Antibody testing thread 2

[Egghead68]

Thread for people thinking about, doing, or awaiting results of COVID-19 antibody tests.

Thanks both - so many unknowns.

Some information on adenovirus 14:

www.medicinenet.com/killer_cold_virus_adenovirus_infection_ad14/article.htm

Just came onto this thread as had an antibody test through NHS

It was negative. I was literally convinced I had it, had all the symptoms bar loss of taste about 10 weeks ago. And Ive never had an illness like that before. Surely theres not another mysterious covid illness around at exactly the same time as covid? My O2 sats went as low as 84, and frequently in the low 90s even now. And before they were always 99/100.

My job is so high risk for covid as well.

We've had 3 people at least in the hospital test negative for antibodies who had a positive swab. It seems to be only about 2/3% of staff having antibodies. This seems almost impossible?

Im glad others have had negative antibodies but think they've had it. I feel at a bit of a loss really.

I am still getting breathless/tightness now. I am still tired now.

Thats not normal surely? I feel worried now that if I do catch it Ill be seriously ill

@Chubbypigeon I feel the same. I work in a hospital at the heart of the outbreak and around 1/3 of my colleagues went down with the same symptoms in mid-March. The current thinking is that some people’s immune response to the virus does not involve IgG antibodies.

I feel like a nutter insisting I had covid though so am now considering other possibilities!

@egghead68 I feel like a right fraud. But mine happened the second week of lockdown, our hospital was full of covid at that point and we hadnt started putting in place proper measures like seperate a&es

I had been in and out of A&E, on covid wards, carrying out AGPs on patients with just a surgical mask!

It sounds extremely likely to me you have/had Covid @ChubbyPigeon. We need different tests!

Apparently a company called Adaptive Biotech are working on a t-cell test for Covid.

www.adaptivebiotech.com/

www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/t-cells-found-covid-19-patients-bode-well-long-term-immunity

For info I’ve added up the totals for people on or mentioned on this thread:

Positive 8
Mixed 4
Negative 31

I'm NHS and had bloods taken for antibody test on Tuesday. This thread is interesting, and it will be interesting to see what comes back from mine. Both DH and I had symptoms very like COVID right at the start of March....so who knows.

It would be great if you could please update us when you get your result @weepinggreenwillow. Do you know whether it was the Abbott or Roche test?

Mine was negative :'(

We got the 4th test results back a few days ago - negative as well, which we expected as DH had the mildest symptoms out of all of us - loss of taste, fatigue, but he then got a post viral rash a few weeks later.

Sorry to hear that @Bells3032

So now

Positive 8
Mixed 4
Negative 33

Mine was negative too @egghead68 , although I clearly had it. Waiting on results of a further test result now.

My relative has been tested as NHS. He had the classic symptoms quite badly after working with COVID patients but tested negative on the PCR test. Now four weeks later he is positive on antibody test , which confirms it was COVID. Neither wife nor kids had any major symptoms. No idea if they had it or not. Very minor runny noses only for wife and kids...

Updated figures:

Positive: 9
Mixed: 4
Negative: 34

Babylon are refunding all customers who haven't had their results yet. So I made myself bleed for nothing!
I've got an appointment for the blood draw. Will report back when I've got the results.

Just got me result: Negative. All colleagues I've spoken to have also had negative results, even those who have been unwell with classic symptoms. I don't know of anyone at work who has had a positive result yet.
It was the Roche test, done in local hospital lab with venous blood.
It is all quite odd.... This will end up showing that a tiny percentage of people have had it if results are to be believed..... Mm

Another negative here. It said on my test results that it takes up to 40 days for antibodies to develop anyway

Maybe not relevant but my NHS trust has offered all 11000 staff tests. I had mine yesterday and its positive. I'm weirdly delighted 😁
I was self isolating from 12 March as I had a slight temp but otherwise well. I would love to get DH DS and DM tested too!

Anecdotally it seems that it is people with very mild symptoms (e.g. loss of taste and smell, very mild high temperature) who were mainly positive on here. Maybe those people have stronger immune systems and mount good IgG responses?

That's great @gingercat02! Your timescales are similar to mine (but I was negative with the Abbott test).

I would say I was mild to moderate, Egghead. My cough was nasty and I was tired but I had no muscle aches, sore throat or burning lungs. I wouldn't say it knocked me for six and I was never ill enough to go to bed for the day, but the recovery took longer than expected iyswim. I did have temperature, cough, loss of taste and smell and some breathing difficulties.

The results seem strange, that's for sure.