They may have been excluded from the national deconfinement strategy, serology tests attract many French people who absolutely want to know if they have been infected with the coronavirus. However, the government hardly talks about it any more. "Faced with the lack of knowledge on immunity developed by people who have had Covid-19", the High Health Authority also said Saturday May 2 "recommend to remain cautious in the use of serological tests". Now only PCR virological tests seem to count, with the aim of being able to carry out 700,000 per week.
Despite this, for several weeks now, several private laboratories have been offering residents of large cities a serological test. Via a simple blood test, we discover after a few hours if we have specific Covid-19 antibodies, evidence of contamination. At the end of the chain, and in theory, we hope to know if we are immune to the disease.
"There was a crowd!" "
Not reimbursed by Social Security, unlike the PCR test, the examination costs between 30 and 60 euros. A sum which is not accessible to everyone, but which does not prevent the curious to hurry.
Jean and Camille, a young Parisian couple, went to a laboratory for the first time on Wednesday May 6, at the early hours of the morning. "There was a crowd, at least 20 people in front of us," recalls Jean, who works in marketing. Both are backtracking. They return there this Saturday from 7:30 am, and come across only a dozen people. They decide to stay this time, and will have to wait "an hour".
VIDEO. Olivier Véran: "Testing 65 million French people every day is nonsense"
For Antoine (*), who lost his grandfather because of the Covid-19 in April, it was first his grandmother and his parents who were tested. Then, "we learned that laboratories in Paris offered it and that it was relatively simple," says the 28-year-old banker who lives in the capital. Saturday May 9, he crosses, with his two sisters, the door of a laboratory in the XVI arrondissement. "It was worth knowing, we told ourselves that we would be a little quieter if we learned that we had been contaminated," argues the young man, who will also have to queue.
Same motivation for Jean, convinced that he was infected in early March because he had a fever and cough a lot. At the time, he was unable to pass a virological test. "If I am positive with serology, I would be less afraid of catching the disease by going out during the deconfinement, even if I would in any case continue to respect the barrier gestures", he said to himself before being tested.
WHO warning
And yet, these antibodies, nobody yet knows precisely for how long they protect us. If a person has fallen ill, there is nothing to say that they cannot become sick again in the medium term, a fortiori if the virus mutates. The World Health Organization (WHO) has regularly warned against the thought of having acquired a "passport of immunity".
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"Certainly, that would not mean that we are immunized forever, but we would be at least in the short term, for a few months", believes Antoine, finally tested negative.
The serology test for the covid-19 costs € 54 not refunded, is it the same price in all the labs no idea in all cases in the case where I was this is the case #COVID ー 19
- 💁🏻♀️ (@secretneuf) May 4, 2020There is a second bias which relates to the reliability of these tests. There are false negatives, that is, when the individual has been affected by Covid-19 but the antibodies have not been detected. “Their reliability has yet to be demonstrated and tested, according to rigorous procedures. We must therefore exercise great caution and call everyone to responsibility, ”insists the General Directorate of Health, joined by Le Parisien. This proportion of false negatives would relate today to around 5% of the most successful tests, but it could increase to 40% of those of lower quality, had pointed out the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, on April 19.
The couple Jean and Camille were not at the end of their surprises. When they receive the results by email, they discover that he is positive and she is negative. However, they live together in a small apartment and did not scrupulously respect the barrier gestures before confinement, when Jean thought he was infected. Camille, false negative? "I must be naturally resistant," she imagines with a smile, recognizing, however, that "this has asked more questions than anything else ..."
(*): the first name was changed at the request of the witness