Everything We Know About Coronavirus Antibody Tests

[Leongsam]

Everything We Know About Coronavirus Antibody Tests
By Adam K. Raymond

Antibody tests help public health officials better understand how much a virus has penetrated society. Photo: Omar Marques/Getty Images

Much of the discussion around coronavirus testing concerns the type of test that requires a long swab to go deep in your nose so you can find out, eventually, if you have the virus. These tests are helpful at diagnosing patients but less helpful at assessing the spread of the virus. For that, experts have called for antibody tests and last week, the FDA granted its first emergency authorization to one such test. What is an antibody test and why would it help? Here’s what we know:


What is an antibody test?

Antibody tests, also known as serological tests, look for antibodies in a patient’s blood. People who have gotten sick and recovered from COVID-19 have these antibodies, as do those who had the virus without ever experiencing symptoms. Some antibody tests, which require a quick finger prick, can return results in as soon as 15 minutes.


Why are antibody tests helpful?

As Dr. Anthony Fauci said on CNN Friday, these tests will help health officials better understand how many people have been infected with COVID-19.

“As we look forward, as we get to the point of at least considering opening up the country as it were, it’s very important to appreciate and to understand how much that virus has penetrated this society,” Fauci said. “It’s very likely that there are a large number of people out there that have been infected, have been asymptomatic, and did not know they were infected.”

The tests would reveal those with immunity to COVID-19. In theory, this would allow them to reenter the workforce without concern that they’ll get sick or infect anyone else. Results of these tests could also change, or confirm, what is known about the virus’s spread. Currently, there have been 475,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. If antibody tests reveal that, say, 4 million people have actually had the virus, it would “suggest that we are much further along the timeline of the pandemic and much closer to its conclusion.”

When will tests be available?

So far, the FDA has authorized only one test, but it’s allowing more than 70 companies to sell others tests that do the same thing as long as they abide by a handful of rules. The agency has had trouble getting all of the companies to follow its rules though. Earlier this week, the FDA said “some firms are falsely claiming that their serological tests are FDA approved or authorized, or falsely claiming that they can diagnose COVID-19.”

By next week, Fauci said on CNN, a “rather large number” of antibody tests will be available.

How can you get an antibody test?

Those seeking an antibody test without ever testing positive for COVID-19 may have to wait several weeks to get one, but people who have recovered from the virus can likely have antibody levels tested sooner. In New York, Mount Sinai Hospital, Montefiore Medical Center, and the New York Blood Center are asking recovered COVID-19 patients to donate plasma. New Yorkers can also email [email protected] for possible testing, Dr. Margaret Zhang tweeted Thursday after finding out her own antibodies could be used for convalescent treatment.

 

[Leongsam]

woodtv.com

Antibody testing could reveal if symptoms were COVID-19
Teresa Weakley

5-6 minutes

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Tests that can help determine the scope of COVID-19 are just starting to become available in the U.S., and people like Shelley Stahl and Amy Mathis are anxious to get them.

The women, both from the Grand Rapids area, believe they may have had the disease earlier this year but never got tested. They’re hoping the presence of antibodies in their bloodstream will provide answers.

For Stahl, the symptoms started before Christmas and continued into February.

“It was just this cough and fever and my lungs hurt really bad,” she explained.

A flu test came back negative, so she moved forward with plans to travel to Florida after the holidays. In the first weekend in February, her symptoms became so unbearable that she went back to urgent care.

“They finally did an X-ray and there was a huge mass in my left lobe, I think they call it, and they (said), ‘OK, you definitely have pneumonia,'” Stahl recalled.

Mathis’s problems started when she was on vacation in Las Vegas with family. She described spending nearly her whole trip stuck in her hotel room.

“I started feeling really sick. I went to urgent care the next day because I had a horrible headache, had been having trouble breathing and my temperature was 103. They did a test for the flu and it came back negative,” she said.

New tests could show if the women previously had COVID-19, even though they are now symptom-free. Serology tests measure antibodies, in this case for the novel coronavirus, which would prove that a person was exposed to the virus and their immune system fought it off.

A doctor in Singapore created the first such test, but the testing has been slow to spread to the U.S. due to the difficulty in getting approval from the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA has given the OK to only two companies: the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and Cellex in North Carolina.

Another company, Scanwell Health of California, has produced an at-home test kit that could be available for sale in the coming weeks. Doctors with the company submitted a clinical trial protocol to the FDA to get an Emergency Use Authorization, which would allow them to sell the kits to consumers.

In mid-March, the FDA relaxed certain restrictions in the process, allowing private practices and certain companies to move forward with using the test as long as it has been validated and the company has notified the FDA. Those companies and practices must also provide warning statements that the FDA hasn’t reviewed the test and the results should not be the only basis to diagnose whether a person has had the disease.

There is already a practice in West Michigan offering the test under those relaxed rules. When Stahl discovered Dr. Laurie Birkholz is offering it in the Saugatuck area, she contacted her immediately to set up an appointment. She expects to go for the test early next week and should get the results the same day.

She and Mathis are both curious how many other people they know may have had COVID-19. Mathis’s husband Ron recalled the people in their circle of family and friends who had similar symptoms.

“Our brother-in-law was sick, then our sister-in-law. When they got back, she went to urgent care, too,” he said.

If Mathis were to test positive for antibodies of this virus, it may prompt those family members to go for a test.

It’s not a diagnostic test, meaning it can’t determine if a patient currently has COVID-19. Someone should only take the test more than 10 days after symptoms abate, which is when the antibodies would be present.

Doctors say serology tests could be useful in a number of ways, beyond satisfying curiosity.

“It’s better to understand the impact of the virus on our population,” Dr. Brian Hartl, an epidemiologist with the Kent County Health Department, explained.
He also said that it could provide benefits for treatment opportunities and research. An East Grand Rapids woman who recovered from COVID-19 donated plasma Thursday to use in treatments for people currently fighting the illness. Antibody tests could identify other potential donors, even if they weren’t able to be tested for the disease itself.

Antibodies for this strain of the virus will always be present in a person’s blood if their bodies had an immune response, so the testing can be done months or years after the exposure. However, the presence of antibodies doesn’t mean that someone is fully immune. Doctors say more research is needed, but that it’s possible people who do have antibodies could end up helping the quarantined, serve on the front lines of the fight against the virus, go back to school and return to work.
—
This article relied on information from Dr. Jack Jeng, the chief medical officer at Scanwell Health and an associate physician at UCSF Medical Center, posted on the company’s website and Twitter pages.

 

[SBFNews]

So you are going to test millions of people just to prove a point?

 

[Leongsam]

So you are going to test millions of people just to prove a point?

The numbers aren't for proving anything. They are needed so that data is available to formulate policies for the future.

 

[SBFNews]

The numbers aren't for proving anything. They are needed so that data is available to formulate policies for the future.

And how much taxpayers money is it going to cost us to get a large enough sample size for accuracy?

 

[nayr69sg]

And how much taxpayers money is it going to cost us to get a large enough sample size for accuracy?

Probably cheaper than shutting down the economy.

 

[Leongsam]

And how much taxpayers money is it going to cost us to get a large enough sample size for accuracy?

Very little because the beauty of sampling is that a representative sample does not need to be a large figure. The difficulty comes from defining a representative sample but that does not cost the taxpayers anything extra. The people who need to work this out are already being paid a salary.

In Singapore a sample of 5000 would be more than sufficient.

You can work out the sample size for various confidence levels at https://www.calculator.net/sample-size-calculator.html?type=1&cl=95&ci=2&pp=50&ps=5000000&x=51&y=25

 

[myfoot123]

The numbers aren't for proving anything. They are needed so that data is available to formulate policies for the future.

No point. Virus has "brain" and will mutate by the time a cure is found for Covit-19. It is a non going battle between human and virus. Best solution is not the vaccine, but to limit the flow of foreigners and protect the native people.

 

[Leongsam]

No point. Virus has "brain" and will mutate by the time a cure is found for Covit-19. It is a non going battle between human and virus. Best solution is not the vaccine, but to limit the flow of foreigners and protect the native people.

Unless you want the country to become like North Korea that is pretty much impossible.

Besides if Singaporeans want to earn a living they have to travel. EG American companies need staff in Singapore to fly in and out of the USA or visit other countries in the region on business trips. Local company staff need to travel to visit customers in other markets.

Even if we did not allow a single foreigner into Singapore from today onwards huge numbers of Singaporeans would still have to go in and out of the country on a daily basis.

We'd also have to send all our maids home. Can any Singapore family survive without a maid? I don't think so.

 

[SBFNews]

We'd also have to send all our maids home. Can any Singapore family survive without a maid? I don't think so.

That's because majority of idiots hiring maids (save those who really needed maids) are fucking lazy bums. Can go exercise but can't even do own laundry and meals.

 

[Leongsam]

That's because majority of idiots hiring maids (save those who really needed maids) are fucking lazy bums. Can go exercise but can't even do own laundry and meals.

A lot of them have maids so they can screw them. https://www.sammyboy.rocks/showthread.php?t=124635&highlight=maids

 

[syed putra]

A lot of them have maids so they can screw them. https://www.sammyboy.rocks/showthread.php?t=124635&highlight=maids

Never thought of that.
So we have a functioning antibody test created here but never used.

 

[nayr69sg]

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/heal...rean-scientists-map-coronavirus-genome-paving

 

[Leongsam]

Early Antibody Testing In Chicago: 30-50% Of Those Tested For COVID-19 Already Have Antibodies, Report Says


4-5 minutes


As recently highlighted by Drs. Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci, key voices in the White House coronavirus task force, antibody testing will begin to ramp up throughout the nation in the days and weeks ahead to better inform our tact in fighting COVID-19.

At a hospital in Chicago, a non-randomized sample found that 30-50% of patients tested for COVID-19 have antibodies in their system, suggesting they already had the virus and have potential immunity.

“A phlebotomist working at Roseland Community Hospital said Thursday that 30% to 50% of patients tested for the coronavirus have antibodies while only around 10% to 20% of those tested have the active virus,” Chicago City Wire reported Thursday.

“Sumaya Owaynat, a phlebotomy technician, said she tests between 400 and 600 patients on an average day in the parking lot at Roseland Community Hospital. Drive-thru testing is from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. each day. However, the hospital has a limited number of tests they can give per day,” the report detailed. “Owaynat said the number of patients coming through the testing center who appear to have already had coronavirus and gotten over it is far greater than those who currently have the disease.”

“A lot of people have high antibodies, which means they had the coronavirus but they don’t have it anymore, and their bodies built the antibodies,” Owaynat told Chicago City Wire.

The antibody testing will better inform public health and government officials about how widespread the virus is already, and in turn, how effective their lockdown measures will actually be.

Additionally, with some 16 million-plus Americans losing their jobs as a result of lockdown policy, the vital testing will be used, according to Dr. Fauci, to help turn on at least some areas of the economy again. If you are found to have antibodies and thus are likely immune, for example, it would make little sense for you to be totally shielded from society.

As noted by Chicago City Wire, the testing shows that it’s possible “the spread of the virus may have been underway in the Roseland community – and the state and country as a whole – prior to the issuance of stay at home orders and widespread business closures in mid-March which have crippled the national economy.”
It’s unclear how widespread COVID-19 is in the nation, and where, but, according to a New York Times report, it has been estimated that 25% of all carriers are asymptomatic, meaning they carry the disease and have no symptoms to show for it. Of course, the more widespread it is could mean the virus is more contagious than initially thought, and less deadly.

An antibody test study is reportedly underway in California by researchers at Stanford University.

“Researchers at Stanford Medicine are working to find out what proportion of Californians have already had COVID-19. The new study could help policymakers make more informed decisions during the coronavirus pandemic,” KSBW 8 News reported. “The team tested 3,200 people at three Bay Area locations on Saturday using an antibody test for COVID-19 and expect to release results in the coming weeks.”