Serological tests that detect antibody levels are still a work in progress, especially when you take into account the scale that needs to apply. It's not just about being accurate but also efficient and widely available. Take New York as an example: throughout March only under 200,000 people were tested for COVID-19. With a state of 19 million, at this rate public antibody testing would take literally years to cover all of NY's population.
But Donald Trump's top infectious disease is very hopeful that release of a reliable antibody test is a matter of weeks, which would open the way to wide-scale testing. And once people know they're in the clear, they could begin to go back to normal. “I can imagine a situation where you take an antibody test and you are absolutely positive that you were infected and you did well, then you could hug the heck out of your grandmother and not worry about it.” Fauci said this week.
His statement might be a little too optimistic, though. Being safe individually would still not free anyone from social distancing and extra caution during interpersonal contact. After all, it would take a lot of time before everyone is tested and there's no more public health emergency to worry about.
