Breakthrough coronavirus test can quickly tell you the strength of your immunity

BGR ^ | 07/25/2020 | Chris Smith

[SeekAndFind]

• A novel coronavirus antibody test kit can provide faster results than existing ones, and it can measure the strength of the immune response to COVID-19 or coronavirus vaccination.
• The cPass test looks for neutralizing antibodies, which are the proteins that can bind to the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and render it useless. The virus won’t be able to infect cells and multiply inside them.
• The test is already undergoing review with the US Food and Drug Administration and has been approved for use in the European Union and Singapore.

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How long does COVID-19 immunity last once you survive the illness or receive a vaccine? That’s the critical answer the world needs to better handle the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic. What we know so far is that the immune system can repel the virus and that reinfection is unlikely in the first weeks and months following the primary infection. Researchers think the immunity to the novel coronavirus can’t be better than the resistance to the other human coronaviruses that cause common colds. If accurate, that means we might get COVID-19 again after up to a year after the first bout. Also, if immunity is short-lived, then we’ll need to be vaccinated regularly to keep staying protected.

Recent research also showed that the antibodies might disappear from the blood within two to three months of infection. We’d still be protected, as the immune response is more complicated than that. White blood cells, called T cells, would be able to engage the virus and help produce new antibodies in the future. But if tests can’t detect antibodies after three months, officials looking to track the disease and measure herd immunity will not get accurate results from current tests.

[DIRTYSECRET]

It’s capitalism that makes all these minds go to work on a solution. what has Venezuela or Cuba offered to the cure?

[Hildy]

OH MY GOD.... If you get it you 99.5% chance you will live. I can’t stand this anymore. IT IS NOT THE PLAGUE. I had it. My boyfriend had it. He is 72. Bad COPD. He did not even get badly ill. I’m 61 I barely knew I was sick. Come on people... STOP THE FEAR.

[butlerweave]

Sorry buddy you better lie down because you’re dead ?

[MulberryDraw]

Just curious. Do you know your vitamin D levels? Studies are showing a correlation between vitamin D deficiency and COVID 19 infection rate, death rate and how serious it is if you get it. 3 out of 4 people are deficient in vitamin D. Maybe you and your boy friend aren’t? :)

[Bob434]

[[The test is already undergoing review with the US Food and Drug Administration]]

And should be ready for approval by 2023

[Hildy]

I’ve known this from day one. I have low Vitamin D. Next..

[yoe]

Vitamin C with zinc...zinc...(too much zinc is not a good thing...get some quidance on that)... Budesonide 400 Micrograms - Dry Powder Inhaler...or one that has the Budesonide. That combo seem to work well as a prophylactic, at least for us.

[Owen]

About 15% overall of people over 65 who get it die.

85% don’t die. Most of that 85% don’t even have symptoms.

But 15% die.

It’s not a glass half empty or full matter. Here’s why.

3 million people die in the US each year. 2 million are over 65. The death count on the right side of decline curve since NY got under control appears to be flattening at about 900 deaths/day. 900 X 365 is 328K new deaths of 65+ people per year, and don’t start waving your arms about heart attacks being called Covid. These are confirmed Excess Deaths above the average of the past 5 yrs, week by week.

328K/yr is 16% of 2 million. We will live in a world with 16% more senior deaths than pre Covid. That’s with 85% of cases not dying.

That 16% increase will get into life expectancy. The 40 yr old who expects to live to 78 . . . not anymore. This will take X years off expectations.

[chuckb87]

Horse puckey.

[steve86]

"About 15% overall of people over 65 who get it die."

False. Not even close to being accurate.

You might be trying to say that 15% of those over 65 who need to be hospitalized for covid die from it or as a complication. Meanwhile, thousands get it without symptoms or minimal symptoms.

I'm not a numbers guy so I won't try to refine that further.

[Owen]

Pretty sure I had that right. It’s 6% for 65-74, 8% 75-84, and 18% 85+. The problem is we have such a solid life expectancy the numbers can get big.

From January, the Chinese reported 80% would not require hospital, 20% would. With about 5% on supplemental oxygen only . . . That does line up.

[DivineMomentsOfTruth]

Doctors have said it’s more of a blood disease than respiratory disease. People with high blood pressure, inflammation, diabetes are at risk for the worst outcomes. Who knows.. With all the false positives we’re hearing about maybe a lot of people are just getting summer colds.
People should Fear not, but by the same token not push their luck.

[steve86]

” Doctors have said it’s more of a blood disease than respiratory disease. “

Run that by our resident ER docs and Hospitalists and see what they say.

[steve86]

If that were true we’d have hundreds and hundreds of dead over 65s right in my own town. Actual total deaths: Just over 100. But I do believe the 15% for hospitalized patients. I am 65, in a bad county for cases, and don’t know a single person who was hospitalized for covid (or died from it).

[ConservativeMind]

Not true. At most, 15% of THOSE TESTED who are already with symptoms might die, but tons have COVID who are older and are fine.

Have you been tested? I haven’t, but my wife and I wonder if we had it in February. We didn’t die. My wife had achy muscles and I just had a dry cough five or so times a day for four days that I thought must have meant I was getting some allergic response to something.

Perhaps we will get antibody tests. We already know from South Korea’s statistical sample testing that ten-fold more people have it than were counted through testing, bringing their final death rate radically down to less than 0.006 (0.6%) at that time.

[daniel1212]

Article is interesting, and see Here’s what you need to know about fading coronavirus antibodies, but as with my posts, the article needs some proof reading:

Without this step, the virus can replicate, and it’s essentially neutralized from doing any harm.

I think it is sppsd to say "cannot" replicate

Instead, the tries to detect only the neutralizing antibodies in a patient’s bloodstream.

What "the tries" seems to be missing is "test."

[Pining_4_TX]

If it is truly accurate and specific for COVID, then I would like to take it. I think I had this virus back in February, and yes, I was quite sick for almost the entire month.

[DivineMomentsOfTruth]

I should have said Vascular disease.. https://elemental.medium.com/coronavirus-may-be-a-blood-vessel-disease-which-explains-everything-2c4032481ab2

[Owen]

There is quite a lot of data interpretation out there based on glass half empty and half full perspectives, both of which are pointless.

The general number of “20% of those who get it need the hospital” (supplemental oxygen, perhaps not ventilator) came from the early days in China and S. Korea. Not all hospitalized will die. But the overall 15% over 65 who get it, die . . . conclusion is out there and your point about testing could be powerful. If you don’t have symptoms, you wont bother being tested, so that constrains the 15% over 65 to “15% of those over 65 with symptoms”.

The antibody stuff is losing relevance nearly every day as more and more reports emerge about antibodies disappearing within 3-4 weeks of the two negative swab tests that gets a patient released from quarantine.