I'll preface this comment with the qualifier that antibody titres are NOT correlates of immunity. I'm not at all certain those "tests" are specific enough for, well, anything. Before COVID-19, around 40% of the population, and arguably much more, were already carrying antibodies to coronaviruses from prior exposure through colds and flu.…
I'll preface this comment with the qualifier that antibody titres are NOT correlates of immunity. I'm not at all certain those "tests" are specific enough for, well, anything. Before COVID-19, around 40% of the population, and arguably much more, were already carrying antibodies to coronaviruses from prior exposure through colds and flu. It turns out that the usual attribution to rhinoviruses as the major causative agents of colds was greatly exaggerated, and the most common *likely* pathogen were in fact coronaviruses (cue a hysterical counter-attack by the 'viruses aren't real' army)
I think it highly unlikely that both the RT-PCR and these RAT assays are able to discriminate between the presence of recently-induced antibodies as a consequence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, or those from a previous infection by an average, garden-variety coronavirus.
I'll preface this comment with the qualifier that antibody titres are NOT correlates of immunity. I'm not at all certain those "tests" are specific enough for, well, anything. Before COVID-19, around 40% of the population, and arguably much more, were already carrying antibodies to coronaviruses from prior exposure through colds and flu. It turns out that the usual attribution to rhinoviruses as the major causative agents of colds was greatly exaggerated, and the most common *likely* pathogen were in fact coronaviruses (cue a hysterical counter-attack by the 'viruses aren't real' army)
I think it highly unlikely that both the RT-PCR and these RAT assays are able to discriminate between the presence of recently-induced antibodies as a consequence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, or those from a previous infection by an average, garden-variety coronavirus.
Please do enlighten me if I'm benighted.
I think that’s accurate.