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What are your questions about the coronavirus?

ideastream is answering as many questions as possible, with help from local experts in a range of fields. You can  send us your questions with our online form, through our     and   or call us at 216-916-6476. We'll  keep the answers coming on our website and on the air.

Ed from Wooster wanted to know if there will be an antibody test available anytime soon.

There are two types of antibody tests, early response and late response. One is designed to diagnosis COVID-19 and one is designed to show who has already had COVID-19 and recovered from it.

Cleveland Clinic鈥檚 Dr. Raed Dweik said the tests aren鈥檛 ready to be widely used. The diagnostic antibody test takes too long, he says, and the antibody test to show immunity isn鈥檛 fully accurate yet.

The new strain of the coronavirus is similar to other strains in the same family of viruses, one of which causes the common cold, Dweik said. So some people test positive when they haven't had COVID-19.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 want to have a lot of false positives, reassuring someone they鈥檙e immune when they鈥檙e not, and you don鈥檛 want a high rate of false negatives, telling you that you don鈥檛 have antibodies while you have them,鈥� he said.

Dweik said down the line, once we have accurate antibody tests, we can use the information to have better data on the novel coronavirus.

He said we can also potentially use plasma from recovered people for the people who are sickest from COVID-19.

Dweik said there鈥檚 no timeline for when we might see useful antibody tests used by the Cleveland Clinic, and he said the priority should instead be on widespread rapid testing of new cases.

鈥淭he sooner we know whether they have COVID-19 or not, the sooner we鈥檒l be able to determine the best course of treatment, and whether to put them with other patients who have COVID-19 or not,鈥� Dweik said.