AA: Is For AutoAntibodies

A study by Aaron Ring et al. at Yale University appears to have established, that autoantibodies (self-directed antibodies) cause the severe symptoms seen in certain Covid-19 infections (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/dec/13/autoantibodies-may-be-driving-severe-covid-cases-study-shows). Autoantibodies attack particular organ systems of the host, including the immune system (in that case, limiting the immune response to the virus). This is presumably why immunosuppressives like dexamethasone can be helpful in some patients. Ring even thinks that the autoantibodies have a role in Long covid, where the harmful effects on organ systems are present well after the infection has waned. The production of autoantibodies may be a characteristic of people with a particular gene(s), as genes have been identified which predispose individuals to severe infections. Hopefully, the generation of autoantibodies is not triggered by proteins in the spikes of the virus. These are the active factors in many of the vaccines being developed to treat Covid-19 (notably the mRNA vaccines). If that were the case, this danger should have been picked up in the safety trials for approved compounds.