COVID-19 is now considered to be a respiratory not vascular disease--new studies

Medical professionals and researchers have been studying the link between COVID-19 and vascular symptoms since the beginning of the pandemic. They have learned that people with severe COVID-19 are at a risk of strokes, blood clots, and other vascular complications.

These observations led to several hypotheses that COVID-19 was a vascular disease with respiratory symptoms and not a respiratory disease.

Studies in 2020Trusted Source and 2021 supported this theory. These studies concluded that although people with mild to moderate COVID-19 only had respiratory symptoms, COVID-19 was primarily a vascular disease. However, additional studies published later in 2021Trusted Source and into 2022Trusted Source have contraindicated these findings. New studies indicate that COVID-19 doesn’t attack the vascular system at all.

Instead, these studies found that strokes and other vascular complications occur when infected respiratory cells cause extreme inflammation in other parts of your body.

This means that the virus itself isn’t attacking the lining of blood vessels; the blood vessel damage is coming from your immune system trying to attack those cells as they travel through your body. When your immune system over-responds to infected cells or if your blood vessels were already weak or damaged, it can lead to clotsTrusted Source and other vascular complications.

Many people who are hospitalized for COVID-19 are at increased risk of vascular complications. Knowing that these complications are part of an inflammatory immune system response can help doctors lower the risk of stroke and other serious vascular complications. ...

For example, people with SARS-CoV-2 infections who are at risk of vascular complications may be given blood thinners to help lower their risk. Doctors, medical researchers, and other professionals might also look for ways to lower inflammation while still helping the body fight COVID-19.

Understanding how COVID-19 affects the vascular system can also help researchers identify people who are most at risk of vascular complications, leading to targeted treatments and better outcomes.