Getting An Antibody Test For The Coronavirus? Here's What It Won't Tell You
Salvador Perez got really sick in April. He's 53 and spent weeks isolated in his room in his family's Chicago apartment, suffering through burning fevers, shivering chills, intense chest pain and other symptoms of COVID-19. "This has been one of the worst experiences of his life," says Perez's daughter, Sheila, who translated from Spanish to English for an interview with NPR. "He didn't think he was going to make it." Perez recovered, and now wants to go back to work as a chef at a Chinese restaurant. But his boss told him he needs a test — an antibody test — first. So he found a place to get one, and tested positive. His blood indeed has antibodies to the novel coronavirus — proteins that "He feels great that he can get ... back to work, since we haven't really paid our bills," Sheila Perez says. "And he feels great that he can start doing what he did before the virus again."
