Has anyone taken the antibody test for Covid19?

No. We lost our health insurance.

^^Some of the tests are only $35. I don’t even know if my insurance covers it? Every test I know about the person goes in and gets it without a doctor’s order.

I was unaware that there is a working antibody test. The ones they were using a month ago turned out to be faulty.

@filmfann I asked my friend who works for Quest about their test and she said it 98%. It’s just the IGG, which is all I care about. You don’t need a doctors order. A local drug store here has another brand that they claim is extremely accurate also.

I had heard the antibody tests were only 80% accurate, but maybe they meant for IGM? I’m really not sure what the discrepancy is, and what the truth is.

I would not bother with those

They are so inaccurate, you might as well flip a coin to decide if you are infected.
They have flooded the market with those tests to make a quick euro.

I have not been tested. I was in the hospital over the weekend and they took several blood samples. And I have been donating blood about once per month. I am surprised they do not test for antibodies.

It would seem like a great opportunity to gauge the prevalence in the general population.

I did get a swab test for virus, so that was nice knowing that for the moment I’m not carrying.

Nope. CDC admitted some tests contained the virus. I do not think all our information on the corona virus/as well as a number or other topics, is accurate.

My work place are testing everybody.

@Call_Me_Jay I thought they were testing blood donations, at least some of them. I actually was wondering how prevalent that testing was.

Were you hospitalized? Or, just there outpatient?

@ragingloli Thanks for the link. I’m aware of the controversy regarding the antibody test, but your link was still very informative.

@Lightlyseared Everybody for antibodies? Or, everyone for active Covid shedding?

@JLeslie Now that you mention it, they may be testing blood samples but not giving individual results. I have read of sample pooling, where they can drastically reduce the cost and effort.

Say they have 100 samples. They can mix it into 4 batches. With only 4 tests they eliminate 0 to 100 people from the possibly-infected pool. Then they break down the positive-tested pools into smaller groups and repeat.

Also the blood donation center is taking blood from recovered covid patients to transfuse into sick people. It is experimental like everything else covid-related right now.

I was hospitalized for 48 hours. I had a heart attack. Totally unexpected, I’ve been cycling 20 miles a day routinely, including a lot of steep hills. A stent was installed. I’m fine now and will be pedaling around again soon.

@Call_Me_Jay Oh my. I am so glad you are ok.

The way I understood it, scientists were trying to ascertain how prevalent COVID was in the community, so I don’t think they would pool blood samples. Like I said, I don’t know if that is being done all over the country, or if it is just some test cities.

Plus, as you mentioned, wanting antibodies for treatment. I saw a TV story about the antibody treatment and some people have super duper antibodies. I think they said about 20% of people who come through covid seem to have these really good antibodies. In the treatment trials they are doing these antibodies are given to very very sick patients and it seems to really helps them recover. Thank goodness this looks promising. In a another discussion a scientist was saying that vaccine might not work well in the elderly, so having good treatments will still be very important even if we develop a vaccine.