My I suggest that Instead of saying ELISA, you may want to specify COVID Antibody Tests, you're confusing people. Not that it's important, but the old ELISA term has been rendered moot by things like chemiluminescence which remove the "E" from ELISA. Photon capture detection has replaced absorbance in all the newer instruments...
Folks CAN schedule COVID antibody tests w/Quest, not sure on LabCorp.
Tests are accurate, but that accuracy, and the both Positive Predictive and Negative Predictive Values hinge on taking the test a certain number of days post the presentation of symptoms. If you've never developed any symptoms, or you're being tested too early, the accuracy of these tests is reduced.
Folks may be confused by IgG vs IgM tests. I explained all this hundreds of pages ago and/or on the science, including PCR and Antigen testing on a disease progression timeline.
Here's the blurb from one manufacturer with my highlighting. Don't feel bad if this is all Greek to any of you, it's just as confusing to many Primary Care Physicians. Only Clinical Pathologists get detailed training in this, with other Docs dependent on what the computer-generated lab report tells them. Regrettably, that info in a vacuum without a close look and all clinical presentation can often result in missing something.
ARE COVID-19 ANTIBODY TESTS ACCURATE?
***** offers separate antibody tests to detects the IgG and IgM antibodies. To understand a test’s accuracy, scientists look at sensitivity and specificity.
In medical and scientific language, the IgG antibody test has 99.63% specificity and 100% sensitivity at the time of detecting antibodies 14 days or greater, post symptom onset. This means that 14 days after the onset of symptoms, the test will identify an individual who has developed IgG antibodies to the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) 100 % of the time. This is called the sensitivity of the test. This means that if you have developed IgG antibodies to the COVID-19 virus the test is able to detect them. The test also tells you that the antibodies the test detected are antibodies to the COVID-19 virus 99.63% of the time. This is called the specificity of the test.
Similarly, the SARS-CoV-2 IgM antibody test has a 99.56% specificity and 95% sensitivity for patients tested 15 days after symptoms started. Meaning that 15 days after the onset of symptoms, the test will identify an individual who has developed IgM antibodies to the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) 95% of the time (sensitivity) and 99.56%, the test tells you that the IgM antibodies detected are a result of the COVID-19 virus (specificity).
This means that if you receive a test for antibodies to the COVID-19 virus that detected antibodies, there is great certainty that these antibodies are to the COVID-19 virus and there is almost no possibility that the antibodies the test detected developed in response to another virus that you were previously exposed to.
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