Weeks after he was hospitalized with what his doctors assumed was the coronavirus, NBC News contributor and virologist Dr. Joseph Fair, Ph.D., M.P.H., said his recent antibody test has come back negative.
He said his earlier illness “remains an undiagnosed mystery” in a tweet on Tuesday.
My undiagnosed/suspected COVID illness from nearly 2 months ago remains an undiagnosed mystery as a recent antibody test was negative. I had myriad COVID symptoms, was hospitalized in a COVID ward & treated for COVID-related co-morbidities, despite testing negative by nasal swab.
— Dr. Joseph Fair (@curefinder) July 7, 2020
“Symptomatically, yes, I thought I had COVID,” Fair told TODAY. “When I got the antibody results, I was even more confused. What would have caused almost identical symptoms and outcomes during the same time as a pandemic causing those things? I don’t know.”
In May, Fair developed a high fever and shortness of breath, both symptoms of COVID-19, and was admitted to Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans. He was tested for the coronavirus multiple times. Four tests came back negative, and one was a “weak positive,” he said, which is not a reliable diagnosis.
But Fair’s doctors told him they believed he had the virus anyway, and he was treated in a ward with COVID-19 patients.
“I had myriad COVID symptoms, was hospitalized in a COVID ward & treated for COVID-related co-morbidities, despite testing negative by nasal swab,” he wrote on Twitter.
But a negative antibody test, which looks for the presence of virus-fighting antibodies in a person’s blood, suggests he never had COVID-19 — although experts have previously questioned the accuracy of antibody tests.
Fair is surprised he didn’t contract the virus at the hospital.
“There were a lot of coronavirus-positive people in there,” he said. “What is really shocking to me is that I didn’t get the virus in there. As a virologist, that part blows my mind.”
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