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Antibody tests suggest that coronavirus infections vastly exceed official counts

Study estimates a more than 50-fold increase in coronavirus infections compared to official cases, but experts have raised concerns about the reliability of antibody kits.
  1. Smriti Mallapaty
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Widespread antibody testing in a Californian county has revealed a much higher prevalence of coronavirus infection than official figures suggested. The findings also indicate that the virus is less deadly than current estimates of global case and death counts suggest. But some scientists have raised concerns about the accuracy of kits used in such studies because most have not been rigorously assessed to confirm they are reliable.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01095-0

Updates & Corrections

  • Update 19 April 2020: This story has been updated to include comments from Marm Kilpatrick.

  • Correction 22 April 2020: This story originally misstated the nature of the false positive rate.

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