ARTICLE SUMMARY:
Antibody testing is a routine part of clinical care, but scientists are struggling to develop an accurate test for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. That’s in part because of the nature of the immune response to respiratory coronaviruses and in part because the antibody tests we already have for other respiratory diseases are often limited in ways that the general public doesn’t fully understand. Part 1 of our two-part COVID Diagnostics Update.
The US and world are looking urgently to laboratory testing to manage through the COVID-19 crisis. The diagnostics industry has been able to ramp—albeit imperfectly—molecular testing for diagnostic purposes, but it is still grappling with how best to launch a serology test for antibodies to the disease.
