State Epidemiologist Says No Clear Evidence To Show Antibodies Protects Against COVID-19 Reinfection

You may have given blood and been told you have antibodies or had COVID-19 and trusted your body to fight off the infection. However, health officials say there is no hard evidence showing the antibodies built up can protect against reinfection.

“We are striving for herd immunity,” said Jared Taylor, the state’s epidemiologist.

As Oklahoma continues to work toward herd immunity, the numbers of those with antibodies are not promising.

“We can’t count on that just saying because someone testing positive for antibodies doesn’t mean they are truly resistant to the disease, and it does not tell us they are resistant to infection,” said Taylor.

Over 100,000 Oklahomans have tested antibodies resulting in the 9% positive since March 2020, but this number is not a number that remains the same.

“We don’t know what level of antibodies are needed to make a person immune. We don’t know how long those antibodies persist or how long that immunity persists,” said Taylor.

This past week 819 people got a blood test resulting in over 30% of those testing having antibodies for COVID-19. Taylor said that is concerning.

“We know particularly on our percent positivity numbers we know we have missed lots of testing across the state,” said Taylor.

As the state sees a slight decrease of positive cases, there is still a high concern there is not enough testing happening in the state as an accurate count of positive cases.