British-based immunity test company Bio-Diagnostics is urging medical authorities not to sideline tests for COVID-19 as the UK’s national vaccine programme gets into top gear.
Simon Mico, MD and chief scientist at Bio-Diagnostics, emphasised that testing continued to be crucial not only after but also before a vaccine has been given.
The company says nearly all those who have already suffered from COVID-19 do not need a vaccine if they are continuing to produce antibodies.
Mr Mico said: “Our research staff have re-tested all those whom we first tested back in February 2020 – and every one without exception is still producing antibodies.”
Bio-Diagnostics estimate that around 15% of the UK population has had Covid-19 – and if tested they could be re-prioritised in the vaccine programme.
For those who have received the vaccine testing is equally important to provide a true picture of the effectiveness of vaccines currently being rolled out.
In older people the success rate could be significantly lower than in the young. As a result, it is now vital that older vaccinees get tested – about two weeks after they’ve received the first jab.
If the vaccine has failed to trigger the production of antibodies the recipient has no protection – and must continue to isolate. Failure to do so in the belief they had got full protection could have fatal consequences – especially in the elderly - if they have contact with infectious people.
Back in December 2020 Bio-Diagnostics launched a new test that detects COVID-19 which produces a result in a few minutes.
Mr Mico stressed that both a positive and negative result was ‘good news’. The test will tell you if you have immunity already, or have no immunity, too.
Most recently, the company’s research unearthed a second key finding – of crucial importance. Bio-Diagnostics found that those who had COVID-19 early last year still have antibodies a full 11 months later following a re-test, ie. still have protection far longer than was previously thought by many scientists, and contrary to reports.
Lastly, his research revealed that other tests were inaccurate.
Mico added: “Other antibody tests, we discovered, have been looking for the wrong antibodies – and were not designed to detect the same ‘spike’ antibodies for which the vaccines will now provide immunity.
“It’s no coincidence that successful vaccines have now been found to elicit spike specific antibodies, now proven to provide immunity. The COVID-19 BioCard uniquely detects the same spike specific antibodies, so it’s obvious that if you want to know if you have immunity right now, you should simply test for it.”
