DRecommended by BioNtech /Pfizer The third “strengthening” vaccination has increased the pressure on politicians and authorities to include antibody testing in the national testing strategy to prove the immune status of the vaccinated and recovered. Earlier this week, the Umbrella Association of German Diagnostics Corporation called for a “re-adjustment” of the federal testing strategy in a separate position paper in order to have a clearer understanding of the population’s immune status. According to the wishes of European parliamentarians, the antibody test should also be used as a proof of immunity for the digital Covid-19 certificate.
However, the initiative failed due to opposition from Brussels and other governments (including the German government).in order to Robert Koch Institute In the past, indirect evidence of infection through antibody testing or evidence of existing immunity after vaccination or infection is not conclusive enough. “According to the current level of knowledge, serological testing of SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies cannot clearly indicate infectious or immune status,” it said there.
In fact, people increasingly need to understand their immune status. “Hundreds of thousands of antibody tests are now performed in the country every week,” said Thorsten Hilbich, vice president of the Diagnostic Industry Association (VDGH). These tests must also be paid for by statutory health insurance patients themselves. The study submitted this week at the University of Mainz may also increase demand. According to the study, the 3.7 million Covid-19 survivors recorded by the virus evidence were added to the many unnoticed infections. These infections are Asymptomatic infection. In the Mainz antibody study, almost 40% of infections proved to be asymptomatic, which means that there are hundreds of thousands or hundreds of survivors in addition to those who almost know nothing about their current immune status Ten thousand citizens want to know how many doses of vaccine they need to protect.
Hilbig said that diagnostic laboratories see the proposal to learn more about autoimmune status through antibodies as an “additional motivation” that can further promote the national vaccination campaign. In the VDGH position paper, these companies talked about the “motivation” that should be used to increase confidence in vaccination. In addition, the inclusion of antibody tests in the digital vaccination certificate proves that immunity can further reduce vaccine shortages and can be accompanied by “gradual relaxation steps.”
Questions from professionals
The usefulness of antibody testing is not only questioned by the Robert Koch Institute. In many countries, including the United States, scientists and immunologists warn against overestimating the informative value of antibody tests. The scope of rapid testing and laboratory-based professional testing is huge. For some people, a drop of blood at their fingertips is enough, while the antibody testing market has actually been established, and the cost of each test is ten to three. More than ten euros.
However, diagnostic expert Hill Beach also pointed out that although many tests meet the minimum requirements of the World Health Organization and can detect certain antibodies in the blood, they do not provide accurate information about immune protection. In general, it is still unclear which antibodies and immune cells must exceed which thresholds to truly protect relevant personnel from infection.
Basically, only those serum-derived antibodies against the binding molecules of the Sars-CoV-2 virus, and virus neutralization tests have shown that they actually represent circulating pathogens—and therefore variants—are considered meaningful . Attack. In the end, this gives a test value, however, because human immune responses are very different, all experts agree that this is not enough.
In addition, experts believe that as long as the time course of the second line of defense (T cells) or antibody levels is not considered, it is impossible to make a reliable immunological statement about the weakened immune system. So far, such considerations have not played a role in the national testing strategy. For Hill Beach, this is a fatal flaw: “If the number of cases increases, we urgently need to consider the strategy of systematically testing vulnerable groups, especially in nursing homes.”
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