For a century, vaccines provided lifelong protection against infection, and many assumed it would be the same with COVID-19. However, when it came to Covid-19 immunity, resisting infection proved different.
We may have tired of the virus, and the impact it has on our lives. Yet, it continues to persist in our society.
However, doing nothing differently will ensure a continuation of a pandemic. – and that may prove the worst mistake we could make. The consequences of compound infections have already begun to surface in scientific literature. A study published in the Nature Medicine journal, a second or more Covid infection increases a person’s risk of neurological disorders, diabetes, hospitalisation and even death.
Is apathy to repeated infection an avoidable risk?
Bio-Diagnostics is a specialist immunology company with its laboratories in the UK, and has a long history in developing innovative technologies. With decades of experience, it was uniquely placed to create the test required to meet the needs of the pandemic, and was the first company to accurately detect the right target for COVID-19 immunity.
Using this technology, we’ve not only gained essential insights into how we can better protect ourselves from infection, but also identified the strategy required to ultimately end the pandemic in real terms.
But how?
As immunities against COVID-19 are different from other diseases, we have to be S.M.A.R.T. We must Strategically Manage And Repeat Test each individual, to monitor and adapt the immune response to better manage the ongoing blight that is SARS-CoV-2.
Once it is more widely recognised that an alternative approach is needed, we can begin to remove the ongoing risk of repeated infections from our daily lives.
Only by taking a more direct, active role in measuring and understanding our own response to Covid-19, will infections reduce more significantly, until the R-rate is maintained under 1.
To learn more about Bio-diagnostics and Covid-19 BioCard™, please visit our website. If you have any specific questions, please do send us a DM we’d be happy to answer your questions.
*Uniquely matches the full potential response to a vaccine or past infection with 99.5% specificity to SARS-CoV-2. (Registered CE mark with UK MHRA 2020, with specificity 99.5%/sensitivity 100%).
Worcestershire company offers NHS and key workers Covid antibody test
Malvern Gazette, 9th May 2021
A WORCESTERSHIRE company which developed a coronavirus immunity test is calling for health workers to come forward to find out if they have the right antibodies.
Bio-diagnostics, based in Upton Upon Severn, has developed a “biocard” test which checks for “spike” antibodies in the body.
These, according to boss Simon Mico, can give a clearer picture of immunity than the existing covid-19 tests, which only tell an individual if they had the virus on the day they took their tests.
Mr Mico highlighted the need for healthcare workers such as those going into care homes to know if they have the right level of immunity, and called on more of them to come forward and get tested.
To help more NHS workers access the tests, Bio-diagnostics is offering a discount via its website.
With this, health care workers can get their testing kit for £34.95, less than the normal cost of £99.95.
The test is done by pricking the end of a finger and sending the blood sample away for analysis. Once the test is complete, the Bio-diagnostics laboratory aims to return all tests within 72 hours.
According to the Upton-based firm, the immunity test is the only ultra-rapid test in the world with near-100 per cent accuracy.
Although the offer is for the NHS, other key workers including carers in care homes, the police, teachers, and other keyworkers.
Mr Mico said “As we exit lockdown, and discover for whom the vaccine has not worked, I think it is critical we now offer those who work in high exposure risk jobs have access to an accurate test that can provide an indication of if their vaccine worked, and how well.”
“We know those in the NHS and Carers are often in daily contact with people potentially carrying the virus, finding out if they have strong levels of spike antibodies, allows them the reassurance that they are much less likely to both contract the disease, or pass it on to other patients in their care.”
“The vaccines have really put the virus under pressure, but everyone knows they aren’t perfect. We know from official data, that 1 in 10 people vaccinated still got ill.
“Studies, and our own results, now show that a disproportionate number of people over 65 don’t have positive vaccination outcomes.
“If we ask why, and realise it was because they didn’t make the spike antibodies in response to the vaccine, we are then well in the path to understanding why an immunity test (three weeks or so) after a jab is the next step to maximise the success of the vaccination program.”
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MP champions local Covid antibody test
harriettbaldwin.com, 28th September 2020
Photo: (L-R) Harriett Baldwin MP, Jayne Hassell, Simon Mico, Victoria Grocott, Councillor John Smith.
West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin is championing a local company that has developed a test that will tell you if you have had antibodies after contracting Covid-19.
The test, which has been developed by Bio-Diagnostics based in Upton-upon-Severn, is now available to the public and will help people to know if they have already been exposed to the disease.
Harriett has shared the details of the test with the Government’s Test and Trace team and has urged them to take a close look at the new product as the company prepares to market it here and abroad.
The MP visited the company with Councillor John Smith, who is Worcestershire County Council’s cabinet member responsible for public health. The pair were given a tour of the company’s laboratories by Bio-Diagnostics managing director Simon Mico and saw the testing in action.
Harriett said: “I’ve been in close touch with the company as it developed this test and I have shared the details with a number of Ministers as we ramp up our country’s testing capability.
“I am keen to champion this locally developed test which could be a real game-changer as more people return to offices and our children return to school.
“Simon is clearly very passionate about this opportunity to offer a test which will make life much easier for many people who have had the disease but don’t yet know it.
“The Government is continuously looking at ways to expand our capacity for testing people who may currently have Covid-19, but alongside that I hope it will look closely at products which identify if we have had the disease and may be immune, as we continue our fight against this new virus.”
Simon Mico added: “This is completely different technology to anything else, testing with very high accuracy whilst attaining results in 3 minutes, can really support the efforts we are all making to reduce the pandemic.
“As the antibodies we detect develop after PCR tests cannot be used, we could take pressure off that system proportionate to the number of people the BioCard positively identified. Being both highly specific and sensitive, we can now attain a much better understanding of who has immunity, even for asymptomatic people.”
Upton Upon Severn firm Bio-Diagnostics makes Covid-19 test breakthrough
Malvern Gazette, 4th December 2020
AN Upton Upon Severn company has developed a unique and highly accurate “immunity test” which it says could make a big difference to families this Christmas.
The team of scientists at Bio-Diagnostics, led by MD Simon Mico, has come up with the test, which detects the same antibodies produced by the Covid-19 vaccine.
According to the company, it will allow families to make an informed decision about visiting their loved ones this Christmas.
Research carried out by the company apparently revealed the other rapid technologies were frequently inaccurate for a fundamental reason.
Mr Mico said: “Other antibody tests, we discovered, have been looking for the wrong antibodies – unable to detect the same ‘spike’ antibodies now clearly demonstrated by vaccines to provide immunity.
“It’s no coincidence that successful vaccines have now been found to elicit spike specific antibodies, now proven to provide immunity.
“The COVID-19 BioCard uniquely detects the same spike specific antibodies, so it’s obvious that if you want to know if you have immunity right now, you should simply test for it.”
The company’s research unearthed a second incredible finding of crucial importance.
Everyone, who from as early as March had tested Covid-19 positive when later retested, were still found to have spike antibodies.
Mr Mico added: “Discovering Immunity lasts up to nine months, was ground-breaking.
“This is far longer than previously thought by world scientists, predominantly as a result of studies looking for the wrong antibodies on flawed technologies.”
According to the Upton-based firm, the immunity test is the only ultra-rapid test in the world with near-100% accuracy.
It has been entirely developed and manufactured in the UK, and everything from its conception to full scale manufacture is done by experts at Bio-Diagnostics laboratories under UK regulations.
Mr Mico said: “The shortcomings inherent to old lateral flow technologies have been laid bare because of the pandemic.
“By identifying their limitations and optimising the Biochemistry the world now has a more capable technology to detect trace levels of almost anything, anywhere, more accurately, – in just minutes.
“The science is now clear: to know if a vaccine has worked a test for the same spike specific antibodies is needed.
“The BioCard confirms whether you have genuinely acquired immunity from either the vaccine, or past exposure.
“No one wants to inadvertently bring the virus to vulnerable family members.”
According to Mr Mico, the company’s BioCard test has become “the logical gold standard for parents” as students return home for Christmas.
He added: “Why rely on an inaccurate test for the active virus, when it means nothing a day later?
“Educated students will more logically recognise the results of an immunity test to be far more meaningful.”
“Both a positive and negative result is important.
“Whilst the benefit of discovering you have the spike antibodies is obvious, anyone who falls into the negative category, can make a more informed decision when considering visiting loved ones this Christmas, and decide whether it makes sense to take the risk.
“If the person you are thinking of visiting also has immunity, that again reduces the risks significantly”.
“We’ve battled all year to get the science understood, and when successful vaccines validated the logic we had seen all along – we then knew we had got it right.
“It is hoped utilising these discoveries will help minimise the risk of a third wave of the virus in January.”
The test kit is already available at the company’s test website – www.covid19biocard.co.uk.