Wonder at Home | STAYING INFORMED: COVID-19 ANTIBODY TESTING & IMMUNE SYSTEM SUPPORT

• AZ HEROES Study: The goal of the Arizona Healthcare, Emergency Response, and Other Essential Workers Surveillance (AZ HEROES) Study is to enhance our knowledge of the epidemiologic and immunologic characteristics of novel COVID-19 infection and reinfection among high-exposure individuals who provide critical services to our communities. Visit azheroes.arizona.edu or email azheroes@arizona.edu for more information

• Antibody Testing Initiative: As part of a statewide research study, the University of Arizona is analyzing the blood samples of hundreds of thousands of Arizonans to determine who has developed antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19. The State of Arizona is providing $3.5 million for the testing, which is available at more than two dozen locations across the state. Learn more at covid19antibodytesting.arizona.edu

• CoVHORT: Whether you have had COVID-19 or not, we need your help! Information from COVID-19 survivors and otherwise healthy participants is crucial to answering questions surrounding COVID-19. By participating in the CoVHORT study, you can help researchers gather the data we need to help better understand COVID-19. Become part of the solution! Fight the virus, join the CoVHORT study: covhort.arizona.edu

• AZCOVIDTXT: The best way to fight COVID-19 is with information. Who is sick, where is the virus spreading? AZCOVIDTXT is a two-way texting system designed to allow us all to report on the health status of our households. This information helps us see how the virus is spreading and we can make the best decisions to stop it. We don’t have as much testing as we would like right now, and this information will be a big help to decision-makers and health providers to deliver the right resources to the right people at the right time. Visit azcovidtxt.org for more information

• Click here to read a highlight on Michael D. L. Johnson's work on copper and its effects in the New York Times. 

Q: Do you know much about the Russian vaccine? If so, does it look hopeful?

A: It is based on adenovirus backbone, which is likely to be safe, although I am worried that they are skipping the most important phase of trials, and are going into people after insufficient safety testing. Adenovirus-based vaccines need to overcome existing immunity against other adenoviruses that many humans have encountered, so I am also curious to see the results on efficacy. I also wonder why were they so eager to hack into all other vaccine programs if they have a good vaccine.

Q: Do you have any clarification on the controversy of hydroxychloroquine - in what context does it/does not help?

A: There is no evidence from a randomized, controlled intervention trial that HCL works in any setting, and that is the type of study that is necessary to establish efficacy without confounding the effects of this drug with other treatments that people got or did not get. There is plenty of evidence from such trials that it does not work or that it could be harmful. There really should be no controversy and most of the medical community agrees on that.

Q: Could you discuss the pluses and minuses of antibody versus antigen testing. Specifically, one criticism of antibody testing is that it takes several days for the body to produce antibodies after COVID-19 exposure, while antigen is fast. However, how fast? If I am exposed to COVID-19 today, when will antigen testing pick up the infection?

A: The two tests detect different things. Antigen test detects current infection, much like the swab PCR test. Antibody test detects the evidence that one had mounted an immune response and therefore HAD an infection; it is not a good indicator of current infection. The body needs at least 5-7 days to produce detectable antibodies, and even then we see it in only ~30% of people; by 14 days, we see it in pretty much everyone who was infected, so it is a test that detects immunity later after infection. If properly done, it provides evidence of both exposure and of immunity to the virus, and we have discussed at length the ins and outs of durability.