4 ms·
Your understanding is correct. PCR tests can only tell if you are currently infected. (Or at least have been so recently infected that enough remnant mRNA is st
by Ankaios 5y ago
Your understanding is correct. PCR tests can only tell if you are currently infected. (Or at least have been so recently infected that enough remnant mRNA is still lingering in your body to be detectable.)
Antibody tests can determine whether someone was infected previously, and I have heard that there are some that look for antibodies that are associated with infection but not vaccination. I don't know anything more about them than that, but maybe that could provide a thread to help start searching if you are interested in finding out more about them.
- dataflow 5y agoYeah I've looked that up before, and from what I recall reading, the antibody tests only work for "recent" infections in the last few months, not something that may have happened (say) a year or more ago. I don't remember reading that any test works for non-recent infections.
- Ankaios 5y agoYeah, there's a limited window over which antibody testing is useful. I hadn't heard that it was only a few months, but that wouldn't be shocking, especially if you want a low rate of false negatives. Hopefully someone reading this knows more than me about approaches to testing that might work over longer time scales and not be confused by vaccination.
- dataflow 5y agoActually I just Googled again, and they simply say the precise duration is unknown [1]: > IgG antibodies, including IgG against the S and N proteins, persist for at least several months in most persons, but the precise duration of time that antibodies persist after infection is unknown. [1] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/resources/antibody-tests-guidelines.html https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/resources/anti...