Posted on 03/30/2020 7:18:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
While it might be impossible to figure out who is going to become sick with novel coronavirus, some public health experts believe the more critical question may be who has already been exposed.
In Telluride, Colorado, last week, one biotech company put that idea to work.
United Biomedical is now working with San Miguel County, which includes the famous Rocky Mountain ski destination, to test all 8,000 residents for COVID-19 antibodies -- making it the first community in the country to do widespread antibody testing. The idea, officials said, is to learn from an individual’s blood whether there is evidence the person has already been exposed. With that information, officials can then make decisions about whether quarantines and restrictions would need to continue and whether they need to be as widespread as they are in states and cities across the country right now.
"The goal of this is to show you can predictably get an entire county back to its new normal as quickly as possible by using testing," said Lou Reese, co-CEO of United Biomedical and its COVAXX subsidiary.
Reese stressed that, if successful, the testing program could be expanded, "starting at the hot-spot areas right now to solve this problem, stop the panic and get people to their lives and back to work."
The science behind the testing concept is not complicated. Every person who contracts the coronavirus will develop antibodies in their blood, usually within 10 days, even if the individual has such a mild case that there are no symptoms. Antibodies are proteins that help the body fight off an intruding virus -- but they’re also unmistakable forensic evidence of where the virus has been.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
A relative on mine had symptoms in early Dec and tested negative for the flu. I hand more minor symptoms in early January and we both recovered withing a week and half to two weeks. We both had flu shots, and the relative worked in higher ed and got it after kids came back from Thanksgiving recess.
Amen. I want my old normal back, with a side of ending globalism and to stop pretending the ChiComs are a 1st world nation.
“The New Normal” was a TV series (2012–2013) that lasted 22 episodes.
“A single mother’s life after she accepts the offer to be a surrogate mother for a gay couple.”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2087571/
Obama mentioned the show in a speech referring to just the title. The show was cancelled soon after that.
Good for you and your family. I should have written “most of the country is on welfare, and very few are even allowed to work”.
Yes the unemployment situation is horrible.
Those of us who continue to work are either deemed “essential” or can “work from home” for now. And some of us have had income go down.
Yes the unemployment situation is horrible.
Those of us who continue to work are either deemed “essential” or can “work from home” for now. And some of us have had income go down.
There is NO SUCH THING as “herd immunity”.
What is called herd immunity is only a lack of exposure.
Everything about this is stupid. There are only four cases in that county so far. They locked down early. Why would many of the 8000 people in the county show much immunity?
The “old normal” is gone until most of the world has either contracted the virus or been vaccinated.
“Back” to its “new” normal. What happened to English language clarity?
The type of testing they are proposing is essential to quantify risk. Without knowing the risk level, no politician will chance opening back up any time soon.
Anyone who can prove immunity should be given a certificate exempting them from the “cower in place” rules and from any income tax/Federal/State/Local.
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