Biotech Values

[iwfal]

The best test I could find in terms of sensitivity and specificity in the point of care setting is the following:

https://hardydiagnostics.com/sars-cov-2/

unfortunately it won't be available until May

Another issue is that most antibody tests look for “neutralizing antibodies” only - ie those that, via the antibodies alone, prevent viral infection. (This typically (always?) means blocking the receptor domain). The problem with this is that:

A) many other aspects of the immune system are ignored. (There was a mab study that found the best metric to measure antibodies efficacy was not ‘blocking’ but engagement with the immune system).
B) one of the antibody tests turned up a surprising number of negatives among those known to have been infected.

Hopefully #B will not repeat (ie just testing error), but I suspect it’s a real thing because related types of artifacts showed up in SARS. (Worst outcomes tied to high antibody test just as younger patients here were more likely to be negative on antibody test)