Is it true that the new coronavirus is a vascular virus and not a respiratory virus?
Dr Jaco Laubscher, a Stellenbosch-based physician, has claimed that Covid-19 “is a vascular problem and not a respiratory problem”.
He argues that Covid-19 is a disease that affects blood vessels and not the lungs. Therefore, the way the condition is treated by health professionals should change.
But Professor Francois Venter, deputy executive director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute, told Africa Check it would be unusual for a systemic virus to only “hit the lungs or cardiovascular system”.
“There’s a lot of data now out from autopsies of Covid-19 patients that shows there’s lots of damage to the cardiovascular system, but there’s also a lot of damage to the respiratory system, which is where the virus actually gets in,” Venter explains.
