IFNB1 and viral infectious disease: Despite its well‐established beneficial anti‐inflammatory effects in viral infections (Isaacs & Lindenmann, 1957; Pestka, Langer, Zoon, & Samuel, 1987) and the widespread use of IFNβ as a therapy for relapsing–remitting MS (Goodin et al., 2002) and protective effects of both STING and IFN‐I in EAE (Mathur et al., 2017; Prinz et al., 2008), the results of the current study show that STING‐mediated IFN‐I induction has multiple effects on microglial phenotype and contributes to chronic neurodegeneration.