“I thought okay, it's been two and a half weeks, that should be about enough time,” said Christianna Jackson.
Jackson, like many other patients who showed up at Any Lab Test Now in Scottsdale, wondered whether she was truly protected after getting the coronavirus vaccine back in February.
“It was very scary especially initially last March and April when we didn’t really know much about the virus itself,” said Jackson, while thinking back to the beginning of the pandemic.
Jackson suffers from asthma, an underlying health condition that can greatly increase her risk of complications if she contracted COVID-19.
So, when she had an opportunity to volunteer and also get the vaccine, it was a no-brainer.
“People just want to know, do I have protection? Do I have antibodies?” said Any Lab Test Now Clinical Manager Angela Garrett.
Garrett says the community is craving information around the vaccine.
Is it working and for how long?
While there aren’t definitive answers to the second question, they can help with the first.
“If somebody was vaccinated in December and they want to know if they still have antibodies four months later, this test would either reassure them that they do or don’t,” said Garrett.
A simple blood draw offers results in just two days.
Jackson eagerly awaited her results and received them in an email.
“Sure enough I had the antibodies about two and half weeks after getting my first COVID shot,” said Jackson.
This came as a signal that the hope she was feeling for the nation wasn’t overhyped.
A year of isolation at home is paving the way for a dinner out for her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary and the confidence to encourage others to get the shot as well.
“Personally, for myself, I think it’s worth it to take an antibody test, that way you know it’s working, you can tell your friends and family, 'Hey, I got the vaccine, I have the antibodies, I have proof now, I have the data that it works,'” said Jackson.
Those interested in getting an antibody test done can do so at Any Lab Test Now, through a doctor's office and while donating blood.
