Speaker 1: It's Monday a I'm Oscar Emiras from the Daily Dive
Speaker 1: podcast in Los Angeles, and this is your daily coronavirus update.
Speaker 1: Everyone is looking forward to how and when we can
Speaker 1: get back to work and get back to normal. We
Speaker 1: still have yet to hit the peak number of cases
Speaker 1: in the United States, but some are hoping that testing
Speaker 1: for antibodies in the blood could help get us back.
Speaker 1: If you have anybodies to COVID nineteen, it means you
Speaker 1: already had the disease and could be immune, at least
Speaker 1: in the short term. Rachel Becker, reporter at cal Matters,
Speaker 1: joins us for how antibody testing could help, but there
Speaker 1: are still many questions left to be answered. Thanks for
Speaker 1: joining us, Rachel, Thanks for inviting me. Everyone is very
Speaker 1: curious about how and when we can all get back
Speaker 1: to normal. When can we start going back to work,
Speaker 1: when can we start loosening up on the social distancing
Speaker 1: And one of the things that a lot of people
Speaker 1: are pointing to and talking about is antibody testing. You know,
Speaker 1: it shows that you might have gotten coronavirus already and
Speaker 1: gotten over it. They're looking to people that have gotten
Speaker 1: over it to possibly harvest some of their plasma to
Speaker 1: help others. But the other thing too, is okay, so
Speaker 1: you have these antibodies, maybe you're immune to it for
Speaker 1: a few months a short period of time. We can
Speaker 1: get back into the workforce, we can get back to normal.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people are looking forward to something
Speaker 1: like this, but there's still a lot of questions about it.
Speaker 1: Rachel tell us a little bit about that. Antibodies are
Speaker 1: immune proteins that attack viruses and other pathogens, and they
Speaker 1: form as part of the immune response to a virus
Speaker 1: like stars Covey to the virus that causes the disease
Speaker 1: known as COVID nineteen. And so the hope is that
Speaker 1: by testing for antibodies, researchers public health workers will be
Speaker 1: able to identify those who have already had the virus
Speaker 1: and who have fought it off and survived. There are
Speaker 1: a couple of ways these antibody tests could be used epidemiologically.
Speaker 1: They're really valuable for tracking the spread of the virus,
Speaker 1: understanding the true fatality rate, and for being able to
Speaker 1: see where it's spread, who gets sickest, who dozen't, and why.
Speaker 1: But then there's this other conversation that's happening that you
Speaker 1: just mentioned about using antibody tests to try to maybe
Speaker 1: selectively lift the shelter in place order that we have
Speaker 1: here in California, and that's cropping up across the country.
Speaker 1: You know, maybe folks who have antibodies should be sent
Speaker 1: to the front lines. That's definitely a possibility that's been floated.
Speaker 1: But healthcare professionals, scientists that I've spoke to urge caution.
Speaker 1: There's still a lot we don't know about the immune
Speaker 1: response to uh stars, covie too, to the novel coronavirush.
Speaker 1: We don't know how strong the antibody response is. We
Speaker 1: don't know what level of antibodies are considered protective. We
Speaker 1: don't know if everybody makes the right kinds of antibodies
Speaker 1: to be protective, and we don't know how long that
Speaker 1: protection lasts. So they're just still so many unknowns to
Speaker 1: to start putting people's safety on the line. Testing, testing, testing,
Speaker 1: it's all about testing. We're still barely it seems like
Speaker 1: we're getting starting to gain a handle on actually testing
Speaker 1: people for the virus. But on the antibody testing side,
Speaker 1: there are a few tests that are there, and I
Speaker 1: know in some areas of starting those tests on people,
Speaker 1: but we're still a little ways from getting this ramped up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there have definitely been some studies that are going on
Speaker 1: across the country. CDC has one, other research groups, Violent
Speaker 1: Research Institute, and others are using antibody tests to again,
Speaker 1: you know, trace the virus um as an academic question. Stanford,
Speaker 1: though recently launched a lab developed test on April six
Speaker 1: at Stanford Healthcare and the idea for that test is
Speaker 1: to determine which healthcare workers might be at lower risk
Speaker 1: for working with COVID nineteen patients. And I say, you know,
Speaker 1: lower risk because we don't know exactly how much protection
Speaker 1: antibodies confer at this time. Going back to whether you know,
Speaker 1: you get COVID nineteen, you get over it, and if
Speaker 1: you have this immunity towards it enough anybodies to help
Speaker 1: you throughout that. There have been some studies, some preliminary
Speaker 1: findings that I think they've done these studies and monkeys
Speaker 1: they were infected maybe a month later, they were still
Speaker 1: immune to it. Tell us a little bit about what
Speaker 1: we know on that, and I know we don't know much.
Speaker 1: It's just we're trying to piece it together as we go. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we know so little about reinfection. Still, there have been
Speaker 1: some reports of people potentially getting reinfected with the novel coronavirus,
Speaker 1: but there is some doubt that the folks who were
Speaker 1: reported as getting reinfected had actually cleared the virus from
Speaker 1: their systems. It may have been more of a flare
Speaker 1: up of the virus as as they recovered and not reinfection.
Speaker 1: But researchers have done some studies and monkeys where they
Speaker 1: infected the monkeys and then you know, watched their inner
Speaker 1: bodies go up, and then a month later they tried
Speaker 1: to reinfect the monkeys and the monkeys were not susceptible
Speaker 1: to reinfection. So a bunch of infectious disease experts wrote
Speaker 1: an article d of just assessing the state of coronavirus research,
Speaker 1: and they wrote that that was reassuring. So we'll need
Speaker 1: a lot more of these studies, will need a long
Speaker 1: term follow up of people who have recovered to really
Speaker 1: understand it. But as those uh, the infectious disease experts wrote,
Speaker 1: it was reassuring about short term immunity that's different from
Speaker 1: long term immunity and stars too, I mean like a
Speaker 1: loose cousin of COVID nineteen. They've done some long term
Speaker 1: follow ups on people that survived that, and they've seen
Speaker 1: stuff that suggests some of their antibodies lasted for about
Speaker 1: two years or so. But one of the worst case
Speaker 1: scenarios that everybody we want to avoid our you know,
Speaker 1: this false sense of security from it. These tests are
Speaker 1: so new and we don't know much about the stars
Speaker 1: COVIE two yet, is that you know, there could be
Speaker 1: some false positive test results things like that, and we
Speaker 1: don't want to get some of these types of test
Speaker 1: results and then send people back into the workforce and
Speaker 1: have other outbreaks exactly exactly, and um, it's it's possible
Speaker 1: with a poorly designed test that it will pick up
Speaker 1: antibodies to other coronaviruses, you know, not just stars or mirrors,
Speaker 1: but also the mild coronavirus is that folks might get
Speaker 1: seasonal cults from UH and so poorly designed test, it's
Speaker 1: possible that it could pick up those antibodies and then
Speaker 1: you get that false positive, and that false positive is
Speaker 1: the worst case scenario where folks will think that they're
Speaker 1: protected and that they're not UH. This could you know,
Speaker 1: if if this shelter in place orders is lifted too
Speaker 1: soon on the basis of imperfect tests, it could allow
Speaker 1: for the spread to ramp back up, which is really
Speaker 1: I would be a terrible thing for public health and
Speaker 1: for the hospitals that are already doing the best they
Speaker 1: can to care for and to cope with the patients
Speaker 1: they're seeing right now. We did mention a bit ago
Speaker 1: about how there are some places that are starting to
Speaker 1: do this type of testing, either Stanford or the CDC,
Speaker 1: But do we have a sense of when these might
Speaker 1: be able to be ramped up and more people can
Speaker 1: start getting these type of tests. It's really an open question,
Speaker 1: and it's an important question. Stanford just launched it for
Speaker 1: healthcare workers. One test has received emergency use authorization from
Speaker 1: the Food and Drug Administration. But given the problems we've
Speaker 1: seen with the supply chain and with ramping up of
Speaker 1: the diagnostic tests that look for the virus, the called
Speaker 1: the PCR tests, I think it's really an open question
Speaker 1: whether antibody tests will be able to ramp up quickly
Speaker 1: and really, especially at the scale we would need to
Speaker 1: start saying, okay, like folks can start re entering the workforce,
Speaker 1: life can start going back to two normal. Rachel Becker,
Speaker 1: reporter at cal Matters, thank you very much for joining us.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for inviting me. I'm Oscar Ramirez and
Speaker 1: this has been your daily coronavirus update. Don't forget that.
Speaker 1: For today's big news stories, you can check me out
Speaker 1: on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday, so
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Speaker 1: your podcast. LAS