This finding suggests that circulating ACE2 has a protective effect.  This may be caused by SARS-CoV-2 having more targets to try and infect.  Ultimately, this would decrease the interactions the virus would have with actual tissues that express ACE .  Women and children have also been found to have greater amounts of circulating ACE2 in their blood, and this may explain why they tend to fare better with COVID-19.

Michigan State University

- Increased Concentrations of Circulating ACE2 is Associated with Mild COVID-19 Symptoms 
- Circulating ACE2 expression compared to circulating ACE

Expression of Circulating ACE2 and COVID-19

Tan, H. W., Xu, Y. M., & Lau, A. T. Angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2: The old door for new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection. Reviews in Medical Virology, e2122. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/rmv.2122

Angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2: The old door for new severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection

Increased Concentrations of Circulating ACE2 is Associated with Mild COVID-19 Symptoms

- circulating ACE2 was 100-fold lower than circulating ACE and only detected in 40 among 534 test subjects
- indicative of less shedding of ACE2 than ACE
- most healthy individuals have little to no circulating ACE2

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