Vaccine rate low, tests for antibodies in Russia high

MOSCOW -- When Russians talk about the coronavirus over dinner or in hair salons, the conversation often turns to "antitela," the Russian word for antibodies -- the proteins produced by the body to fight infection.

Even President Vladimir Putin referred to them last week in a conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, bragging about why he avoided infection even though dozens of people around him caught the coronavirus, including someone who spent a whole day with the Kremlin leader.

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"I have high titers," Putin said, referring to the measurement used to describe the concentration of antibodies in the blood.

But Western health experts say the antibody tests so popular in Russia are unreliable either for diagnosing covid-19 or assessing immunity to it. The antibodies that these tests look for can only serve as evidence of a past infection, and scientists say it's still unclear what level of antibodies indicates protection from the virus -- and for how long.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention says such tests should not be used to establish an active covid-19 infection because it can take one to three weeks for the body to make antibodies. Health experts say tests that look for the virus's genetic material, called PCR tests, or ones that look for virus proteins, called antigen tests, should be used to determine if someone is infected.

In Russia, it's common to get an antibody test and share the results. The tests are cheap, widely available and actively marketed by private clinics nationwide, and their use appears to be a factor in the country's low vaccination rate even as daily deaths and infections are rising again.

In Moscow and the surrounding region, millions of antibody tests have been done at state-run clinics that offered them for free. Across the country, dozens of chains of private labs and clinics also offer a wide variety of antibody tests for covid-19.

Antibody tests for covid-19 were first widely publicized in Moscow in May 2020, shortly after Russia lifted its only nationwide lockdown, although many restrictions remained in place.

Contrary to Western experts, some Muscovites believed antibodies represented immunity from the virus and saw a positive test as a way out of restrictions.

More interest in antibody testing came this summer when Russia had a surge of infections. The demand for tests spiked so sharply that labs were overwhelmed and some ran out of supplies.

That's when dozens of regions made vaccinations mandatory for certain groups of people and restricted access to various public spaces, allowing in only those who were vaccinated, had had the virus, or had tested negative for it recently.

Daria Goryakina, deputy director at the Helix Laboratory Service, a large chain of testing facilities, said she believed the increased interest in antibody testing was connected to the vaccination mandates.

In the second half of June, Helix performed 230% more antibody tests than in the first half, and the high demand continued into the first week of July. "People want to check their antibody levels and whether they need to get vaccinated," Goryakina told The Associated Press.

Both the World Health Organization and the CDC recommend vaccination regardless of previous infection.

Still, some Russians believed a positive antibody test was a reason to put off vaccination.

Maria Bloquert recovered from the coronavirus in May, and a test she took shortly after revealed a high antibody count. She has put off her vaccination but wants to get it eventually, once her antibody levels start to wane. "As long as my antibody titers are high, I have protection from the virus, and there is no point in getting injected with more protection on top of it," the 37-year-old Muscovite said.