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Serological tests are useful and needed right now, not at some future stage.

It takes about a month before an antibody test is accurate in someone who has had a virus, so using them now would only detect cases where the person had the virus in early March. That limits the value of serological testing considerably.



> It takes about a month before an antibody test is accurate in someone who has had a virus

This is only true for the IgG class of antibodies; we typically see the IgM class of antibodies arise within 5-7 days of infection.

You are generally correct, however, in stating that antibody tests have a window in which they cannot detect a new infection.


Ignoring exponential growth has been a perennial mistake in handling this pandemic.




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