April 24, 2020 | 12: 51 am
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Clients get tested for antibodies at a drive through screening test outside of Delmont Medical Care in Franklin Square, New York City.
Dennis A. Clark
New York City health authorities are recommending medical providers versus using antibody tests to figure out coronavirus infections or possible resistance.
The serological tests, as they’re called, are too unreliable and it’s not yet understood whether the detection of antibodies translates to immunity from COVID-19, according to a letter dated April 22 from Demetre Daskalakis, a deputy commissioner at the city Health Department.
” They may produce incorrect negative or incorrect positive results, the consequences of which include supplying clients inaccurate assistance on preventive interventions like physical distancing or protective devices,” Daskalakis wrote in the letter.
With numerous unpredictabilities around asymptomatic providers of the infection and the number of people have actually truly been contaminated, attention has actually relied on antibody testing in hopes it can assist shed light on who has in fact caught the bug and whether they are now immune.
Daskalakis cautioned medical service providers shouldn’t presume any of the tests now being marketed are “reputable enough for usage in regular scientific practice” which some are falsely claiming they’ve been approved for use by FDA.
” Dosage of reality folks,” said Councilman Mark Levine (D-Manhattan), the chair of the Council’s health committee, who shared the letter on social networks Thursday night.
” There is some unreasonable spirit on antibody tests,” Levine tweeted. “They work for tracking trends in the general population, but need to not be used to make personal health decisions.”
Levine included though that the tests still have a function in the fight against the pandemic.
” Anti-body tests do, nevertheless, remain very helpful to determine whether volunteers can contribute plasma to clients still fighting covid,” he stated.
The serological tests are undependable in identifying infections due to the fact that the antibody reaction may take days or weeks to be detectable, implying someone who was recently infected may still check unfavorable, according to the city.
The letter was sent just a day before the state announced preliminary results from its own antibody study showing 2.7 million New Yorkers might have been exposed to coronavirus.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo s pushing for more extensive antibody screening, believing it to be an essential to restarting the economy because it would show which employees may have gotten some resistance to the bug.
However others, like White House coronavirus expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, have cautioned against checking out excessive into the tests at this moment, in part due to the very same factors kept in mind by the city.
” There’s an assumption– a sensible assumption– that when you have an antibody that you are safeguarded against reinfection, but that has not been proven for this specific virus. It’s true for other viruses,” he stated previously today.
