What To Make of Antibodies

Yasmin Tayag, senior editor at OneZero, a science and technology publication from Medium and an editor at Medium's Coronavirus blog, clears up what it means to have COVID-19 antibodies, what it doesn't mean, and how antibody testing is helping us understand the pandemic.

Please note the correction in this exchange: 

Unfortunately, your guest gave some incorrect information on the show today- the Abbott test that the Washington Post wrote about & that is showing a high false negative rate is the rapid PCR test, NOT the antibody test. I think a correction should be posted. Love your show!

— Priscilla Gilman (@priscillagilman) May 14, 2020

Abbott does have a new antibody test, which the company says "can exclude false positives 99.6% of the time and exclude false negatives 100% of the time for patients tested 14 days after symptoms began," per CNBC. Hope that helps clarify!https://t.co/iKw9aPolLZ

— Yasmin Tayag (@yeahyeahyasmin) May 14, 2020