Coronavirus antibody tests were expected to provide the governments with clarity of the situation and lead to countries reopening, but the reality is far from that.
If accurate, the serology tests should show us how widespread the virus is, and who had developed an immunity to it and can go back to work/school, without being reinfected.
All of this would be incredibly helpful for the global health system as well as the economy, but it is not functioning quite right.
Hoping for quick answers seems to be the wrong key to reopening the world. So far, antibody testing is not a reliable source of data that can change our current lives but creating more confusion.
Politicians were warned by scientists that making decisions based on results of inaccurate antibody tests can lead to a bigger disaster, which is most likely to happen with the second wave of coronavirus infections.
Jumping into a premature reopening of the countries can result in a chaos that fragile health systems won’t be able to support.
The World Health Organization (WHO) discards the possibility of so-called “immunity passports” that was announced in the past weeks. For now, it’s necessary to wait for an accurate antibody test in order to control the crisis in an efficient way.
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