Coronavirus Antibody Test Details and Procedure
May 5, 2020 Trading Blog
I figured it would easier to write up all the details here rather than trying to post them in a Twitter thread. The antibody testing process was simple and there’s really no excuse not to do it. If there’s one way to get rid of fear, it’s with facts. You have to take care of your own health and body, nobody else is going to do it for you.
Ok, so to start off, the test is through Quest Diagnostics. My wife did the online part, so I hope I’m relaying this correctly. Go to QuestDiagnostics.com and search for the Covid-19 antibody test. The test is $119.00. Add it to your cart. The next step is to schedule an appointment at the nearest Quest Diagnostics office. You do this through the website right after you add your test to the cart. There are appointment times 15 minutes apart. One weird thing though, we wanted to schedule our tests back to back, but the website would only let us schedule one test at a time. So you have to log back in and create a second Quest account for your spouse. By the time we logged back in, the next appointment was 60 minutes later, so our tests were an hour apart. Be ready to create that second account immediately if you want two tests close in time to each other, or a better solution probably would have been for each of us to do it separately at the same time.
This Covid-19 test requires a doctor’s recommendation. The way Quest gets around this is by charging you a $10 fee to have one of their doctors write the recommendation. It’s added at the same time you pay for the test. Yeah, I thought that was kind of sketchy too, but they don’t give you a choice. We put the test and doctor’s rec on the American Express (total $129), but there was an option to submit it through an insurance plan. I wasn’t interested in spending the time it probably would have taken to do that.
After you finish the above, Quest sends an email confirmation with a QSR barcode (the little block puzzle looking square thing). You click and confirm your account, then set up your Quest account page where you will return in the future to read your test results. It’s pretty quick and easy.
So test day rolls around. You don’t have to be fasting (like many other blood tests require). We showed up about 10 minutes before first appointment (remember, we were scheduled an hour apart) and to sign in you just scan the QSR barcode thing they sent in the confirmation email. It signs you in automatically, so no paperwork or any contact with anyone. Masks and six feet apart pretty strictly enforced. They didn’t have any masks, but they did have gloves and plenty of sanitizer available. We sat down and my wife was immediately called. Surprisingly the next person was called and then about 5 minutes later they called me. Come to find out, they schedule the appointments 15 minutes apart, but they will take you back to the blood draw whenever you show up. The actual procedure was just like any other blood draw. A small vial (smaller than most regular draws for things like physicals) taken out of the arm. Once that was done, we were out the door. We didn’t have to sign out or do any paperwork after the test, everything was already completed in that initial purchase transaction. They said it takes a few days to get the results, so check the website to see when the results show up.
This was so easy, everyone should do it. I know the price is kind of high, but the peace of mind is worth it. And if you happen to show up as positive, then maybe some of the stress and anxiety is relieved. I know if mine comes back positive, I’m headed out into the world for some cheap travel LOL. Good luck and if you have questions about anything that I didn’t cover, post the question on Twitter and I’ll answer there.