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COVID-19 antibody testing lab

How do antibody tests for COVID-19 work? A video offers a behind-the-scenes look

This New York Times video showcases Stanford Medicine's efforts to offer COVID-19 antibody tests to its doctors, nurses and other clinical workers.

Stanford Medicine was among the first organizations to develop and use an accurate antibody test to detect from a blood sample whether your body has encountered the coronavirus.

Curious how that works? A New York Times video takes you behind the scenes. It follows two of the thousands of employees who have received the testing through a Stanford Medicine effort to protect patients and employees and to ultimately gain more information about the disease.

Amping up the number of antibody tests will help scientists and public health officials determine how widespread infections are; and the results could help researchers develop vaccines and therapies.

"More widespread testing will help us to better understand more quickly what are the important variables -- who is going to be protected, who's not," says Stanford Medicine pathologist Scott Boyd, MD, PhD, in the video.

Additional reporting by Holly MacCormick

Image courtesy of The New York Times

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