I Had to Take Five Antibody Tests to Get Results I Could Believe
After four contradictory results, the author gets a reading she can trust. But what’s her responsibility to people without immunity? And what happens if it doesn’t last?
Empty test tubes await blood samples at an antibody testing program in Birmingham, England.
Photographer: Pool/Getty Images Europe“Dear Stephanie,” the email said. “Your results are complete. The test result is: Positive.”
After my fifth test for antibodies against the novel coronavirus, the lingering doubts were finally gone: I had been infected earlier this year. It’s the only time in my life I’ve been happy to be diagnosed with a disease—albeit one I’ve already recovered from. And while I first felt a sense of liberation and a lifting of anxiety, now I have new reservations about how my new status allows me to behave.