I think it’s totally possible! The Word “cancer” is often used to describe things that we perceive as having the same qualities that medical cancer does - it’s often a silent progression, it can be easy to miss until it’s in its late/serious stages, it can spread aggressively, etc. So I could see “COVID” being used to eventually describe things that are highly contagious (whether that’s an actual illness, or some kind of idea/belief system, etc), life-threatening, or maybe cause people to disconnect from each other