[M T]

Dr. Maldonado, one of the Stanford Med School people doing this study, was on a Town Hall meeting about 11:30AM today (30 min ago).  She said several things that I'll try to capture. (My apologies if I get something wrong or left out something.  I didn't take notes.)

1.  There are a number of antibody tests on the market.  None of them has FDA approval.   Stanford tested them and, if I recall correctly, found them unsatisfactory for Stanford's purposes.   It is unknown (at least publicly) what it means if you get a positive result or a negative result on those tests.  (I took that to mean what are the false positive & false negative rates, but perhaps it meant more than that.)

2. Stanford's test was approved by the FDA on Friday, and they ran these tests.

3. The meanings of the test will be determined by further studies.  Such as,

• if positive, are you immune to getting the disease again.  If so, how long are you immune?
  
• if positive, and you are exposed again, might you become infectious again (ie, potentially asymptomatic & infectious)
  

(Those may also be what Dr. Maldonado meant about they didn't know what the other test results meant.)

She did not say anything about any preliminary numbers or when any results would be available.


In the same town hall, Dr Cody (SCC Public Health director) indicated  "6 feet is a minimum".  She also said that her office does not have access to the number of recovered patients.  She said that it had been expected that once the commercial companies started producing the tests, there would be plenty.  This hasn't been the case.  She doesn't know all the reasons why that is.


I didn't know the phone-based Town Hall was happening (Joe Simitian organized it.  Anna Eshoo was next up on the call, but I left it) until I got an automated call that it was going on.  It was in progress at the time I joined it.

I presume this is the Dr. Maldonado that was on the call.

[M T]

Dr. Maldonado, one of the Stanford Med School people doing this study, was on a Town Hall meeting about 11:30AM today (30 min ago).  She said several things that I'll try to capture. (My apologies if I get something wrong or left out something.  I didn't take notes.)

1.  There are a number of antibody tests on the market.  None of them has FDA approval.   Stanford tested them and, if I recall correctly, found them unsatisfactory for Stanford's purposes.   It is unknown (at least publicly) what it means if you get a positive result or a negative result on those tests.  (I took that to mean what are the false positive & false negative rates, but perhaps it meant more than that.)

2. Stanford's test was approved by the FDA on Friday, and they ran these tests.

3. The meanings of the test will be determined by further studies.  Such as,

• if positive, are you immune to getting the disease again.  If so, how long are you immune?
  
• if positive, and you are exposed again, might you become infectious again (ie, potentially asymptomatic & infectious)
  

(Those may also be what Dr. Maldonado meant about they didn't know what the other test results meant.)

She did not say anything about any preliminary numbers or when any results would be available.


In the same town hall, Dr Cody (SCC Public Health director) indicated  "6 feet is a minimum".  She also said that her office does not have access to the number of recovered patients.  She said that it had been expected that once the commercial companies started producing the tests, there would be plenty.  This hasn't been the case.  She doesn't know all the reasons why that is.


I didn't know the phone-based Town Hall was happening (Joe Simitian organized it.  Anna Eshoo was next up on the call, but I left it) until I got an automated call that it was going on.  It was in progress at the time I joined it.

I presume this is the Dr. Maldonado that was on the call.