New lit review post, this one on #COVID19 antibody testing.https://srconstantin.github.io/2020/04/27/antibody-testing.html …
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There are virus studies in which a *detectable* antibody titer can still precede symptomatic (re)infection, so I wouldn't go around assuming that a positive test result on one of those yes/no drive-thru tests means you literally can't get COVID19.
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But is, for instance, antibody response a plausible initial proxy for testing whether a vaccine candidate is protective against COVID19? Yeah, probably. It's a standard endpoint in the development of other viral vaccines.
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Also, it depends what the antibody tests are being used for. As a population measure of how many people have been infected with COVID-19? They're good, PLEASE DO MOAR ANTIBODY TESTS.
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As a guide to clinical treatment of individual patients? Probably not great, since they'll show up negative even in infected patients for the first two weeks after symptom onset.
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As a guide to identifying who needs to be quarantined? Again, not ideal, because they'll miss newly infected patients (who are at their most contagious) but maybe better than nothing.
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My general heuristic of "don't trust claims by known COVID-19 Pollyannas" seems pretty vindicated by the facts here.
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End of conversation
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Also the null-hypothesis chosen by the WHO is the hardest to disprove. What evidence is necessary to disprove “reinfection isn’t possible in the short term”? Impossible to falsify.
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Also aren't there rhesus macaque experiments with SARS-CoV-2?
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