Posted on 04/08/2020 5:01:10 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
With a White House increasingly anxious to get the economy in gear and an approved vaccine for the novel coronavirus still months away at best, public health officials are hoping that tens of millions of Americans will have access to a simple blood test that can identify recovered patients who've developed some kind of immune response to the virus.
The idea behind the push is that people who have been exposed to the virus form antibodies in their bloodstream that may help them to fight off another infection. The hope is that the body's antibodies against COVID-19 can diminish the chances of re-infection. Theoretically, those found to have immunized antibodies could then return to work and help reignite the economy.
Commercial labs are scrambling to develop and distribute serologic tests, as they are known, in large quantities -- and the federal government is doing its best to expedite an approval process that is, under normal circumstances, lengthy and cumbersome.
Adm. Brett Giroir, tapped by President Donald Trump to lead testing efforts, said he is "very optimistic" that tens of millions of the tests will be available by May. And he says it could dramatically change what we know about the scope of infection inside the United States.
"That's really important as we think about re-opening the country and the economy because if you've had the virus and you've had an immune response to it, in all probability you are immune and safe from the virus," Giroir said on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday.
Others remain skeptical. Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former head of U.S. Food and Drug Administration under President Trump, told ABC News he does not view the antibody test as a game-changer in the effort to reopen the economy.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Three authors! The flagburning media sure doesn’t have anyone who can write by themselves.
The test won’t mean a thing unless people actually HAVE antibodies, which means exposure to the virus.
Which has probably been going on since at least December.
Most people shrug this off.
And the big question is how many have been exposed to it and had no or mild or moderate symptoms?
hey... here’s an idea!
FINISH ALL THE FREAKING HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION !!! while everyone is inside their homes!!!
If this happens, the test will probably be a PCR application:
dna pcr test for coronavirus testing:
oogle.com/search?q=dna+pcr+test+for+corona+coronavirus+testing%3A&rlz=1CAMWDF_enUS770US770&oq=dna+pcr+test+for+corona+coronavirus+testing%3A&aqs=chrome..69i57&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
How about we start with every survivor on the floating petri dish called the Diamond Princess?
3700 passengers, 712 tested positive, the remaining ~3000 tested negative. Let's test them and get a good picture of what happens in a close quarter environment.
BTW, I work in a hospital laboratory where we would be performing these tests. The are not expensive, kind of like a home pregnancy test.
People who develop immunity do NOT NEED A VACCINE!
And are we anywhere near herd immunity?
hey... here’s an idea!
FINISH ALL THE FREAKING HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION !!! while everyone is inside their homes!!!
Best suggestion of the month:
Nope. PCR is for the virus itself. Testing for antibodies is serogical. It will be ELISA. Like a home pregancy test.
Note that it has already been FDA approved for use on March 16th.
No, but, PDJT calling out Fauci, Birx, their relationships with Gates and Clinton, and saying the nation is back fully open would do it. Faster, please.
And the big question is how many have been exposed to it and had no or mild or moderate symptoms?
Probably a lot of us in West Coast states, Texas and east coast, not NYC!
No one has a clue and we won't know until we start testing large portions of the population.
So easy. Like free medical care, taking all tge worlds criminals, paying everyone to stay home.
it is about 300,000,000 who would want that. The labs could not do those kinds of numbers
Blood tests would take a lot of supplies and trained people - willing and able to get up close to thousands on a daily basis.
Or at least a representative sample of 20,000 or so.
Complete speculation. There is ZERO data supporting this.
It most certainly WILL tell us something. It will tell us how many actually have antibodies which has the potential to increase the denominator, significantly lower the death rate, eliminate the need for a vaccine that may or may not work and prove that shutting down our economy was a fruitless, expensive gambit if many people were exposed despite the shelter in place order.
Believe me, we are going to want to prove that so we don't have to go through this again.
it is about 300,000,000 who would want that. The labs could not do those kinds of numbers
Blood tests would take a lot of supplies and trained people - willing and able to get up close to thousands on a daily basis.
I work in a hospital lab. We do these kinds of tests all the time on other viral antibodies. They are not that expensive. Maybe we should take some of the money from the $2 Trillion+ and let anyone who wants to get tested do so. It would a much better use of the money than wasting it on the Kennedy Center and helping illegal aliens.
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