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A test of Covid immunity? Boris Johnson self-isolating after meeting with MP who tested positive for COVID-19.

2greys profile image
31 Replies

Reported infection on 17th April, funnily enough that was when I started to suffer symptoms as well.

news.sky.com/story/boris-jo...

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skischool profile image
skischool

Direct quote from the PM

"It doesn't matter that I feel fine - better than ever - or that my body is bursting with antibodies because I have already had the damn thing," he added

Given that our own resident JerryMaren had a considerably more severe dose of Covid19 requiring ventilataory support and continues to suffer from 'lond covid' and still had negative traces of antibodies on testing months after that is a rather blase statement to make,and by no means reassuring to the general public.

Badbessie profile image
Badbessie in reply toskischool

I think it is very easy to make statements like that when you are a leader of a nation. Trump as a twenty-five man medical team just to monitor his health. Nor do they queue in wet and windy car parks for a test. Nor do they sit at home tracking test kits.

JerryMaren profile image
JerryMaren in reply toskischool

Yeh, and I still ain’t got eny antybodys and on my last covid test they culdnt tell if I have it or not? So I gotta keep iselating till thersday 😖

skischool profile image
skischool in reply toJerryMaren

As i said before,that last test was probably confused by dead virus cells?and pointless getting another one when it makes you so anxious and you don't have the symtoms,but the whole testing system seems flawed even when people can actually get a test,anyway my love Thursday is not far away and then the world is your oyster but given that the world has now shrunk to the size of a small satsuma that's not much consolation is it. :)

xx

JerryMaren profile image
JerryMaren in reply toskischool

Yeh I’m not gunna bother wastin another test it takes like 2 deys to order 1 and then 3 deys 4 it 2 arive then 3 deys for a result that seys “sory we dunno”. It’s a joke.

I like satsumas tho 🍊😋😊😊

skischool profile image
skischool in reply toJerryMaren

Can you get them in a pot noodle version lol :)

xx

JerryMaren profile image
JerryMaren in reply toskischool

What covid tests or satsumas? 🤣🤣

skischool profile image
skischool in reply toJerryMaren

Dunno ask Boris to get you some when he is next out shopping in 2 weeks time. :)

xx

Tempo57 profile image
Tempo57 in reply toJerryMaren

Hi Jerry, Please see my reply to Skischool above.

Tempo57 profile image
Tempo57 in reply toskischool

Hello Skischool,

It has become well known by now that the antibody tests, which were blood tests, looked only for the igG protein for antibodies. 35 days after infection they waned considerably and more often than not returned a negative antibody test result. What hasn’t been tested are T Cells, which create and store the antibodies. It is the T Cells which hold the answer and are the key to our well-being immunity.

I have been through this myself. After a very nasty Covid infection in February I had an antibody test privately in July. I tested negative for antibodies. Naturally I couldn’t understand why no antibodies showed up. I discussed the issue of testing for the igG protein with a senior entomologist with the company who I had paid for the test and he admitted that it was not a reliable test given that I was been tested 5 months after infection. The test fee I’d paid was refunded to me. Subsequent to our long discussion the company stopped marketing the test. At the same time many other companies who at that time were offering the finger prick blood test also withdrew their tests. (My test was NOT a finger prick one, it was blood drawn from my arm vein).

I caught Covid a second time in late September with hardly any symptoms at all. My antibodies were clearly bursting like Boris’s!

skischool profile image
skischool in reply toTempo57

Unfortunately the testing for t cells is quite a lengthy process done in lab conditions and will never become available to the general public,unless of course you happen to be the leader of her majestys government.My jury is out on whether he ever had covid in the first instance as it is with Trump?

Tempo57 profile image
Tempo57 in reply toskischool

Skischool,

Really...you don’t believe Boris ever ha Covid? He did end up in ICU and the 2 nurses who looked after him wouldn’t have covered up this fact. They went public when he thanked them.

JerryMaren profile image
JerryMaren in reply toTempo57

So u cauht it twice? I did a antybody test where I had my finger stabed and it came bk negetive but no one did a t sell test? I’m iselating now cos covids in my colige and I dunno if I’ve got it agane or not cos my long covid is stil a strugle and I’m super paniky about caching it agane or giving it 2 my sisters but my last test came back and they didn’t no if I had it or not. But if u recoverd with a 2nd infection 7 months arfter the first then that gives me hope. If U can cach it agane, even if ur immune the second time, can u give it 2 other peple?

Tempo57 profile image
Tempo57 in reply toJerryMaren

Hi Jerry,

You ask the multi million dollar question we all want to know....”Can we pass it on to others when we test positive, even though we don’t have symptoms ourselves”? I’d love to know the answer to that!

No one does T Cell tests...there aren’t any.

Like you, I have a number of on-going Long Covid symptoms which I’m still dealing with, as is my husband too. Nerve issues within my body for one.

Like yourself I was so scared of catching it again because of what I’d been though the first time. I was ill for over 2 months with dreadful symptoms, mainly coughing and SOB.

But our bodies are remarkable. Our cells have a memory system. I am actually now so pleased that I tested positive a second time to put my mind at rest instead of worrying constantly.

My husband got it twice too, but the second time he had some minor flu like symptoms...muscle aches and no energy but only for 2 days. He was up a ladder on the 3rd day and he’s 70 years old!

Don’t be fearful, but remember those around you and take care to isolate the full term to protect others.

We isolated the second time for 16 days just to make sure we would not spread it to anyone else. I made the time feel like fun to pass the time! It worked.

All the best to you, T57

JerryMaren profile image
JerryMaren in reply toTempo57

Thanks Tempo u made me feel a bit beter x

Badbessie profile image
Badbessie

I think many have wondered if it was a political infection to prove a point.

O2Trees profile image
O2Trees in reply toBadbessie

A political infection haha - love it!

Perrythomas profile image
Perrythomas

All the celebs, politicians caught convenient COVID- used to try and “calm” us down.

2greys profile image
2greys in reply toPerrythomas

Or, perhaps, for a convenient excuse.

Superzob profile image
Superzob

Very interesting point. Both Matt Hancock and Rishi Sunak have been criticised for improper use of face coverings, yet both have had COVID so, theoretically at least, unlikely to be carriers or to get reinfected. PM, to his credit, has at least been seen wearing face covering properly in public though, again, he should be immune. But replies to this post suggest that immunity following exposure is still far from certain, so I guess we’ll all be dressed as bandits for some time to come!

2greys profile image
2greys

At least 5 Tory MPs self-isolate after Boris Johnson meeting without masks at No10.

mirror.co.uk/news/politics/...

Superzob profile image
Superzob in reply to2greys

Very irresponsible if true, and the photo seems to confirm it. Whatever you think of the Govt, and its handling of the pandemic, Govt can’t function efficiently if they keep infecting each other. I’ve had no problem with wearing a mask indoors if we have visitors (before the latest lockdown, I hasten to add!), so I think our leaders can set a better example.

2greys profile image
2greys in reply toSuperzob

White House or Terraced House it does not make any difference. Lessons must be learnt!

2greys profile image
2greys in reply to2greys

Now 9 other MPs and aides.

Angelagone profile image
Angelagone in reply to2greys

What a wonderful example they are to the general public. 🙃

Tempo57 profile image
Tempo57

Hi wbiC,

I believe it’s way overblown.

There will no doubt be huge casualties in the elderly, infirm and those who have underlying health conditions and perhaps those taking many drug combinations. Each year thousands of these people die of flu and the elderly die of pneumonia, my own father included age 97 years.

The youngsters beat it off and as seems to be the case now, school / college kids spread it because they don’t know they are carrying it.

The economy is in crisis. It could be saved but I truly believe that we are being led to believe many untruths from the likes of Witty and Vallance et al. No doubt protecting their precious positions at the great cost to the working man and the economy.

I am very saddened by it all because I think that common sense should prevail and our great British spirit of protecting our elderly such as shopping for their needs and doing anything we can to help them isolate, wearing masks and keeping our distance, whilst at the same time opening up our economy for trade would be the best way forward..... Not by sending the elderly directly back to care homes from hospitals as the NHS and PHE did last spring and then letting them infect all the other care homes residents! That’s manslaughter IMO. Someone should be held to account for this decision!

2greys profile image
2greys in reply toTempo57

My partner works in a nursing home and hospital patients are currently being discharged into the home, but not only after they being tested as negative and the home quarantines them for two weeks as well, as a double safeguard. The home has been Covid free for 4 weeks now, with new management.

My partner has been tested positive 3 times now, I strongly suspect they have all been false positives as not only has she been symptom free, so have I and with multiple co-morbidities and being clinically extremely vulnerable I am sure I would have felt some sort of effect, which I have not. We were both ill with it mid April. I am very confident that we have immunity, as the home has had continuous cases of Covid for 6 months. She has been tested positive for antibodies and as a consequence has donated plasma, I am not allowed to donate blood or plasma because of being a cancer patient.

As skischool has said testing for T-cells is not an easy matter and time consuming, nor available to the general public. The same as you, I have believed that T-cells are much more important than antibodies alone, for months now.

Tempo57 profile image
Tempo57 in reply to2greys

Very interesting indeed. If your wife has had it 3 times and neither of you have had symptoms after your April infection then it’s almost certain you are safe from it and have antibodies....very good news. All the very best to you both x T57

Tempo57 profile image
Tempo57 in reply toTempo57

2greys,

Sorry I meant to say if your wife has tested positive 3 times and neither of you had symptoms after your April infection....

I would strongly believe her positive results were true, not false. You both will have antibodies

Angelagone profile image
Angelagone in reply toTempo57

My niece works in a small hospital in Wales. An elderly gentleman with terminal cancer was recently transferred. Only afterwards were they told he tested positive for covid.

2greys profile image
2greys

The science is now saying a lot differently now. At the want of repeating myself "T-cells are more important than antibodies alone" and you need to read this:

healthunlocked.com/blf/post...

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