Control of SARS in 2003–2004 by strict non‐pharmaceutical interventions was facilitated by predominant SARS‐CoV replication in the lower respiratory tract (Gu & Korteweg, 2007), as opposed to efficient replication of SARS‐CoV‐2 in the upper respiratory tract (Wolfel et al., 2020) despite usage of the same receptor molecule angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) (Hoffmann et al., 2020; Li et al., 2003). This evidence concerns the gene ACE2 and severe acute respiratory syndrome.