Only on 7: Can antibody blood tests confirm you're immune, get you out of quarantine?
ARLINGTON, Va. (ABC7) — There has been a lot of talk about antibody blood tests to determine if you had the coronavirus, built up immunity and could potentially go back to work.
Only on 7, Alison Starling takes us inside a local lab distributing these tests and tells us what to look out for.
This is an inside look at a Rockville company called 20/20 BioResponse. Technicians are packing up and shipping tests some say could be the key to getting Americans out of quarantine.
It's a simple, finger-prick blood test designed to detect those antibodies that show if someone has had the infection and could be protected from getting the coronavirus again. One positive result is called IgG.
Dr. Michael Ross is on the company’s board. He says, “the beauty of it is if you have IgG, the assumption is at that point that you are protected, you've been exposed, i.e., you can go back to work; i.e. you can visit your grandmother.”
He says the COVID-19 rapid antibody test kit they are distributing is from China, but they have done testing here in the United States.
Dr. Charles Miranda in Denver has used the test on about 50 of his patients.
“I found the test to be reliable and because of that I feel very comfortable rolling it out to my patients, giving it to my patients because I know I'm going to make decisions based on the results of these tests.”
Because of the urgency, the FDA recently allowed companies to skip the normal approval process and verify results independently. Currently you can only get a test from a medical professional. Dr. Miranda says no matter what, make sure you get a doctor’s guidance.
“There are tests that are coming that will be available online and I think that's where it's important that patients consult with provider or physician to see if the test is reliable or not.”
Fraud is rampant during this pandemic, so remember currently, there are not tests available for home use. And nothing has officially been FDA approved, beware of these fraudulent claims.
