Capitol Hill Blue Forums Science and Technology Health, Medicine & the healing Sciences Coronavirus: The Plague of The 21st Century?

That's part of the charm: No more macho way to go for a surfer. Drowning or getting smashed on rocks, means you are unskilled. If a shark eats you, then you become one with the sea.

That "failure to seroconvert" only means you did not develop IgG antibodies. You might have had some short term IgM antibodies. I would say no IgG means you need to be careful because you could catch it again, if you did have it. I'm pretty sure I'm in the same boat.

I showed up today expecting to get the antibody test, in accordance with my scheduled appointment and they told me that they were not doing antibody tests at that location.
So why did they even give me an appointment?
Anyway, I was given the swab test, the diagnostic one.
Waste of time, unless it turns out I have the mildest symptoms ever recorded, because I feel okay and have felt okay for six weeks now.

Thanks, but no, thanks. I prefer to be one with my wife in our bedroom rather than being one with the sea by being eaten by a shark.

I'm telling you, the outdoors are dangerous.

HealthLabs dot com ran my antibody test, but they sent me to a Quest Diagnostics location to get the blood drawn. The sign on their door said "Closed: Visit one of our other locations".

I went home, looked up other Quest locations, and found one nearby that would do it. I just had to go back on the Health Labs website to get them to send my order to the new location. The new location was actually closer, had no waiting, and the blood draw took about three minutes.

I was beginning to feel more optimistic today, despite our currently crappy weather, because there is some sign that COVID cares are slowingdown.
Then I read this: 13 USS Theodore Roosevelt sailors test positive after recovering from Covid-19 (Politico). This is so not good. The implications are multifold: 1) 14 days is not long enough for isolation; or, 2) the disease can rebound after recovery; or, 3) the testing protocol is inaccurate/inadequate, or 4) one can be reinfected. Moreover,

This is definitely not good due to them having symptoms again. Scientists need to look at the genome of their original positive results material (hoping it was saved; doubt it was) and the new one.

So far, recurrence of positive results was thought to be due to either faulty tests or people still shedding dead virus particles. But symptoms again? That's a first.

There are two things are going on here:

1. Previously tested negative sailors are now testing positive.
2. Those who had Covid and are back and testing positive.

Let's take one. Who is to say that the sailors who previously tested negative didn't come into contact with someone else off the ship who is positive in-between tests? (A foodworker prepping the food then consumed, etc)

Two: I didn't read in the article that those who recovered got the symptoms again - they simply tested positive which they will due to having the antibodies in their immune system.

You seem to be mixing up antigen and antibody tests.

Antigen tests like the PCR indicate acute, current infection.
Antibody tests indicate past infection.
A person who recovered from the disease should have a negative antigen test and a positive antibody test.
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I hadn't read the article, just reacted to the posting. Now I did.
It doesn't seem like the people who retested positive after recovery were the same ones who presented with new symptoms.

So, this could be what has been described elsewhere: antigen tests still pick up dead virus materials being eliminated by recovered people. If that's what it is, then it isn't scary.

The article is poorly written and ambiguous. Whoever wrote it doesn't seem to understand the issues either.

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This is likely to be a better article on the issue of re-infection, but it's behind a paywall, for me too. If someone here has a subscription to The Wall Street Journal, the person might read it and tell us what it says:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-you-get-covid-19-twice-11589388593

That is exactly the concern I have - is it reinfection or rebound? Were the tests defective?

I read a number of articles, but only posted the one that had universal access. I have some subscriptions, but not WSJ. I'll try to link some others and quote as liberally as I can. I am a Mod, after all.