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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

#191

Post by [deleted] »

gamblor956 wrote: post #187
redis_mlc wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

[deleted]

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

#192

Post by Marsymars »

CydeWeys wrote: post #137
ardit33 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

took this test this Friday (Quest Direct) in NYC and tested negative. In late Feb. I had a 'flu like symptoms' with fever and massive headache for few days. What worried me later is that I had the 'can't taste anything' symptom a week later. No coughing though. If you read online, you see people swear they had it at some point this winter. So, if you had a 'flu like' symptoms in Feb or early March, perhaps it was jus…

Similar story here, had COVID-19-like symptoms in mid-March, but the Abbott test (administered at CityMD) came back negative. It makes me wonder what exactly is going on with this test. Do some people not produce antibodies? Is it overly specific to one strain of the virus and other people in NYC got a different strain that doesn't produce compatible antibodies? Was there some non-COVID-19 respiratory infection that…

> Was there some non-COVID-19 respiratory infection that hit NYC at around that same time that went under the radar?

Not really under the radar, there are always a lot of respiratory illnesses. In my area, after reducing non-covid cold/flu by an order of magnitude due to social distancing, we're testing everyone with cold/flu symptoms, and they're still ~96.5% not covid-19.

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

#193

Post by ben-schaaf »

StavrosK wrote: post #141
ardit33 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

took this test this Friday (Quest Direct) in NYC and tested negative. In late Feb. I had a 'flu like symptoms' with fever and massive headache for few days. What worried me later is that I had the 'can't taste anything' symptom a week later. No coughing though. If you read online, you see people swear they had it at some point this winter. So, if you had a 'flu like' symptoms in Feb or early March, perhaps it was jus…

Keep in mind that many coronaviruses can cause loss of smell/taste.

Pretty much any URTI can cause loss of taste. The loss of smell causes loss of taste.

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

#194

Post by Marsymars »

JohnTHaller wrote: post #118
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…

The weirdly varying body temperature bit is what most folks I know who were symptomatic had at one point. Not a typical cold or flu response. Side note: Anytime the rest of my sense of smell wants to wake up would be nice. Sooner would be better.

> The weirdly varying body temperature bit is what most folks I know who were symptomatic had at one point. Not a typical cold or flu response.

I have that pretty much every time I get the flu.

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

#195

Post by Marsymars »

sambe wrote: post #154
adrr wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People hav held off seeing their parents. If I knew i had antibodies, I’d plan a trip later in the summer to live with them and do all the shopping to decrease the risk of them getting infected. People with antibodies are the best people to provide services with the at risk population.

Parent comment: “we don't know enough either way about reinfection risk at this point” Are you disagreeing or did you miss that?

I think it's pretty a pretty safe guess that given what we know about viruses work, someone who's already been infected travelling to live with parents and do their shopping for them will lead to a net decrease in infection risk.

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

#196

Post by nitrogen »

not2b wrote: post #152
jrockway wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess we need to know the total number of cases to figure out what the deaths mean, and until everyone has gotten an antibody test, we can't know that total number. To make the numbers work for the "weird cold" in early February case, I guess we have to work backwards. Assume that when we went into lockdown was the actual peak, 8 million people in New York City had COVID-19. That means that there is one death for e…

1 out of 421 NYC residents have died, based on today's numbers, and recent serological tests estimated that 20% of residents were exposed. If that's right, then the death rate would be about 1/84, or about 1.2%. But I've seen other claims that the exposure rate in NYC is higher, which would give a lower fatality rate.

If I'm interpreting this[0] right, it looks like the normal death rate is 3.51 per 421 people per year. 1/421 in NYC (is that just COVID cases or all excess deaths?) is over much less than a year, so it seems fairly serious.

But I also had a truly "weird cold" go through my workplace early this year in SFBA, so I still have to wonder what that was.

[0] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=us+death+rate+*+421+pe...

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

#197

Post by Marsymars »

klmadfejno wrote: post #69
misun78 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think immunity passports are a terrible idea? What else works better barring a long term vaccine?

If my job prospects are shut down because I don't have immunity, I'm going to try and get infected.

This is especially bad if there's no government-sanctioned method for infection - then you end up with a mess of asymptomatic people trying to get infected while they're already infectious.

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

#198

Post by randallsquared »

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.)

> what the "weird cold" that everyone had in February was.

Probably just a different coronavirus or flu. I was sick for weeks in October 2019 with a dry cough and body aches plus lethargy that sound superficially similar, but the fact that whatever it was didn't produce packed ICUs seems to strongly indicate that it was something else.

Lengthiest cold ever for me, though.

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

#199

Post by newacct583 »

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…

Out of curiosity: why were you tested if you've been in strict isolation for two months?

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

#200

Post by starpilot »

charliea0 wrote: post #33

It is refreshing to read a headline about an antibody test that conveys useful information about specificity and sensitivity rates. This really helps to inform about how useful a test could be for serological surveys. Well done Hacker News.

You can look these up for any test using Google as well. Test manufacturers are required to disclose these metrics publicly.
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