Two Upbeat Bits of Pandemic News*

1. There is a new, 100% accurate antibody test
&

2. T cells for COVID-19 ‘bode well’ for long-term immunity


Once a sci-fi guy, always a sci-fi guy.  On March 29 I started saying stuff like this:



1. Give EVERYBODY the antibody test for Covid-19.
      (and the virus test too)
2. Quarantine all positives.
3. Do comprehensive contact tracing. Quarantine all contacts.
4. Drop all social distancing for those with the "well and immune" antibody load.

My Big Assumptions - Slightly ahead of reality
So, there was no accurate, mass producible antibody test way back then (six weeks ago). I assumed there was, and I made the larger assumption that antibodies meant at least temporary immunity. That also had not been confirmed. My sci-fi sense was optimistic.

These Two Upbeat Bits of Pandemic News prove out those two assumptions!

First the antibody test:

Don't Bogart that...
Looks like the super accurate antibody test popped out of Switzerland. Roche is Swiss Big Pharma, but more significantly, Big Diagnostic. 
A credible source, mebets (stronger 'methinks')
reports...

New coronavirus test ‘highly specific and 100 per cent accurate’
Roche has been hinting since mid-April that they had a big antibody test coming in May. CEO Severin Schwan was publicly denouncing the first wave of antibody tests that were flooding the market but had huge inaccuracies. He was clearly setting up Roche's announcements. 

As you've read, I bet, the FDA (and the Brits) have given Emergency Use Authorization, and Roche says it will be cranking out over 10 million tests a month shortly.

 [Abbot Labs' desktop virus test is having problems, but they are also in the antibody race. Roche may have cinched first place.]
Then there is the other good news
Mr. Credible to you.

Immunity Seems More Certain 


Scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology and Charité University Hospital in Berlin find T-cells for the coronavirus in previously infected persons.  T-cells remember how to tell b-cells to make antibodies, so when you are exposed again, the antibodies pour out and attack without having to go through the learning about the virus process again. Voila! Immunity.
I've got your number Sars-cov-2.
I jump nimbly to the conclusion that this discovery is also good news for the possibility of a vaccine that will actually work, especially for us old folks.  If the disease generates T-cells, and T-cells generate immunity, the vaccine probably will too.  Come on antibodies!




*Classic oxymoron?

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