This is an antibody test which will only be positive days after the onset of symptoms.
This is principally useful for several purposes:
1. Figuring out who to isolate in hospitals if the RNA test isn't available in sufficient quantity
2. Understanding who has already recovered from COVID-19 and is thus immune with all that implies in terms of inability to spread the disease and reduced need for PPE
3. Enabling us to confirm continued immunity later this year and understand how long the recovered will remain immune
This is not unique to this company. It's unclear to me whether the price is meaningfully less than competitors.
Bear in mind in relation to immunity -- "Positive results may be due to past or present infection with non-SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus strains, such as coronavirus HKU1, NL63, OC43, or 229E."
Those are the most common corona viruses strains that cause symptoms of the common cold (which itself is caused by something like ~200 known different viruses, the most prevelant being rhinoviruses). I was under the impression many people already had these antibodies
Some health professional floated the theory that kids aren’t getting it as much as the rest of the population because they’ve recently been hammered with all the coronaviruses at daycare.
I’m hoping this is true, since it suggests new parents are mostly OK too.
The theory I've heard: Children mostly rely on their innate immune system compared to adults, where the adaptive immune system is more fully developed. In elderly people, the immune response of both systems is slower/weaker.
I keep searching for animal studies on this and come up empty - all I can find is some studies on serological cross response when testing people for SARS exposure.
Vaccines are obviously the best bet, but I wonder whether deliberately exposing the healthy to common cold Coronavirus might improve herd immunity against this Coronavirus. E.g. maybe in late summer it can be used to forestall a second wave of Coronavirus spread in the winter.
From the last paragraph before conclusion of their article:
"Certainly, this test cannot confirm virus presence, only provide evidence of recent infection, but it provides an important immunological evidence for physicians to make the correct diagnosis along with other tests and to start treatment of patients. In addition, possible cross-reactivity with other coronaviruses and flu viruses were not studied, and the change level of antibody was not compared in the different stages of SARS-CoV-2 infection."
This is an antibody test which will only be positive days after the onset of symptoms.
This isn't really what your Twitter link says. That links says: "Both IgM & IgG (those are two different kinds of antibodies, with IgA being a third) were low or undetectable at day 0, but increased by day 5 in nearly all patients (N=16)"
-- Reports strongly indicate there are many infected people who are asymptomatic after five days.
Which is to say, this test could be extremely useful if applied widely and systematically to many people; food service workers, health care workers and so-forth.
Currently the virus test has a week turn around time. So both tests effectively find people with a week's exposure.
I think the acceptable value for N depends on the size of the effect being studied.
For example if it’s a massive effect, maybe 10 people is sufficient, but if it’s tiny enough to get swallowed up in statistical noise until you have 1000, then you need N >= 1000
> 2. Understanding who has already recovered from COVID-19 and is thus immune with all that implies in terms of inability to spread the disease and reduced need for PPE
I've been looking forward to seeing this kind of test just for this reason so we can whitelist people. But since a large percentage of people don't have symptoms how can you tell if you're still shedding the virus?
It's ok to take that on faith. If you recover from the virus, it's because your immune system knows how to kill the virus. We don't know of any immune system interactions that don't work that way.
There's a chance that immunity is short-lived, or that there are multiple strains of the virus which do not produce equivalent antibodies, but 100% of scientists will believe you develop immunity of some sort.
Isn't that a case of having multiple strains of the virus, where recovering from one strain still provides immunity to that strain? The gimmick here is that it decreases resistance to the other strain, possibly after some time.
I was hearing some doctors saying on the radio that any flu immunity is short lived, this is why we need to have the anti-flu vaccinations every year, that cover the typical/usual strains. If immunization lasted forever there wouldn't be a need for annual vaccination.
There have been reports, but it’s not to my knowledge clear whether the people who’ve tested positive after being considered recovered were experiencing something else, like a false positive before/after, or weren’t in fact fully recovered.
I'm interested in the frontline response here as if you already have immunity that person can serve in "risky" positions like working at airports, etc.
I am pretty sure there is a list of things that employers (in the US) can't discriminate on, and immunity to Coronavirus isn't one of them.
I think it will ultimately be in the hands of workers to decide whether or not they want to do the job. Maybe I'm immune to Coronavirus so I should work in a pharmacy... but I get paid 10x as much writing software, so I'm probably going to do that instead.
What if you’re immunocompromised with a hereditary illness? If there’s reasonable grounds it makes sense but reasonable and what employers will try and get away with are two different things.
This is principally useful for several purposes:
1. Figuring out who to isolate in hospitals if the RNA test isn't available in sufficient quantity
2. Understanding who has already recovered from COVID-19 and is thus immune with all that implies in terms of inability to spread the disease and reduced need for PPE
3. Enabling us to confirm continued immunity later this year and understand how long the recovered will remain immune
This is not unique to this company. It's unclear to me whether the price is meaningfully less than competitors.
This thread is helpful for further understanding of the test and its utility: https://twitter.com/NAChristakis/status/1240689953895411714
Two more helpful references: State of testing techniques as as of a week ago: https://sph.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/COVID-19-S...
The paper on which this test is based: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jmv.25727