{"id":1319494,"date":"2020-04-16T17:27:05","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T23:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/?p=476810"},"modified":"2020-04-17T07:09:02","modified_gmt":"2020-04-17T13:09:02","slug":"vail-health-has-scant-testing-for-covid-19-antibodies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/vail-health-has-scant-testing-for-covid-19-antibodies\/","title":{"rendered":"Vail Health has scant testing for COVID-19 antibodies"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/03\/testing-site-2-768x1024.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/03\/testing-site-2-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/03\/testing-site-2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/03\/testing-site-2-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/03\/testing-site-2-600x800.jpg 600w, https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/03\/testing-site-2.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\"><figcaption><strong>Eagle County now leads the nation in per-capita testing for the COVID-19 virus.<\/strong><br \/><em>Courtesy Vail Health<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>It would be nice to know how many healthy people in the Vail Valley are carrying antibodies for the COVID-19 virus. We don\u2019t have that yet.<\/p>\n<p>The presence of antibodies indicates some level of immunity to specific viruses and other diseases. That\u2019s probably true with COVID-19, but like so much else about that virus, information is still incomplete.<\/p>\n<p>The problem, though, is that there aren\u2019t many COVID-19 antibody tests available.<\/p>\n<p>Stephanie Kearney is vice president of ambulatory and outpatient services at Vail Health. In that job, Kearney is in charge of Vail Health\u2019s laboratory.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row vail-donation vail-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/03\/VD-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/03\/VD-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.vaildaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/03\/vail-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Kearney said an antibody test for COVID-19 would be \u201ca wonderful addition\u201d to health officials\u2019 tool kits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe could figure out who might have the immunity \u2026 and be ready to migrate back into the workforce,\u201d Kearney said.<\/p>\n<p>There are a couple of problems, though.<\/p>\n<p>First is the lack of test kits. The second is that \u201cnot all tests are created equal,\u201d Kearney said. Some of the available tests might pick up antibodies for other strains of coronavirus but not COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>The other problem is what\u2019s been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Brooks Bock, CEO of Colorado Mountain Medical, now an affiliate of Vail Health, said Wednesday that only three companies in the U.S. have federal authorization to conduct antibody testing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have none of them in Eagle County,\u201d Bock said. Local health officials have reached out to Cellex, the first company approved for COVID-19 antibody testing. The reply, so far, has been \u201cwe\u2019ll let you know\u201d when tests might be available, Bock said.<\/p>\n<p>Chris Lindley is coordinating Vail Health\u2019s response to COVID-19. Lindley said at the moment the only tests available are to determine whether or not a patient has the virus.<\/p>\n<p>Lindley said \u201cour phones are ringing off the hook\u201d asking for tests. At this point, he added, testing is available.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe testing we have in place\u2026 has been very aggressive,\u201d Lindley said, adding that tests are available seven days a week at eight locations operated by Vail Health and\/or Colorado Mountain Medical.<\/p>\n<p>While other communities have essentially stopped testing, \u201cWe don\u2019t turn anybody away,\u201d Lindley said. Test kits are also going out into the valley\u2019s low-income neighborhoods with the MIRA bus.<\/p>\n<p>And, after a period in which the lab company Vail Health uses had delays in returning results, Lindley said results now can come back in 24 to 48 hours.<\/p>\n<p>Kearney said the Vail Health emergency department has rapid testing that can return results in as little as 45 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Those tests are generally distributed to hard-hit areas, which included Eagle County.<\/p>\n<p>Lindley added that the current system can handle up to 150 tests per day. \u201cWe\u2019re not seeing that demand right now,\u201d he said, adding that there\u2019s currently more testing capacity than there is demand.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, Eagle County now leads the nation in the number of tests given per capita.<\/p>\n<h3>A limited response<\/h3>\n<p>But knowing someone is infected can trigger only a limited response right now.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t have any specific treatment for COVID-19, nor is any on the immediate horizon,\u201d Bock said, adding that an effective vaccine is probably 12 to 18 months away.<\/p>\n<p>That leaves testing and isolating patients who test positive. That\u2019s also why we\u2019re being told to practice social distancing and wear face coverings when out in public.<\/p>\n<p>The social distancing and face-covering rules will probably stay with us for some time.<\/p>\n<p>Until a vaccine is developed, Lindley said COVID-19 will probably \u201ccirculate for years \u2026 We need to learn to live with it safely\u201d until treatments and vaccines are available.<\/p>\n<p>And, while the medical community has learned a lot about COVID-19 in a short time, much is still unknown. That includes the effectiveness of healthy people who carry the COVID-19 antibody in their blood.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a novel virus,\u201d Lindley said. \u201cWe have no idea how long (antibody) immunity will last\u2026 (there are) people who could potentially get it again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Vail Daily Business Editor Scott Miller can be reached at <a href=\"mailto:smiller@vaildaily.com\">smiller@vaildaily.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/news\/vail-health-has-scant-testing-for-covid-19-antibodies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Vail Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eagle County now leads the nation in per-capita testing for the COVID-19 virus.Courtesy Vail Health It would be nice to know how many healthy people in the Vail Valley are carrying antibodies for the COVID-19 virus. We don\u2019t have that yet. The presence of antibodies indicates some level of immunity to specific viruses and other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1319494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 06:20:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1319494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1319509,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1319494\/revisions\/1319509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1319494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1319494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1319494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}