Coronavirus Exposure

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I say bring it. Would love to get tested because I suspect a great many people have already been exposed at this point. A lot of us have also had weird little illnesses that weren’t enough to see a doctor or get a COVID test but it makes us wonder if we had it and didn’t realize. I have had weird earaches and body aches coming and going for days and a really bad cough for about 2 weeks in January.

My county bought 10,000 antibody tests to start but they’re using them initially on the hospital and nursing home staff, first responders, and prison staff. Eventually they want to test everybody in the county though.
 
I want to be tested too, but I live in a county of 4.5 million people. How likely
is it that our county will have enough tests for 3-4 million people?
 
Me too.
Fever, dry cough, body aches, fatigue early February.
Was Asked if I’d been to China, but swabbed for flu.
Diagnosed with bronchitis and put on Zithromax.

I wonder…
 
All of the antibody testing is going to have to be approved as EUA by the FDA. None of that testing is available yet. All of this “early testing” is unapproved by the FDA’s EUA. None of it will be accepted in studies of counting by the government, and will certainly not be accepted by employers or State.

There are fly by night “labs” being set up everywhere trying to make money off of this. None of them have FDA approved EUA. Stay away from them.
 
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1Lord1Faith said:
All of the antibody testing is going to have to be approved as EUA by the FDA. None of that testing is available yet. All of this “early testing” is unapproved by the FDA’s EUA. None of it will be accepted in studies of counting by the government, and will certainly not be accepted by employers or State.
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In my county, the government (county health department) is the one doing the testing. Our state senator pushed for it and we are the first county in the state to do it.
So I don’t think the county government is going to be rejecting the county’s own testing, regardless of whether it is used for any statistical database. Most of the persons getting the test at this point either work directly for the county or work for local governments subordinate to the county government.

I also sincerely doubt they’re using a “fly-by-night” lab as other counties in the state are likely looking at doing this down the road. It’s here first probably because we are a relatively wealthy county with our own health department (which many counties in this state do not have, they rely on the state to provide for public health needs) and our state senator is a very good and experienced state legislator.

Regarding the FDA approval, I am copying this from a PBS article about antibody testing. The FDA, as shown, is permitting this activity and it doesn’t sound like it’s all a bunch of “fly by night” labs doing it.
Advaite, which makes the test being used in Chester and Delaware counties, is waiting for emergency use authorization for it from the Food and Drug Administration. That requires further testing to answer such questions as: What happens if a sample contains more than just the new coronavirus? How high is the rate of false positives?

In the meantime, the FDA is letting companies use their tests without agency approval as long as they meet certain guidelines. To date, the FDA has authorized only one antibody test, made by a company in North Carolina. Many groups are working on antibody tests, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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From one of the links in the same article:
However, some firms are falsely claiming that their serological tests are FDA approved or authorized, or falsely claiming that they can diagnose COVID-19. The FDA will take appropriate action against firms making false claims or marketing tests that are not accurate and reliable.
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How in the world are we supposed to know what labs are legit then? I trust your county is using a reputable lab and test manufacturer. But what about “fly by night” labs. They are being set up in my area, and claim to be operating under the FDA guidelines. The FDA is doing something very careless by allowing testing without EUA.
 
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I would presume your area either has a public health department, or your state handles those duties for your area if there isn’t a county or city local one. I personally would not get such a test unless it was being pushed or promoted by the state at this juncture, or if the FDA had approved it as they have for the one test from North Carolina and may later approve others.

I don’t doubt that there are some shady labs trying to jump the bandwagon, just noting that in some places at least these are part of a legit effort to try to identify exposed people and keep them out of places like nursing homes, first responder teams and prisons where they have a potential to infect a lot of others. Anyone who comes up positive on the antibody test here is then sent for a COVID test.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
. I personally would not get such a test unless it was being pushed or promoted by the state at this juncture, or if the FDA had approved it
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This ^ is essentially my point. Unfortunately, many people don’t have judgement as good as yourself.
 
In my county, if you suspect you have Covid19, you have to call the health department, which will ask you a bunch of screening questions, then make you an appointment to get tested at their own site.

At the nursing home I’m currently working, we have to Take temps every shift and swab anybody with a fever of 100.0 and initiate isolation procedures until the test comes back negative.

There are limited tests. My son was exposed to a nurse who was exposed to another nurse with Covid19. They didn’t test my son’s friend or their contacts because they were all asymptomatic.
 
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