Clearing A Common COVID Confusion

During this pandemic, we may have heard of all the kinds of tests being applied in order to detect whether one has, or has had, a COVID infection. Below are the main types.

Antibody Tests:

If you contract the COVID virus, your immune system responds by trying to fight it off. Its weapons in this fight are called antibodies. The antibody COVID tests check to see whether you have produced these COVID fighters, and can produce results in 10-15 minutes. Essentially, if you have the antibodies for the COVID virus, you have been exposed to it at some time in the past.

Antigen Tests: The COVID virus has a fingerprint. On its surface are specific molecules called antigens. Your immune system uses them like a mold, from which they create the antibodies. That’s how the antibodies recognize all later versions of that virus. And like your immune system, the antigen test checks your body for those COVID fingerprints. If the test sees them, that means you have it. This also produces results in 15 minutes.

PCR Tests: PCR tests, per the FDA, detect the actual genetic material from the COVID virus. These are very specific and also very accurate. The cost of that specificity and accuracy is that the care giver must take a sample from your body – such as a nasal swab or saliva sample – and then that must be sent to a laboratory to be run through a machine. Once there, the data processing can take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours to complete.