Hungarian Swimmers Who Tested Positive For Coronavirus Devoid Of Antibodies

A group of Hungarian swimmers who tested positive for the coronavirus have not shown antibodies in their blood after analysis of samples by a research group.

As we reported in March of this year, nine people affiliated with Hungarian Swimming, including National Team swimmers and staff members, tested positive for coronavirus while partaking in training camps.

Dominik Kozma, David Horvath, Richard Bohus, and Boglarka Kapas were among them but were asymptomatic.

After the aforementioned eventually tested negative and were able to return to training, they donated plasma at the University of Physical Education in Budapest. As we reported, the facility is in cooperation with Semmelweis University and the Virology Research Group of the University of Pecs and OrthoSera Kft. developing plasma therapy.

Per the American Red Cross at the time, people who have fully recovered from COVID-19 were thought to have antibodies in their plasma that can attack the virus. This convalescent plasma is being evaluated as a treatment for patients with serious or immediately life-threatening COVID-19 infections, or those judged by a healthcare provider to be at high risk of progression to severe or life-threatening disease.

Months later, however, the swimmers’ blood donations were analyzed by researchers at the University of Pecs, with the scientists finding no coronavirus antibodies in the samples. In fact, according to an interview with researchers published in Hungary Today, only 1 of 29 prominent Hungarian athletes who donated blood had the coronavirus antibodies contained within it after contracting the disease.

These findings correlate to those rendered in a Chinese study performed in June as well. As published on the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy site, 90% of 74 participants, both asymptomatic and symptomatic showed steep declines in levels of SARS-COV-2–specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies within 2 to 3 months after onset of infection. Further, 40% of the asymptomatic group tested negative for IgG antibodies 8 weeks after they were released from isolation.

There is still hope that those infected with the virus will show a strong T-cell-mediate response, which is another potential form of immunity, as early studies, including one done by the Karolinska Institute, have indicated that T-cell responses have been more common than antibody responses. It is not clear yet, though, how much immunity those T-cell responses will confer, as research is ongoing.

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HISWIMCOACH
4 years ago

Regarding false positives;
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidnikel/2020/05/25/norway-says-widespread-coronavirus-testing-unnecessary/

“Given today’s contagion situation in Norway, health professionals must test around 12,000 random people to find one positive case of COVID-19. There will be about 15 positive test responses, but 14 of these will be false positives. In such situations, health professionals should not rely on a positive result until they have taken a new test to confirm it.”

octopus
4 years ago

I still think that false positive is the unlikely but still the most likely explanation. They should have re-tested them next day. My recollection is that Kapas did not have antibodies 2 weeks after the positive test (taken after the 2 week quarantine. I am not expert and do not know how rigorous those tests were. The results of the current study done by researchers are beyond doubt,

Sam
4 years ago

TBC shots are still the best explanation for the country low infection rate

Corn Pop
Reply to  Sam
4 years ago

West Germany vs East Germany . .Oest Deutschland ist gut . Danke Schone Iosef .

RCP
4 years ago

Can you say ‘false positive’?

Admin
Reply to  RCP
4 years ago

It’s statistically incredibly unlikely that 28/29 athletes who tested positive all had false positives.

Sam
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

I think you can be positively negative: https://youtu.be/wsqqRMPm5z8

Admin
Reply to  Sam
4 years ago

Sarah Cooper makes everything better.

PsychoDad
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

Lol. “How to cognitive” is a masterpiece.

Swimfan
4 years ago

But aren’t there a lot of False Negatives in the antibody testing? Is there an accurate test out there?

Admin
Reply to  Swimfan
4 years ago

It’s unclear what sort of antibody tests they were using, but given that this was done by a group of scientists at a research institution, it’s probable that their methods were more accurate than the retail versions that were having accuracy issues.

Also, even “false negatives” alone wouldn’t likely explain 1 out of 29.

Here’s a metastudy on the efficacy of antibody tests: https://www.cochrane.org/CD013652/INFECTN_what-diagnostic-accuracy-antibody-tests-detection-infection-covid-19-virus

Swim mom
4 years ago

So I don’t care if they all tested positive, but could have been false positives. Especially this asymptomatic stuff that we really don’t know how asymptomatic dare exposed. Could go way back to the fall before it was announced. All I know is if you are not in a long term care facility, and no major underlying health conditions like diabetes, obesity, the death rate is like .03. Not clear that they don’t have the antibodies , but that would be a first for the immune system

MICHAEL
Reply to  Swim mom
4 years ago

Here’s what I would like an explanation on then. Baring all false positives, asymptomatic individuals, those with underlying health conditions, those who don’t develop anti-bodies vs those that do, and anything else you want to throw at as a big buzz word to show that you read the title of news headline…ignore all of that for just one moment…I would like somebody who downplays the seriousness of this virus to try and explain the drastic increase in Americas rate of expected deaths throughout the first half of 2020 utilizing historic data (Adjusted seasonally) vs the actual record deaths within America.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2767980

Let’s entertain the idea that COVID has not been responsible for 100k… Read more »

DrSwimPhil
Reply to  MICHAEL
4 years ago

That’s barring a lot of things that are part of the variables necessary to understand the entirety of what’s happening.

Meanwhile, the CDC just dropped their graphic showing we’re at “seasonal baseline”….
comment image

Swimmom
Reply to  DrSwimPhil
4 years ago

You really can’t look at a chart for this past week for an accurate death count. It can take weeks for deaths to be recorded during normal times. Our vital records office is behind and overwhelmed and just opened to the public a month ago.

DrSwimPhil
Reply to  Swimmom
4 years ago

And…that’s kind of how that chart has been developed (including the previous weeks that were “caught up” and yet still contribute to that extreme downward slope).

This should be a great, positive news that should be on every message being sent via tv/social media/etc. However, it’s not….

HISWIMCOACH
4 years ago

Imagine a virus so deadly that you have to be tested to know if you have it.

swimapologist
Reply to  HISWIMCOACH
4 years ago

In a world of ice-cold takes this might be your frostiest one yet.

swimmom
Reply to  HISWIMCOACH
4 years ago

Excluding the 135k Americans who died from it. Pretty sure they knew they had it.

HISWIMCOACH
Reply to  swimmom
4 years ago
L B
Reply to  HISWIMCOACH
4 years ago

“We have about five deaths — less than five deaths — that we know of that are related to obvious other causes. In this case, they are from gunshot wounds.”

Do you sit around all day waiting for SwimSwam to post an article that mentions COVID-19 so you can pounce? Give it a rest.

HISWIMCOACH
Reply to  L B
4 years ago

I sure would like swim meets to happen soon. And kids, who are at zero risk basically, in school full time. And I certainly don’t want Covid (or drop in income due to Covid) to be the justification for more college swim programs being cut.

But that can’t happen until we end this nonsense hysteria that’s been created. And articles like this one propagate Covid hysteria (we may not be immune even if we catch it!).

Sam
Reply to  HISWIMCOACH
4 years ago

your mental state is deteriorating really fast

swimmom
Reply to  HISWIMCOACH
4 years ago

I would LOVE to watch a swim meet. I miss watching them, I miss working them, I miss my swim parent friends, I miss all the swimmers hugging me sopping wet. I miss my son getting excited about a race. I am extremely thankful my son is training and his club is doing a great job of doing it safely. But his health comes before athletics, always. He is nowhere near an elite swimmer, but if he were my mindset would be the same. He happens to have asthma, so he is high risk. He also happens to interact with high risk individuals, myself included.

I know sports are the end-all, be-all for a lot of people. I remember… Read more »

alum14
Reply to  HISWIMCOACH
4 years ago

Ignorance in bliss.

Sam
Reply to  HISWIMCOACH
4 years ago

I seriously don’t know why you are allowed to spread this absurd nonsense BS, it endangers lives, like POTUS telling people to ingest disinfectants

Sam
Reply to  PARTICIPANT RIBBON
4 years ago

for how he is the guy who tells it like it is, they explain in 3 pages on how didn;t say what he did exactly say. I just refer to the words he said. He so didn’t say it that everyone urged him to stop appearing at these briefing and destroy what remained of his image

PhillyMark
Reply to  HISWIMCOACH
4 years ago

Would you want a colonoscopy to know if you had a precancerous polyp….those are largely asymptomatic as well.

Michael
Reply to  HISWIMCOACH
4 years ago

I mean, ever heard of a thing called HIV?

Xman
4 years ago

Explain this to me like I’m 5

Admin
Reply to  Xman
4 years ago

I’ll explain it to you like you’re 14.

They studied the blood of Hungarian athletes who had tested positive for coronavirus, and didn’t find the antibodies that they thought they would a few months down the road. This indicates either that they were all mis-diagnosed (unlikely), or that this kind of antibody immune response doesn’t last very long.

As DrSwimPhil brought up, there is some hope for T-Cell Mediation, which is an immune response that doesn’t involve antibodies, but the science is still out there too as to whether it will provide protective immunity.

As with everything coronavirus, the science is moving very rapidly. It probably won’t become clear what this all means for another month or two when there… Read more »

PsychoDad
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

>or that this kind of antibody immune response doesn’t last very long.

Or that totally asymptomatic cases, as in this case with swimmers, do not make antibodies at all.

PsychoDad
Reply to  PsychoDad
4 years ago
AndySUP
Reply to  PsychoDad
4 years ago

That article you reference also states”

But evidence from a June study in Spain indicated that antibodies may only last for two or three months. In a separate study published this week in the Lancet, a medical journal, researchers found that people who had been infected often shedded antibodies from the virus after only a few weeks.

So back to your first statement.

Anonymous
Reply to  PsychoDad
4 years ago

Why is psychodad also fearmongerdad? This virus is overblown.

PsychoDad
Reply to  Anonymous
4 years ago

Posted this on twitter 2 hours ago:

My oldest son lives in Denver. Yesterday, one of his friends died from coronavirus. He was 30 and no pre-conditions. Went to Arizona, came back, felt sick, checked into hospital 2 weeks ago, and died yesterday.

No, not a fearmongerdad (but you can think whatever you want), just concerned with amount of stupidity in this country. Freedom is not going to Costco and yelling at a grandma that asks you to wear a mask – freedom is state of mind that minority of Americans have.

Irish Ringer
Reply to  PsychoDad
4 years ago

Sorry to hear about your sons friend. I don’t think anyone is claiming that nobody under the age of 30 has died from Covid, but of the 135,000 deaths less than 1000 have come from those 34 years of age or younger.
https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Death-Counts-by-Sex-Age-and-S/9bhg-hcku

PVSFree
Reply to  Anonymous
4 years ago

Here we go again…

Ghost
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

Nice explanation. Now please explain Covid testing to Trump….he seems to have a problem understanding it. 😜

PARTICIPANT RIBBON
Reply to  Ghost
4 years ago

Of course if you want to go down that path……if you explain it to Biden, please do so daily because he may not remember.

Xman
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

Not good for heard immunity.

Admin
Reply to  Xman
4 years ago

Is that like when you heard you had immunity so you assumed it was true?

Xman
Reply to  Braden Keith
4 years ago

Yes I heard that people people who had it have immunity, and now I’m hearing they don’t 😉

AfterShock
Reply to  Xman
4 years ago

That’s unheard of.

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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