SARS-CoV-2 RNA has been detected in blood specimens of individuals with COVID-19 (Huang C. et al., 2020; Wölfel et al., 2020); as ACE2 is highly expressed in smooth muscle as well as arterial and venous endothelium in virtually all organs, these tissues can be directly targeted by SARS-CoV-2, with induction of endothelial dysfunction (Hamming et al., 2004; Ackermann et al., 2020; Varga et al., 2020). The gene discussed is ACE2; the disease is COVID-19.