# Antibody test negative; Acute test result not available yet **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [September 25, 2020, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibody-test-negative-acute-test-result-not-available-yet/921497 "2020-09-25T11:35:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibody-test-negative-acute-test-result-not-available-yet/921497/1 "2020-09-25T11:35:12Z")
Long story short, I was playing basketball with a guy who later tested positive, and contacted me through contact tracing. I went in for the test, and also took the antibody test, 8 days after the potential exposure. My antibody test came back negative, and with a bunch of generic caveats stating that I shouldn’t assume I’m negative. However, I would think that If I did have the virus, I should have produced enough antibodies 8 days later for that one to come back positive as well. Am I missing something here? I fully understand the caveats, since someone may have been exposed only a few days prior to testing, which may not allow for enough time to produce a detectable level of antibodies. But isn’t 8 days long enough? What doesn’t help is that I’ve developed a headache and cough, but I’m currently attributing that to allergies. Rest assured, I’ve avoided all physical interactions since I got the news, at least until I get the acute test result back. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2020, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antibody-test-negative-acute-test-result-not-available-yet/921497/2 "2020-09-25T14:48:01Z")
I just found the answer, and it can take up to 3 weeks for the antibodies to be produced. For some reason, my first Google search only showed the earliest possible time.