LONDON (UK) – Britain is confident of finding antibody tests for immunity to coronavirus. Health officials remain confident despite the ineffectiveness of early tests that have been assessed, according to England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty.
Antibody tests – which detect if people had previously been infected with COVID-19 and had immunity – would be more useful when a larger part population developed antibodies later in the epidemic.
“You’ve got to remember this is a new disease … inevitably we’re feeling our way to some extent. I am very confident we will develop antibody tests, whether they be lab-based or dipstick based over the next period, I am very confident of that. The fact that we have not, in our first pass, in the first things that people produced, got ones which are highly effective is not particularly surprising to anybody who understands how tests are developed.”
– Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field.
