Testing antibodies instead of COVID

amother

Sat, Sep 26 2020, 8:52 pm

Can someone explain this to me? People in my community that have a family member that tested positive for coronavirus are testing their antibodies. If they have antibodies, they claim they are free not to quarantine. Can someone explain the logic? Where are they getting this info from? CDC doesn't say anything about that

amother

Honeydew

Sat, Sep 26 2020, 11:11 pm

I work at Maimonides. If a patient has proof of positive covid IGG antibodies within 6 weeks then we consider them unable to transmit illness and we do not swab them for covid. For those that were swabbed and have IGG testing at the hospital, If IGG is positive, then even if the covid swab is positive, we consider it as "viral fragments" and the patient is not isolated. My understanding is that this is per the CDC

amother

Silver

Sun, Sep 27 2020, 2:46 am

The powers that be don't want there to be any light at the end of the tunnel. If people with antibodies could break curfew/lockdown and not be forced to wear masks, that would be light at the end of the tunnel.

If it were really about controlling spread, everyone with antibodies would get a card with their name and picture that would exempt them from all Corona restrictions like mask wearing. But it's not about controlling Corona, it's about controlling people

FranticFrummie

Sun, Sep 27 2020, 2:54 am

I've had Covid, and I've had it seriously that I'm probably up to my eyeballs in antibodies. I'd love to get tested, but I'm not about to travel an hour by bus to Jerusalem, and schlep into a hospital for it.

If I had proof of antibodies, I could probably get work going to other people's homes for child care or mother's helper. Everyone I know is too nervous.

On the other hand, who knows how long they are going to last? Antibodies seem to disappear with no particular pattern, depending on the immune system of the person. I'd hate to have them wear off without me knowing about it - and we just don't know enough yet.

It seems foolish to rely on them entirely at this point.

Wouldn't it be lovely if we could have a card on a lanyard or something that says "I have permission from the Department of Health to not wear a mask, because I've tested for antibodies"?

A girl can dream, but in the meantime I'm going to stick with following the law. Right now, other people's safety trumps my slight inconvenience.

Elfrida

Sun, Sep 27 2020, 3:06 am

In Israel antibody tests are not considered diagnostic, and do not exempt you from bidud or anything else. Partly due to the lack of knowledge about how long antibodies are effective in preventing re-infection.

They are available privately at Hadassah for 500NIS, but people have to be pretty curious to make it worth paying that much.

FranticFrummie

Sun, Sep 27 2020, 3:38 am

Elfrida wrote:

Thank you for continuing to be the voice of reason around here.

amother

Peach

Sun, Sep 27 2020, 6:42 am

amother [ Silver ] wrote:

In order to do something like that we'd need to test for protective antibodies or a protective immune response. The antibodies have a huge false positive rate and many false negatives depending on the lab. It's a very poor tool for determining protection. Having actually had the virus would be one way to determine that or having expensive antibody testing which would be too cost prohibitive to do on a widespread scale.

amother

Silver

Sun, Sep 27 2020, 7:00 am

amother [ Peach ] wrote:

Didn't the Israeli government give BILLIONS to Castro and other BIG companies to make up for their business losses after the April lockdown? So how can they say antibody testing would be too expensive? Making healthy people's lives miserable and destroying the life work of SMALL business owners is obviously cheaper.

amother

Peach

Sun, Sep 27 2020, 7:05 am

amother [ Silver ] wrote:

I cannot comment on Israel but yes it would cost billions... $1,000+ per test. To lower the price would require extreme scientific testing advances which could take years. In the US we have private insurance etc. There is no reliable way to test effrctive protective antibodies on a mass scale anywhere

amother

Scarlet

Sun, Sep 27 2020, 7:15 am

amother [ Peach ] wrote:

Without insurance in the us it costs110-130. Not $1000

amother

Peach

Sun, Sep 27 2020, 7:17 am

amother [ Scarlet ] wrote:

Without insurance in the us it costs110-130. Not $1000

That's ofr standard non protective antibody testing. That is not reliable. The real test for protective antibody testing or t cell identification is more involved and well over $1,000... That's why it's not available plus it's time consuming.