Could covid lead to a lifetime of autoimmune disease?

Link: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/04/23/1023438/long-term-covid-antibodies-autoantibodies-immunity-cytokines-lupus/

Excerpt:

Ring’s autoantibody tests showed that in some patients—even some with mild cases of covid—the rogue immune proteins were marking blood cells for attack. Others were on the hunt for proteins associated with the heart and liver. Some patients appeared to have autoantibodies primed to attack the central nervous system and the brain. This was far more ominous than anything identified by the Rockefeller scientists. Ring’s findings seemed to suggest a potentially systemic problem; these patients seemed to be cranking out multiple varieties of new autoantibodies in response to covid, until the body appeared to be at war with itself.

What scared Ring the most was that autoantibodies have the potential to last a lifetime. This raised a series of chilling questions: What are the long-term consequences for these patients if these powerful assassins outlive the infection? How much destruction could they cause? And for how long?

Author(s): Adam Piore

Publication Date: 23 April 2021

Publication Site: MIT Tech Review