Was That COVID-19? Antibody Tests Promise Answers But Beware Of Their Limits

A sign on the door of Wit’s End informing people they are closed. The Cambridge bar was offering COVID-19 antibody testing, but then the city ordered it shut down. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

In mid-February, a nasty bug hit Matt Kelly’s whole Cambridge family. First, his wife, Annie, a teacher, got the fever, fatigue and cough, and lost her sense of smell.

“And then it rapidly spread to me,” said Kelly, who publishes a newsletter on corporate legal affairs. “And then rapidly to our son, who’s in kindergarten, and our daughter, who is in pre-school. All of our symptoms fit all of the symptoms of COVID-19.”

Kelly tested negative for flu and strep. It sure seemed like the coronavirus. It was so infectious that half the students in his son’s class got sick. But, speaking back in mid-March, he said he had no way to know for sure, because there were no tests available for the antibodies that show a patient has had COVID-19.

“I’m not trying to talk myself into a false delusion that I’ve already had COVID, I’m cured, I’m immune, I can go be a hero,” he said. “We cannot prove or disprove this idea right now, that we may have had COVID, and it may already have cleared our system.”

Read the rest of this story at WBUR’s website.