The World Health Organization is not sure whether the presence of antibodies in blood gives full protection against reinfection with the new coronavirus, Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergencies expert, told a briefing on Friday.
Ryan also said that even if antibodies were effective there was little sign that large numbers of people had developed them and were beginning to offer so-called “herd immunity” to the broader population.
“A lot of preliminary information coming to us right now would suggest quite a low percentage of population have seroconverted (to produce antibodies),” he said.
“The expectation that … the majority in society may have developed antibodies, the general evidence is pointing against that, so it may not solve the problem of governments.”
Currently ‘no evidence’ that COVID-19 survivors have immunity, WHO warns
Epidemiologists warn there is no proof that antibody tests can show if someone who has been infected cannot be infected again.
The UK government has bought 3.5 million serology tests - which measure levels of antibodies in blood plasma.
But senior WHO epidemiologists have warned that there is no proof that such antibody tests can show if someone who has been infected with COVID-19 cannot be infected again.
Many of the tests being developed are pinprick blood tests similar to instant HIV tests and measure for raised levels of the antibodies that the body uses to fight the virus .
Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, Dr Maria van Kerkhove said: "There are a lot of countries that are suggesting using rapid diagnostic serological tests to be able to capture what they think will be a measure of immunity.
"Right now, we have no evidence that the use of a serological test can show that an individual has immunity or is protected from reinfection."
She added: “These antibody tests will be able to measure that level of seroprevalence - that level of antibodies - but that does not mean that somebody with antibodies means that they are immune.”
Her colleague Dr Michael Ryan said the antibody tests also raised ethical questions.
He said: "There are serious ethical issues around the use of such an approach and we need to address it very carefully, we also need to look at the length of protection that antibodies might give.
“You might have someone who believes they are seropositive (have been infected) and protected in a situation where they may be exposed and in fact they are susceptible to the disease.”
Old news… I noted this was an issue 3 weeks ago… as usual the WHO are behind real events…
We may have more CCP Virus threads across the Babypips forums than how to make money in the FX Markets by the time we all come out of the enforced Lockdowns… very concerning.
