Thread by @DearPandemic

1/ Q: Should I get an #antibody test? Will it tell me if I’m immune and able to safely go about daily life?

A: Not yet. While antibody tests are improving rapidly, there are still too many fundamental challenges to using them to determine your *individual* exposure or immunity.

2/ Very briefly, antibody tests are (typically) blood tests that aim to measure previous exposure by testing for the presence of antibodies specific to #COVID19.
These are distinct from the PCR (nasal swab) tests that detect *current* presence of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material.

3/ There are three main limitations of antibody tests for personal use:
1) unknown immunity,
2) false positives, and
3) no clear direction for behavior change

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1) UNKNOWN IMMUNITY: Even for those who had #COVID, we don’t know the extent or duration of immunity conferred. The best current guess is protective immunity for at least 1-2 years. Still, previous exposure isn’t a scientific green light for lack of precautions.

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2) FALSE POSITIVES: Many positive antibody tests will be “false positives.” To see a worked example of why this is the case, I refer you to this nice explainer from COVIDexplained: explaincovid.org/post/understan…

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3) WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH THIS INFO? For both of the reasons listed above, changing your behavior with regards to #coronavirus prevention, or protecting vulnerable family members after a positive antibody test, at this stage would be unwise.

7/ That being said, antibody tests are SUPER important in helping us develop evidence-based responses to #COVID__19 because they show us the "footprint" of the virus to date.
Here is a previous DP post that explains why:
facebook.com/dearpandemic/p…

8/ This article from @TheAtlantic gives a great overview of current issues around antibody testing:

theatlantic.com/health/archive…

And a useful review of PCR vs antibody testing:
explaincovid.org/post/testing/0…