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Do antibodies make you immune from the coronavirus? Experts weigh in

A majority of antibody tests are not regulated by the FDA, with only 12 on the administration's emergency authorized list.

SACRAMENTO, Calif — A finger prick, a few minutes of your time and you can find out if you have had the coronavirus or not — even if you didn't have symptoms. 

"We started testing people a month and half ago," said Christi Barnas, a nurse practitioner with Drip Hydration.

Barnas is doing at home antibody tests by using tests developed by Confirmed Biosciences. 

"We have had a wide variety of people asking for these tests," Barnas said. 

Barnas said she has tested individual people and employees at larger companies, but only a handful of the hundreds have tested positive for antibodies. 

"If they do test positive for antibodies they need to be very safe," Barnas said. "While it's great, I don't want to give people a false sense of security that you can go out there and live life the way we used to."

Credit: Christi Barnas

There's a big question out there, if you have antibodies, are you immune? 

"Having the antibody at this time, scientists don't believe that it definitely tells you whether you have immunity to the virus for a second exposure," Dr. Payal Kohli said, a Denver-based cardiologist and health expert. 

A new study of recovered hospitalized patients found nearly all with the virus had some immunity.

Researchers with Emory University found a specific virus-neutralizing antibody in patients six days after testing positive for the coronavirus. 

"Not only shows that you've been exposed to the virus and have made antibodies against it, but those antibodies at least you know, to the extent we've testes now seem to correlate with blocking a viral infection," said Dr. John Roback with Winship Cancer Institute.

Still, a majority of antibody tests are not regulated by the FDA with only 12 on the FDA's emergency authorized list.

"With this test, we want to be aware that you could have a false negative and haven't developed antibodies yet," Barnas said. 

Regardless, doctors say we should still take every precaution necessary to stop the spread. 

"Antibody testing is basically a yes no, are you positive or negative," Kolhi said. "Were not actually counting how many antibodies your immune system has made and it's possible that you need more soldiers to fight the war so it's possible you need a certain number of antibodies to confer immunity against the virus."

Follow the conversation on Facebook with Madison Wade.

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