What happens if we pass the antibody test?

[FaFoutis]

I have seen mention of people being able to go back to work if they have recovered from the virus, so immunity is being assumed. Or was, on that day by that person.
If we pass do we get different rules, and a certificate or similar?

A few more weeks of this I think a lot of us will be desperate enough to risk deliberate infection to be able to resume normal life 2 weeks later

God. Coronavirus parties.....

Here's a symptom chart

To stop this thing circulating we need either for about 65-70% of the population to have built up immunity (herd immunity) or to have a vaccine.

To minimise deaths we need to try to ensure that the people who catch it are generally healthy, and that too many people don't get it once. (Because hospitals cant cope.) This is why we have lockdown, to slow the pace of spread.

Antibody tests will be a game changer. We cant have lock down forever as we need the economy, food supply chains etc, to keep working. Tests will allow the government to better understand the ratio of mild to severe cases, and free up people to go back to work.

I for one feel my immune system was given a full work out. Though I was not very I'll, it took about 3 weeks to shake it, and I am still exhausted. I am hoping for antibodies galore.

Eightnineten....missing the "loss of taste/smell" and the "sore eyes" both of which seem relatively common.

Me too Needmore, I feel fully entitled to the antibodies. I'm still exhausted after 3 weeks.

KeepDistance day 19 here too and still breathless, though it’s going gradually. Still wiped out though. It’s tough to get over.

Postspecific I had the cough but not terribly badly. Chest pain, breathlessness and temperature were worse than the cough. Still cough a bit but much more infrequently.

Interesting how you describe going down with it. I remember walking upstairs probably two days before the temperature and thinking “my legs are weak, that’s not quite right”. I was panicking at first because I was diagnosed coeliac 3 years ago and that’s one of the ways it manifested - I just got weaker and weaker. With this I remember thinking “that’s odd, I’m sure I haven’t eaten any gluten”. Then the temperature hit about two days after, though very mild at first.

I’d love to have the antibody test. I swing between thinking it must have been it to thinking what if it wasn’t and I caught it on top of this with my lungs so weak. From that point of view I really hope it was, and I’m now immune. Never want to have it again, that’s for certain!

@frasersmummy

What if you never get the virus?? What if it just passes you by.. You dont get a certificate.. You stay in till when??

once enough of the population (say, 70%) has the antibodies, they can just let the rest of us out of quarantine. The hospitals won't be overwhelmed once 70% have antibodies, so they can deal properly with anyone who catches it and may need hospitalization.

(I am not medically qualified, that is just my thought out reasoning.)

@fascinated

That test result will be valuable currency. Could get nasty.

surely not - you could just go out and get yourself infected instead, and 'earn' yourself your own, legit, certificate. Any danger in getting yourself infected is only the same as what you get once you make use of the certificate to go out anyway.

EightNineTen I had almost all of those. No sore throat. Not much sputum. But all the rest. The headache was something else. My appetite still isn’t properly back and I’m still very tired.

Such a weird one. Maybe I haven’t had it at all but it’s odd since DH then had similar and he never gets ill. I did have a bit of a temp - didn’t test but was shivery. Then headache, then achy legs. The day after my back was so achy it felt like it was in spam and I couldn’t get my breath. That and exhaustion. Funnily enough, I did get really sore eyes a couple of days before any of that. Maybe that was the route of transmission...

Having antibodies would allow people to donate serum, which is likely to be the most effective treatment at the moment. The Chinese had some success with it, but you need donations from several people just to treat one patient.

I am curious though. If my immune system did rise to the challenge of fighting a novel virus, does that mean that it will be in better shape in the future. Ie that having survived this (if I did as I was not tested) I am more likely to survive other things.

I’m not sure, Needmoresleep but I think that pretty much every virus we go down with is a novel virus to us - otherwise we’d kill it before we got infected. The problem with this is it’s a novel virus to everyone therefore there’s no immunity in the population and the problems are exacerbated by the fact we don’t yet fully understand it.

Happy to be corrected!

The thing we all don’t know still is just how long this immunity will last, and whether or not it might vary between individuals.

Just to add, I read the Chinese study on release of these finger prick tests and one of the reasons they gave for the false negatives the test provoked was that they believed immunity lessened after 14 days. Really hope that turns out to be incorrect.

"Our only 'out' is a vaccine."

Or a cure.
Then again, some forms of the common cold are coronaviruses and we still don't have a cure for that.
Not sure you'd have to stay in till there's a vaccine, just as the plan is now, until the progression of the illness has slowed so that there will be an intensive care and ventilator to help you.

I though the other way out is herd immunity.

Once about 65% of the population have antibodies it will be hard for the virus to spread.

@Needmoresleep I think that chart was compiled from earlier cases where perhaps those symptoms weren't so prevalent.