The risk of COVID-19 posed by this mechanism must, however, be balanced against the widespread use and utility of these drugs to control hypertension as well as the increasingly recognized counter-regulatory, protective role of the ACE2-Ang 1-7-MasR axis in counterbalancing classical ACE-Ang II-type 1 receptor (AT1R) regulatory axis of RAS (3). The gene discussed is ACE2; the disease is COVID-19.