  Then, the person would get a finger prick to determine if they were diabetic or pre diabetic.  So, before one even had the Covid-19 test, it would be determined if they had two of the greatest underlying medical conditions in America that cause not only a higher mortality rate from the virus, but also cause many cardiovascular diseases that lead to early death.

This would be in the long run a cheap way to identify many people who otherwise are not aware of their condition and deal with it quickly and easily.  Of course this not going to happen, but it's nice to imagine how public health could intervene to really help.

It also answers the question as to why black, brown and indigenous peoples have a higher rate of Covid-19.  It's because of the health care they have not received, which leaves many of them with medical conditions they're not even aware of.  For now, let's keep testing as much as possible.  It's one of the important tools we have in fighting this pandemic.