I just want to post a quick update on my Covid Antibody testing. The short story is that it came back Negative.

The long story is that it's Negative due to either of the three things:

1. I have never been infected (as in never!)
2. I am in the earliest stages of infection
3. I was infected and I'm in the very small percentage of the population who got the coronavirus and my body never developed antibodies. 

It's unlikely that it's No. 2 because I have been mostly quarantining even before the lockdown started. And if I didn't get the virus (No. 1) from all of my travels--Singapore-Tokyo-Sapporo-Tokyo-Singapore-Tokyo-NYC-Florida-NYC--and NYC subway adventures prior to the State-wide lockdown, it's near impossible for me to be currently infected right now.

For No. 3--One telltale sign is if I lost sense of taste and/or smell in the recent months. I never did. Also I have been taking my temperature pretty regularly (in Celsius!) and I was never in feverish territory.

Anyway, the doctor and MA from my clinic told me that it's most likely No. 1.

What this means is that I cannot be lax in following social distancing. Not that I planned on it, I'm possibly not going to have any social life until 2021. And also I need to keep up my rigid hand-washing, face mask wearing, and disinfecting of surfaces. Those seemed to work despite being in one of the most densely populated cities in the world and while living with flatmates.

On a sad note, this Negative result also means I cannot donate blood/plasma, which is why I was keen to get tested in the first place.

And because I want to end this post in a pleasant tone, a good thing that came out of this test is the feeling of relief knowing that I wasn't traveling and spreading the virus on my way to the other side of the world.


For New Yorkers, there are several ways to get tested for antibodies:

1. New York City has partnered with BioReference Laboratories to provide Antibody testing to the public. Click here for more details.
2. Most General Practice clinics have partnered up with verified laboratories that has FDA authorized test kits. The testing is free when using health insurance (HMO, PPO, etc) To see how I signed up to get tested, visit my recent post about TIA Clinic.