These are trying times. What started as news in the microbiology world has erupted into the one word that has at least temporarily changed and reshaped the lives of just about everyone around the globe. Many are sick, and many more are scared, not just for themselves but for the role they could play in its transmission and the balance they discovered they must strike between public and personal interest. Those hunkered down in their homes are surely wondering if there is more being done than just waiting it out. Surely there must be more being done to stop it than just hiding from it right? Allow me to shed some light on the subject.
As I’m sure many who have spent their time glued to the news have noticed, it seems every day a new potential cure is being touted. A drug that was used for this, a treatment that was used for that, why don’t we just have a vaccine already, etc. Many who don’t have a great understanding of how vaccines and vaccine development works are likely frustrated at the lack of a magic shot that shields us from the virus. What they don’t understand is that scientists need months of data and work to even determine what is effective at stopping the virus, and even more time to figure out how to make and use it safely. Right now, we are still in a stage where we are trying to more accurately determine numbers of cases and trace the body’s response to the virus. As this John Hopkins Public Health school article points out, the name of the game in testing and tracking exposure lies in antibodies. We have identified the antibodies that indicate exposure to COVID-19, and blood tests that show that these antibodies are present in the blood means that they have been produced in response to the virus being present in the body.
However, we can get even more specific than that. By measuring the type of antibody present in the blood, we can get actually get a sense of how long it has been since the individual was exposed. IgM is generally the first antibody type that is produced during an infection, and is slowly replaced by a much higher scale production of IgG as the infection continues. IgG also has a longer half-life than IgM, so after the infection has run its course, IgG is the primary antibody left in the bloodstream. As this Medicinenet article points out, this method as well as testing for viral RNA in the blood sample are the primary lab based methods of testing for the virus. Though we still have a ways to go in terms of testing before we can start to get some real answers, this does provide real hope that shows the real progress being made. What this means for us is that we have developed the tools that can give us a better map of the transmission of the virus, and hopefully move faster to stop it than it can move.
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