Life Labs is out with big news…you can now be tested to see if you’ve had COVID-19!
A simple $75 blood test will show you, in layman’s terms, if the antibodies in your body have ever been ‘activated’ by COVID-19 and had to battle against it.
Seeing as I’m no doctor (how I wish I made $200,000 a year!) I’ll let the Life Labs website break it down a bit better:
Antibodies are proteins generated by the immune response to infections. They have many anti-viral functions, such as preventing viral entry into host cells. The antibodies can be produced even if a person has few or no symptoms during the infection. COVID-19 antibody test detects antibodies reactive to SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins. This test can be used to assess recent or previous infection with SARS-CoV-2. This test is most accurate when sample is collected 3-4 weeks after onset of symptoms or 3-4 weeks after exposure.
This morning while getting my teeth cleaned my dental hygenist kept saying how excited she is about the test, saying how awesome would it be to find out if you had COVID-19 and are now immune!
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple, Life Labs saying “At this time, it is not known if the presence of antibodies to COVID-19 means you are immune to the virus and protected from re-infection. Importantly, it is not known how long antibody response to COVID-19 virus lasts. Based on current studies, antibodies to COVID-19 virus can be detected up to 4 months post-exposure, but levels vary depending on individual immune response as well as disease severity, with levels higher in severe and lower in milder/asymptomatic cases.”
Still, you hear so many people talk about how they came down with a horrible flu or fever back in January or February before the pandemic and “swear” it was COVID-19 – would be nice to finally get that peace of mind on whether or not it was COVID-19, or more likely, just a really bad hangover!