Wtf? Negative antibody test, absolutely sure I've had it

[Aisforharlot]

I had a venous antibody test as part of a trial, which has come back negative.
But I'm 99.9% certain I've had and got over the virus.
Had all the symptoms - dry cough, short lived fever, heavy chest, fatigue for a month, loss of taste and smell.
My partner also had loss of smell, cough and delirium.

I've never lost taste and smell like that before with any illness, ever. I'm damn sure I've had it.

So why the result? Can anyone shed some light?

How alarming, Lissa. How have you felt in the interim? I know from reddit previous instances of people in S. Korea seeming to recontract it had received false negatives and/or had been ill with the same virus infection all along.

Oh dear. Maybe it's like the flu in that it mutates just enough for you to get it again and again.

How long ago did you have the illness that you think was Covid.
I am pretty sure one of the sciency people said it roughly took 28 days to produce anti-bodies.
So, if you recovered only last week, they may have not been produced yet.

The neg test has qualified me for the vaccine trial, so I have a 50% chance of that working

15th march, milvey

I have been ill for nearly 6 months, now, with some weird virus, which has affected my lungs. I don't care what it is. I just want it to stop.

I did an antibody test last week that came back negative. The test I took was an Abbot one where you take a finger prick blood sample at home and post it to a lab in London.
I was sure I had COVID at the end of Feburary. I had a high temperature, body aches and breathlessness which came on after 7 days. The breathlessness was the thing that worried me the most. I took 3 weeks off work which I ve never done before. I work at a university, so I was in contact with a lot of students. It felt worse than normal flu.

Riveratt Abbott has asked conpanies to withdraw their fingerpirck test as it was never designed ti be a fingerprick test and is onky reliable if taken venously.

OP, assuming you had Covid-19, your T-cells may have worked to stave off a serious case without antibodies developing. This test has been hailed too prematurely as a magic bullet. Scientists are still learning as we go...

If you look at the ratio of positive tests to tests taken, particularly earlier on in the pandemic when we were only really testing people in hospital exhibiting symptoms, that should tell you that a lot of people have shown symptoms but been suffering with something else.

Afaik you can't get a false positive but can get a false negative. Something like 90% accurate on negatives (so out of 10 negative tests, 1 should actually be positive).

In December I was so unwell I was admitted to hospital and tested positive for flu. The symptoms were the same as covid. If I’d had it in feb/March I would absolutely think I had covid.

PineappleUpsideDownCake I contacted the lab about calpillary versus venous samples for the Abbott test because of the press reports questioning the accuracy of calpillary samples. Here is their reply.
"Contrary to press reports our lab has not been advised that we must stop processing capillary samples and we are continuing to process any samples that we are sent. Currently this process using capillary or venous has shown no disparity in results.
We are in contact with the MHRA and they have asked us to provide our validation data and approval of the kits we send out - which we have done. They are currently assessing their view of the entire industry and we await their decision."

@inkpapers in a few weeks I'm going to be tested again and have a scan to check my lungs for their research etc it's very confusing.

I’m a doctor. I’ve been working on covid wards. I’ve had covid symptoms. I don’t have antibodies. I think it’d be a miracle if I hadn’t had it. But my antibody test is negative too.

Do you have any thoughts about the why of it, Medstudent?

@lissa93

I don't understand?

I tested positive for Coronavirus just after lockdown began. I recovered.

Dh works in a high risk environment

I just tested positive again 3 days ago.. and I have worse symptoms this time, my chest is so tight and I'm pretty breathless. However my daughter (2) and husband are fine apart from a temperature for the 2nd time!

So I don't get what the antibodies business is being talked about so much?

Some people don't create enough antibodies in response to infection.

It is an assumption that having it creates immunity - there is no evidence but it is likely if your immune response is strong enough. Alternatively you may simply have an immune system response but not enough to fight off a reinfection.

Immunity can wear off - again it doesn't happen that fast with other types of infections.

It could have been a false positive either time - the tests aren't foolproof.

We had people at work tested, they had had positive swabs and still came up negative on the antibody test 🤷🏼‍♀️

apparently the loss of smell and taste is common with hayfever too and other respiratory viral infections, so although it is listed as one of the COVID symptoms it may mean when you had it, it was down to another respiratory virus.

I wonder if those who are tested as positive for the antibodies will be required to do a second test in a year to see if they are still immune, no one knows if you can catch it more than once.

Personally I never have hayfever and have also never experienced loss of taste and smell like it - so absolute! I'm used to temporarily not being able to smell/taste with a cold or flu. This was utterly unlike that, like the receptors were just dead.

I'm pretty healthy in general - strength training, 15-20 portions of veg per day. I usually dodge cold etc anyway, or shake them off after a few days. I'd expect with covid to be mild given the above, which I suppose I was, even though it knocked me for a month, whatever it was.
Glandular fever was the worst I ever felt, this was less awful, more niggly and unpredictable, more disruptive and disheartening.

drcd so very odd! I hope the media picks this up and we get some answers soon.

We are around 5-6m in with China so they are probably looking at how long antibodies are lasting there.
I think Allissa story is most scary as it may mean you can get it twice.
The others of you just not showing antibodies could be testing error or maybe t cell??
But we certainly do not want a situation where people catch it again with worse symptoms (that did happen with sars vaccines they were looking at).

Ive been ill around xmas with fever fatigue cough etc. Then conjuntivitis.
Then again in april with chills SOB dry cough mild conjuntivitis. And pain in chest and back.
So if i had an antibody test i wouldnt know when i had it. But my DParents are shielded so if they also had antibodies then it's very likely it's December.
Im suspicious of gov re antibody testing as they dont seem to want public to access it....

I understood that you can get false negatives but not false positives

I’m convinced I had it - never been that unwell in my life starting on the 10th March. I’m in mainland Europe so was after people had come back from skiing in half term - I was hospitalized for 2 nights with unbearable fatigue and breathlessness but this was 9 days after onset of a fever and my covid test was negative which the doctors said afterwards they were convinced it was a false negative. thankfully it didn’t get any worse. Took me 6 or 7 weeks to feel like myself and I’ve just sent off for an antibody test that needs a venous sample.

I’m so convinced I had it that I’ll be really disappointed if it comes back negative. If it wasn’t covid what was it. I’ve had the flu before but this completely different. Maybe I’ll never find out

I think mostly we just don't know enough yet but it's very confusing😳