We have a surprise over here too. My H is sick and wow it seems like Covid and we were all close contacts of S19 who was positive. He took a rapid day two and today day five. Both negative. Like what??
I want him to get a PcR but it’s either a four hour wait which I did yesterday or an appointment in ten days. What a joke. Not even sure where to go from here. He can continue to isolate but shouldn’t he know for future medical history if he has Covid?
At least in CA, one can self oder a COVID antibody test thru several labs.
So people do that instead of getting a PCR?
How would an antibody test let this family know if someone was Covid positive? One can have antibodies…and be either Covid positive or Covid negative.
If you want to know if you HAD covid for the purpose of just self info - or possible proof of immunity - the antibody test would confirm.
At least that used to be the case - test for
‘The Abbott Architect SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay, run under an emergency use authorization from the FDA, is a qualitative test designed to detect IgG antibodies to the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2 in serum and plasma from patients who are suspected of past coronavirus disease (COVID-19) or in serum and plasma of subjects that may have been infected by SARS-CoV-2.’
If your son was positive and your husband was a contact then odds are he has covid. Does it really matter for future medical needs?
Yes, people have gotten antibody tests to show past infection. I think you should wait at least a month if doing so though.
I would just assume he has it and act accordingly.
The antibody tests looks for specific antibodies only occuring after natural infection. It does tell you if you’ve actually had covid.
I guess but what’s up with the negative rapids? And do we just assume any illness is now Covid and isolate? If the rapids don’t pick it up then how do we know? We can’t go through the whole winter isolating every time someone is sick.
Actually (and I’ve said this before)….one positive about Covid is people are not going to school, workplaces, social events, etc…when they are sick. That is a good thing.
Regardless of your type of illness, it’s my opinion you should stay away from others…and not spread your germs.
Most antibody tests are not of much value as they will show a positive if the person has been vaccinated.
If he is sick, he should isolate. He had two negatives, so when he feels better, go back to regular routine. Not sure what the advantage is of “knowing” for posterity sake, but if you must know, schedule the pcr when you can.
did he swap his throat real quickly before testing. That did the trick for me.
Great typo!
Carry on!
When we were in the UK the newspapers were saying in the week before Christmas that there was a 50% chance a cold was COVID, then they increased that figure to 75% in the week after Christmas. But either way there’s a non-negligible probability that it’s just a cold. Not being able to test to know one way or the other sucks.
There are antibody tests that look for specific markers that are only indictive of natural infection so they are used to confirm past infection even in vaccinated individuals.
Yes…but these antibody tests can confirm past infections too….and not necessarily tell one if they are Covid positive…NOW.
Don’t I need to know because then I’m his close contact and need to wear a mask, test etc. ? I just got a negative PCR from being S19’s close contact and now I feel like I need another PCR in three days because H is a new infection in the house. I work in a school. Feel like it is important to know. But really most of America is not bothering with this.
Absolutely, they are designed to show past infection and not current. They actually should also be done many weeks after infection so that the antibodies build to sufficient levels.
These symptoms weren’t really cold symptoms. Bad headache. Coughing. Fatigue. Not a high fever though. Didn’t seem like flu symptoms and not the typical cold either. He was laid up for three days.
You can certainly get tested with PCR. That’s probably the most important since you are working in a school.