- Hey guys, welcome to another episode
of the Wednesday Checkup.
There's a ton of confusion and even some misinformation
out there about antibody tests.
So I thought I'd set the record straight.
I'll give you the scoop on what happens
when you're infected with COVID-19,
how your immune system reacts,
and what's the deal with all these antibody tests.
Should you be running out to get one?
I'll answer those questions and more starting now.
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First things first, let's talk about what happens
if you're infected with COVID-19.
Well first, you have to be exposed
to someone who has COVID-19.
Generally, that person will either cough
or sneeze and expel respiratory droplets
that then have to make contact with your mucous membranes,
your mouth, your nose, your eyes.
Sometimes they'll land on your hand
and then you'll make contact with your face.
Then, one of those viral particles
will attach itself to one of your cells.
It will then make its way inside the cell
and actually start making copies of itself
using your own cellular machinery,
much like a Xerox machine.
Those infected particles will start spreading
throughout your body, mostly through the upper
and lower airways, that's where COVID-19 seems to thrive.
That's when your immune system kicks into high gear
and starts kicking that virus's butt.
However, at the same time,
your immune system starts making antibodies.
That's a protein substance which actually gives you
lasting immunity against the virus.
Let's take chicken pox as an example.
If you were to get the virus that causes chicken pox,
your body fights it off, clears it,
and then it creates these antibodies,
which serve as a lasting immunity.
Generally speaking, chicken pox is an illness
that you get only once in your life
because of these antibodies.
Now let's move on and talk about
the testing for these antibodies.
Generally there are two types of tests,
qualitative and quantitative.
Qualitative tests simply give us a yes or no answer,
whether there's a presence of antibodies at all.
For example, if you've ever had a strep swab
or a nasal flu swab, those are qualitative tests,
positive or negative only.
Quantitative tests give us a numerical value
which establishes how many antibodies are existing
in our blood.
These are generally higher-end tests
that we actually have to send out to a lab
through a blood sample.
Let's summarize what we know now.
You get an infection with COVID-19,
your immune system kicks its butt, clears it,
creates a lasting immunity through a protein substance
known as an antibody.
We can test for this antibody.
So shouldn't we give this test to as many people as possible
so we can send them out into the work force
because they're protected?
Not so fast.
There's actually three problems with these antibody tests
I'm about to let you know about.
Problem number one is we simply don't have enough
information on what to do with the results of these tests.
For example, let's say you go out
and get a qualitative test and you get a positive result.
All that really tells us is that you've had COVID-19.
It doesn't quite tell us about your level of immunity.
'Cause perhaps you had a really mild case
and your immune system didn't build up enough antibodies
to protect you for the next time.
So the solution might be, let's get a quantitative test.
Well that's better and you're gonna get a numerical value
telling us how many antibodies are present.
However, we then need to rely on reference ranges.
Let me explain reference ranges.
If you've ever gotten a test to see
if you're immune to measles, you get a numerical value back.
And then we look at reference ranges to see
if it's above this value then you know the person's immune.
If it falls in between these two numbers,
their immunity is falling
and they likely need another booster shot.
And if it's below this value,
they're definitely not immune
and they should get a booster asap.
With COVID-19, whatever number we get is great,
it might be accurate.
But we don't have these reference ranges set up
like we do with measles
of which we have decades worth of research.
COVID-19 is a novel virus.
These reference ranges take years to develop.
So it's gonna take some time until we know what's what.
And the final point of all this
is we don't know how long the immunity lasts.
Perhaps you do have antibodies, perhaps you are immune.
But how long's that immunity gonna last?
Is it gonna be one week, one month, one year or a lifetime?
We don't know that information yet, but we will soon.
The second problem here is poor quality tests.
There's over a hundred of these tests on the market
with only four of them being FDA approved through an EUA,
that's the Emergency Use Authorization.
It essentially allows companies with limited evidence
but still decent evidence to show at the FDA
their product actually worked.
Think about the dozens that are out there,
that are really poor quality, manufactured god knows where,
and could be giving questionable results.
Problem number three, the false positive rate.
Look, no test is perfect.
They all have a margin of error.
And one of the examples of that is the false positive rate
where it tells you you're positive, but you're actually not.
It's flat out wrong.
And some of the best tests have a 5% false positive rate.
That sounds pretty good,
but let's take this example into consideration.
Picture yourself in a town of 100 people,
and five of those people have had COVID-19 and cleared it.
And the government wants to use this antibody test
to find out who those five people are.
There gonna give the test to everybody
and they're gonna find out five people have had it.
But because it has a 5% false positive rate,
five other individuals will also test positive
even though they've never had COVID-19.
That makes for a total of 10 positive tests,
five of which are accurate.
That means a 50% accuracy, not so accurate
because the prevalence of the disease is quite low.
But when the prevalence of the disease goes up,
say, 50 people have had it in this town.
You have 50 people test positive correctly,
five people test positive incorrectly,
and when you do the math, it's at over 90% accuracy.
You see how the prevalence of an illness
can affect the accuracy of a test?
That false positive rate
really needs to be taken into consideration
when we use it in areas
with a low prevalence of COVID-19.
All that goes to show
that you as an individual should not run out
to get tested for COVID-19 antibodies.
We just don't yet know what to do with the information.
We can't tell you if you're 100% immune
even if you do test positive.
The last thing we want you to do
is think you have a layer of security when you truly do not.
What we can use this information for is on a state,
on a government level to see where COVID-19 is prevalent.
How many people have had COVID-19 and not even known it?
What's the true fatality rate of this virus?
And which areas can we start loosening
the social restrictions in to get our economy back.
This antibody test is really important.
But it's not important to us as individuals.
It's important to us as a whole nation.
Please, if you have any questions
about these antibody tests, leave 'em down below.
I'm gonna be super active in my comment section.
And check out this video where I interviewed 100 doctors.
Or check out this video
where I interviewed the man himself, Dr. Fauci.
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