A fellow Brit should probably have seen the news that Hydroxychloroquine trials were halted in the UK after too many patients died. Worse than useless.

You're lucky not to have known anyone to be affected by covid-19. I know several - the person who died was old and a chainsmoker, so less surprising - but what DID surprise me was the number of young, fit, healthy people to have debilitating lingering symptoms months after getting infected.

I personally believe the prevalence has been wildly undercounted (millions of people with mild or no symptoms) and also the death rate has been slightly undercounted (all the excess deaths from strokes and other weird side-effects).

There's no conflict between the idea of it being a respiratory or circulatory illness - it starts in the lungs and then travels through the blood vessels.