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New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificity and 100% sensitivity

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Re: New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificity and 100% sensitivity

#181

Post by tptacek »

ridgeguy wrote: post #174
tptacek wrote: post #42

These stats are generated just a couple weeks after symptoms or PCR test positivity. I'm still wondering how specificity might drop off for much earlier exposures. Anecdotally: people on my Fb feed are getting positive tests they attribute to illnesses they had back in January and February. (This concern has nothing to do with the benefit these tests have in "real time" testing).

Your FB feed results don't seem impossible. First CV-19 death in CA was Feb 6 [1]. That's presumably at least a couple of weeks after infection. [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/us/coronavirus-first-unit...

The question isn't whether they're possible, it's whether the antibody tests are reliable that far from the actual incidence of C19.

Re: New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificity and 100% sensitivity

#182

Post by verylittlemeat »

y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #75
jrockway wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good anecdote. I also had a "weird cold" in February with symptoms that are unusual for me but typical of COVID-19, and have been waiting to get the antibody test. I kind of expect it to turn out the same way. (Otherwise, I would really like to figure out what the "weird cold" that everyone had in February was. Because it sure was weird, and everyone I know had it.)

"Weird cold" in February checking in. I did not have any temperature variations or fevers, but I got struck with a fatigue like no other. For the first time since I was 3 years old, I took afternoon naps three days in a row because I was just completely wiped out. It's rare for me to take a nap at all (happens maybe once a year)! It took two weeks to get out of this fatigued state. My other symptoms were "chills-like…

Crazy, I had the exact same symptoms during last week of Feb / first week of Mar.

I was so wiped out that I was taking naps in a conference room at lunch. A friend of mine caught me and was surprised because normally I work through lunch, let alone sleep.

No cough, no fever but just this terribly uncomfortable feeling of congestion in my throat and upper chest. Best thing I can compare it to is postal nasal drip like you said.

Re: New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificity and 100% sensitivity

#183

Post by arcticbull »

jrockway wrote: post #68
cerebral_oasis wrote: post #38

I took this antibody test through LabCorp on Friday and tested positive. I have been in strict (see: paranoid) isolation with one other person since March 7 and haven't felt sick or anything close to it since then. I did have what I thought was a strange flu/cold early February with a sore throat, post-nasal drip, wildly varying body temperature, and lower back pains. In hindsight those are COVID-19 symptoms. the per…

Good anecdote. I also had a "weird cold" in February with symptoms that are unusual for me but typical of COVID-19, and have been waiting to get the antibody test. I kind of expect it to turn out the same way. (Otherwise, I would really like to figure out what the "weird cold" that everyone had in February was. Because it sure was weird, and everyone I know had it.)

I got wrecked by a cold in February, too -- late February. Got it from my friend. Neither of us ever get sick, and we both got wanged pretty hard. Same basic symptoms. Could have been the flu, could have been COVID. I'm gonna grab a test as soon as I can.

[edit] Make that tomorrow at 1245p. Turns out "as soon as I can" is pretty soon!

Re: New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificity and 100% sensitivity

#184

Post by arcticbull »

weaksauce wrote: post #140
xyhopguy wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

afaik there havent we havent observed major functional mutations in the virus

The Strain that was seen in ny was more deadly than the strain seen on the west coast. And I’m not sure how many others are out there.

We don't yet know why (or even if) more people died in New York than on the west coast, per capita. We certainly cannot yet attribute it to a different strain.

Re: New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificity and 100% sensitivity

#185

Post by arcticbull »

saiya-jin wrote: post #128
risaacs99 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I keep reading people asserting this, and I assume it's because we believe that a virus that becomes less lethal would have an evolutionary advantage. But, wouldn't lengthening the incubation period also be a successful evolutionary strategy regardless of lethality? It seems to me that there are many possible strategies that a mutating virus might gain an advantage and we shouldn't just assume that the only one that…

'Tend to' doesn't mean some conscious, directed effort. On large enough scale, this is generally the more probable direction, and that's about it. Its truly random by nature. It can very well go the other way as with 1918 'spanish' flu. Or it can change in ways that won't affect overall mortality much.

> On large enough scale, this is generally the more probable direction, and that's about it. Its truly random by nature.

If it's truly random it wouldn't be directional, yeah?

Re: New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificity and 100% sensitivity

#186

Post by arcticbull »

timr wrote: post #95
thoraway1010 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The results I got had a big FDA warning that positive results may be a result of other infections (ie, that the tests are not specific to covid). I feel like the WHO (body may not produce antibodies as part of beating covid, antibodies have not been shown to confer any immunity) and now the FDA may be talking about true but theoretical issues. What is the REAL rate, in the USA, of folks who have for example MERS anti…

MERS and SARS are not a huge concern (they never achieved wide circulation), but coronaviruses make up ~40% of what we know as the common cold. That said, if the false positive rate were that high, the specificity of the test would be low.

> ...but coronaviruses make up ~40% of what we know as the common cold.

Up to 20%, and I've seen numbers as low as 15% [1].

[1] https://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/common_cold_ca...

Re: New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificity and 100% sensitivity

#187

Post by gamblor956 »

redis_mlc wrote: post #173
pnako wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Wuhan is the lab that was researching the virus from those bats.

Almost correct. The "lab" was actually doing corona virus research, and funded by the US govt. Corona is so contagious, that combined with Wuhan being an international airport that connects to Shanghai, the #8 international airport in the world, this was the perfect storm for a pandemic.

If by "funded by the US govt" you mean funded primarily by the Chinese government, with additional funding provided by the US and EU, due to the nature of the lab's work...

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52318539

Re: New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificity and 100% sensitivity

#188

Post by docbrown »

y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #75
jrockway wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good anecdote. I also had a "weird cold" in February with symptoms that are unusual for me but typical of COVID-19, and have been waiting to get the antibody test. I kind of expect it to turn out the same way. (Otherwise, I would really like to figure out what the "weird cold" that everyone had in February was. Because it sure was weird, and everyone I know had it.)

"Weird cold" in February checking in. I did not have any temperature variations or fevers, but I got struck with a fatigue like no other. For the first time since I was 3 years old, I took afternoon naps three days in a row because I was just completely wiped out. It's rare for me to take a nap at all (happens maybe once a year)! It took two weeks to get out of this fatigued state. My other symptoms were "chills-like…

> I still think there's a possibility this virus was already in the US before 2020.

Yeah, I don’t understand why people are so against the idea of it being in the U.S. before 2020. There’s no possible way we can trace every American who may have traveled within the China region or interacted with another person who was in that region around the start of COVID spreading. Just because there were no official cases of COVID does not mean it was not here.

I had a roommate visit Japan in November. He came back and was extremely ill for about a week. No hospitalizations but he was out of commission and isolated by himself.

Re: New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificity and 100% sensitivity

#189

Post by [deleted] »

usaar333 wrote: post #176
cerebral_oasis wrote: post #38

I took this antibody test through LabCorp on Friday and tested positive. I have been in strict (see: paranoid) isolation with one other person since March 7 and haven't felt sick or anything close to it since then. I did have what I thought was a strange flu/cold early February with a sore throat, post-nasal drip, wildly varying body temperature, and lower back pains. In hindsight those are COVID-19 symptoms. the per…

Is a 99.9% specitivity good enough though to conclude you had covid? Assuming you are in the US, your prior on having been infected in early February is well below 0.1% (not sure how much the covid-like symptoms would boost that). So conditionally speaking, it seems quite plausible this is a false positive.

[deleted]

Re: New Abbott SARS-CoV-2 antibody test has 99.90% specificity and 100% sensitivity

#190

Post by agumonkey »

cerebral_oasis wrote: post #38

I took this antibody test through LabCorp on Friday and tested positive. I have been in strict (see: paranoid) isolation with one other person since March 7 and haven't felt sick or anything close to it since then. I did have what I thought was a strange flu/cold early February with a sore throat, post-nasal drip, wildly varying body temperature, and lower back pains. In hindsight those are COVID-19 symptoms. the per…

Did your symptoms came and went in waves too ?
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