Sophia Hober is a professor and leads a research project at KTH on antibody testing. Together with her research group, she has developed her own test, which was used, among other things, to see how much of the healthcare staff in hospitals in Stockholm have antibodies to covid-19.
She is skeptical about using quick tests to test if an individual has antibodies at the individual level.
"It disturbs me a lot that many companies that go with advertising say that the tests give the right answer in 99 percent of cases, or similar," says Sophia Hober, who during the past week has looked at the quick tests that are sold.
- The tests are not as safe as they claim, it can range from 82 to 97 percent. There is none of these quick tests that are close to 99 percent of the ones I have looked at.
"Many people seem to believe that antibodies are like a vaccine"If you, as a private person, test for antibodies, you should, according to Sophia Hober, instead take platform-based tests, where you take blood samples from a person's vein.
The two best tests, from Abbott and Roche, respectively, have a reliability of over 99 percent, according to Sophia Hober.
- Some others are at 93-95 percent, so it is important to know which platform-based test you send your blood to.
And even if you were to get a positive response, it is not a free pass to start living as you did before the corona virus began to spread throughout the world.
"Many people who contact me almost seem to think it's a vaccine, and that's not where we are," says Sophia Hober.