LUTZ, Fla. — A public health expert said it's important for anyone getting a COVID-19 test to consult their doctor about which test is right for them and if they have any questions about interpreting results.

April Stephens recently learned firsthand about the ripple effects uncertainty about COVID-19 status can cause after she believed she tested positive last month.

"At that point, you think the whole world is crashing down on you because so many things are going to change," Stephens said. 

Stephens got a finger prick rapid COVID-19 antibody test at Your Family Walk-In Clinic on June 18. Results provided by Stephens show she tested positive for COVID-19 IgG and IgM.

Those are antibodies, but Stephens said nothing about antibodies was ever mentioned by staff or on the clinic's website or social media.

"The clinic was telling us that the results were positive for having COVID-19, even though we didn't have symptoms," said Stephens. 

The clinic's office manager, Dan Cooley, said the clinic isn't misrepresenting the test and wouldn't tell someone the results to the rapid test mean they currently have COVID-19.

Believing she was positive, Stephens began informing people, including her two-year-old's daycare.

"The daycare closed. There were other offices that we had been in that our employer had to notify, so they then had to go get tested, as well," Stephens said.

Stephens began doing research on the test and learned it was meant to detect antibodies, not diagnose the virus. A nasal swab taken the day after the rapid test came back negative for COVID-19. 

Another Spectrum Bay News 9 viewer e-mailed with a similar situation. He took a nasal swab test on June 17. While waiting for those results, he said he took rapid tests at both Quest and Urgent Care of Longwood. He said both came back negative, but results he provided from Quest showed what he was negative for was IgG, the antibody.

"I went on with my birthday weekend as if it was just an upper respiratory infection," he wrote. He said on June 23, the nasal swab results came back positive.

Both he and Stephens questioned whether the tests themselves were faulty.

"If there's a test out there that's not going to be conclusive, I don't think that it should be offered because this really did affect a lot of people's lives for no reason," said Stephens.

The right test for the right question

"They're two very different things," University of South Florida Public Health Professor Dr. Marissa Levine said of the types of tests. "If you're worried that you might have COVID now or were recently exposed, then you need to get a viral test. That's one that goes in your nose, saliva from your mouth, and that's looking for a virus. It's not a blood test."

Levine said antibody tests are helpful if you want to know if you had the virus at one point or think you might have been exposed weeks ago. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have cautioned that these tests may return false positives more than half the time.

Doctors have also said it's unknown how strong immunity offered by COVID-19 antibodies may be or how long it will last. 

According to Levine, it is possible for both tests to be correct in a situation like Stephens'.

"If you got a rapid test that was positive, that's the antibody test, and you also had a nasal swab test that was negative, that implies that you're not currently infected but you may have had the infection a few weeks back because the antibody test can take anywhere from one-to-three, or maybe even four weeks, to be positive," Levine said. 

Levine said it's important to consult with your doctor about what test is right for you and to help interpret the results. 

"It's a really important time because we have a lot of disease in the community right now, and we want to have a lot of testing to be able to keep up with the demand. But it is challenging at the moment in some places."

Levine encourages anyone who thinks they may have been exposed to COVID-19 to quarantine and reach out to their local health department.