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Comment by christkv | Hacker News Reader

We now know a significant amount of people have no symptoms or very light symptoms and no antibody response. An anecdote. My friend and his wife got tested when giving birth. She was positive for antibodies he was not. It is quite possible that for ever person who had antibodies there is some unknown x of people who got it and never developed antibodies.

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IANAD, but you can have similar antibodies (which test positive) from previous infections with similar coronaviruses, not this one specifically.

So somebody who had no exposure to COVID-19 could test positive.

Afaik that's the main drawback of the antibody test.

The antibody test specifically tests for a protein that only exists on covid-19.

A positive test result is much more reliable than a negative result.

Another anecdote from NY. I had mild symptoms in mid March that didn't exactly match what was being described in the press. Spending hours at the hospital trying to get tested seemed riskier, so I was never diagnosed. In late April I got tested at Mount Sinai hospital for antibodies as part of their study and I was positive, with a high titer. A friend of mine was, too, with a low titer. In a second test two weeks ago I still had the same titer, while she was negative. As an additional anecdote, without mention of other variables, the nurse taking the second sample told me that males had a higher titer on average. I think we also have higher mortality rates, though.

How would we know that if they don't even have an antibody response? You're resorting to anecdotal evidence but there is no way to confirm this hypothesis empirically on a large scale.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "significant amount", though.

What is the actual effect on the world if that’s true? I’m assuming that people who were infected but never developed symptoms or antibodies were still able to infect other people who might develop symptoms and antibodies.

How would you end up without antibodies? The virus just failed to replicate in your system and died out of its own accord? Or are we suggesting the people with no symptoms are still asymptomic carriers?

You will only get detectable antibodies if the virus activated the adaptive immune system. This could be the case if the infection was successfully and quickly controlled by the innate immune system.

It doesnt mean thee are no antibodies It means the antibody test doesnt test the right protein.

I have seen Dr Raoult in France suggesting there was likely significant cross immunity from other coronaviruses. If it is the case, would the person develop covid19-specific antibodies after getting it?

People without symptoms are also much less likely to spread. So likely your friend really didn’t get infected.

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