I Asked for a Covid-19 Antibody Test / My Doctor Talked me Out of It

So are the COVID-19 numbers being pumped up or down?

We have a death in the family which means I must travel across several states into Florida and get through the Florida checkpoint at the Florida - Georgia border. Because I will be near older people I don't want to infect anyone nor get infected myself so I looked up the COVID-19 Antibody Test at one of the larger testing franchises who are located almost in every state within the USA. I then saw that my out of pocket cost is $119 and I do not require a referral nor doctors request. All I need to do is set up an appointment and pay the $119 plus some other fee.

They also had a notice on their web page stating that the federal government would pay for everything if I did get a doctors referral for a test and bring it to their facility. I thought that was strange but I called my doctors office to see if I could get a referral on Monday.

Later that day I get a call from someone from my doctors office who I never spoke with before. She said that their COVID-19 Antibody Test providers are recommending against it at this time as many of the results are either false positive or false negative results. So I brought up the CDC and what is being reported in the media. She maintained her position so I said lets forget it and hung the phone up, knowing that I can still pay the $119. So later that day I get a call. Its her again saying that if I want the COVID-19 Antibody Test referral that I would have to come into the office tomorrow and speak to my doctor. I agreed and set it up for Tuesday. What I then did is call my brother who has a PhD in Genetic Engineering and Microbiology and Department Chair and Professor of Biology at a large University. I told him what happened. He agreed with what the doctors office told me as he said the 1st generation test kits for anything are generally unreliable. He told me to wait for the next generation COVID-19 Antibody Test to be released. I said OK and that was that. I then continued on to speak with my doctor the following morning.

My doctor reiterated what the woman said and he also mentioned as to what my brother said relating to the 1st generation of test kits. He said that he will do whatever I want but he recommended against doing it because it may give me a false sense of security as its a coin flip.

I agreed with him now knowing that I have two opinions who do not know each other as I do trust both. They both work for large established institutions. Both have improved my life when I was sick as I was with some nasty flu back in February. Even after I completed the Tamiflu script, I was knocked out for three plus weeks. Based on my records and the symptoms, my doctor did say that I probably had the COVID-19 as he said that he saw some stuff in many that he has never seen before.

So, I will wear a face mask, stay away 6' or more and not touch or hug anyone and continue to user hand sanitizer when I am out in public, despite what the CDC is now saying about touching surfaces. To this day I still seem to be off physically and my body temperature has remained at 99.0 degrees since getting beyond the flu.

COVID-19 Antibody Test

Well, that's my story and I am sticking to it.

I also wonder whether we continue to get conflicting COVID-19 information as they are trying to get to "herd" immunity before the cold weather returns and that is getting people out of homes and back to work and shopping as indoors is causing more harm than good in the long run. Plus you cant bankrupt the world. However, to flatten that curve they had to do what we are going through at this time. I now think I understand what is going on out there.

Thoughts?

Makes sense. I think I remember South Korea stating that their cases of re-infection were due to faulty tests.

a reply to: Waterglass

Interesting, my father got the antibody test and it came up negative. We both thought there was no way that was true. As he has taken virtually no methods to isolate. And we live in a very popular tourist town with bus loads of Chinese coming in everyday up until the travel ban.

You just solidified my belief.

a reply to: Waterglass


So what is the percentage of the false readings? Many times we are talking less than 2%, if it was higher...much higher than I would think people would say they are all no good. Also, what is causing the false readings? I could see a false positive as in it detects other like antibodies, but a false neg would not make sense to me.

a reply to: KKLOCO

Thanks. As I write this I have weird pressure on parts of my body. Not painful but annoying.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
Makes sense. I think I remember South Korea stating that their cases of re-infection were due to faulty tests.

Here is a recent press release pertaining to that.

The PCR type tests are definitely wonky, were never meant for diagnostic purposes, and have been controversial for decades.

Essentially, the tests arent faulty, its just that its like trying to listen to music through a high gain distortion pedal (for guitars). Very little transparency has been given about amplification cycles, testing standards, and actual test type & methodology.

Might as well post the vid that linked me to that press release:

a reply to: Xtrozero

Read the Serdgiam post as its excellent as it may answer some of your questions.

a reply to: Serdgiam

Excellent, thanks

It's pretty hard to stimulate fear into someone who already has had immunity to the disease from being priorly infected. They will not promote this, if you catch a cold, the new norm will be to go into the doctor and get a CV19 test at great expense to the people of America....who pay for all of these tests.

I want to get one but am not going to go to the doctors to get authorization, I will just purchase one for a hundred nineteen bucks and have it done. So what if the test is only ten bucks afterwards, the trip to the doctor will be around two hundred which I will have to pay thirty bucks anyway. Forty verses one hundred nineteen....and only one trip to pick up the test. I may wait, they say that test will be down to twenty five bucks in a month.

a reply to: Serdgiam
Just shows how ignorant and lazy the media is.

Kind of like the drug test that turned positive when donut icing was tested.

A friend of mine went to get tested and they broke the swab off up in his nose and he had to go to the emergency room where the chance of picking up the cov19 increases...ironic.

He made a documentary about his experience with his phone camera.

a reply to: JIMC5499

The problem is that its not just the media, imo. And, the actual test type used has been becoming increasingly more difficult to find, much less more specific info.

Beyond that, "testing" has been pushed hard.. wherein a positive result can yield some pretty detrimental consequences.

Yet, they are being sold to us, alongside contact tracing, as The Answer.

When coupled with the constant insinuation that any presence of viral material, at all, is the same across the board.. It all seems rather intentional to me.

The test itself is actually pretty cool though, so theres that too. It just isnt meant for this type of application, and we have seen evidence of that right from the start. It just gets blamed on a plethora of other factors.

You've gotta PAY for the test? Well, that sux!

originally posted by: JohnnyCanuck
You've gotta PAY for the test? Well, that sux!

LOL you pay for yours too.. just through your taxes. Nothing is free.

originally posted by: MRinder

originally posted by: JohnnyCanuck
You've gotta PAY for the test? Well, that sux!

LOL you pay for yours too.. just through your taxes. Nothing is free.

Of course...but you guys pay taxes, too, IIRC.

Just had my yearly checkup yesterday.
Found out my doc & their 8 year old child both had it back in early March. Caught it from a patient before anyone knew much about it in the US. I asked if doc thought it was around way before that? Doc said yes, why? Did I think that I’d had it?

I had something back in the middle of January. Thought I was going to cough up a lung! Could taste blood & my diaphragm was sore for days after the coughIng was done. So weak that I was dizzy & broke out in a sweat if I tried to do anything. Lived in the recliner for three weeks before I started to feel better. Doc & I compared our symptoms & I was asked if I wanted to have the antibody test? I was told my insurance would cover it. I had to have my yearly blood tests done, so I figured why not? Especially since doc was curious too.

I read that they aren’t very accurate. That it is an Elisa test, like the one Lyme test that is only 40% accurate. So we’ll see. Some people in our family flew in from out of state for Christmas, from a densely populated area. And some of us started taking turns getting sick starting about two weeks later. We all commented on how we never had anything like it before! The timing & symptoms all fit.

I wonder how long it will take to get the results?
WOQ

I rarely go to the doctor unless I'm really really sick in the last 5 years I've went 4 times and 2 of those were for my gallbladder, which I did finally have removed. Otherwise rarely go, I did have something about 6 weeks ago sore throat a little cough mostly headache and achy took a couple of tylenol, vitamin c etc but that's it. LOl like I said then how did I catch that? using all the sterile protocols

originally posted by: wasobservingquietly
I was told my insurance would cover it. I had to have my yearly blood tests done, so I figured why not? Especially since doc was curious too.

I read that they aren’t very accurate. That it is an Elisa test, like the one Lyme test that is only 40% accurate. So we’ll see.

See what? If it is inaccurate, what is there to see?

a reply to: Waterglass

What test is it? If you look at data on the results of false negatives, the best test has a near 0% false negative rate, the quick test using transport media is 15% false negative. It's supposedly only a few % false negative if using just the swab with no media, but unfortunately the researchers did not include the quick test using the recommended protocols.

a reply to: wasobservingquietly

After in-house testing of different available tests, one physician found that Abbott’s assay using its ID NOW device, which can provide results in 5–13 minutes, has a false-negative rate that nears 15 percent...

According to NPR, Abbott disagrees with Procop’s findings, stating that any errors might come from the use of viral transport media, which is commonplace in testing and helps extend the shelf life of the sample. All of the samples in Procop’s study used this media rather than testing directly from the nasal swab. Abbott has sent letters to the healthcare facilities that have received some of the 600,000 tests, advising them to test directly with the swab, which yields the most reliable results.

www.the-scientist.com...