“I Think I Have Enough for Now”: Living with COVID-19 Antibodies in the Philippines

ABSTRACT

Drawing on face-to-face and virtual fieldwork in the Philippines, I document the emergence of antibody testing as a popular practice among Filipinos during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping them make decisions about vaccines and other life choices. Antibodies gave people a sense of agency and control amid a health crisis for which political and medical authorities failed to offer certainty and hope, particularly at a time of vaccine scarcity and viral surges. However, by diverting attention from the health care system to individual immune systems, antibodies also reinforced the individual “responsibilization” that has characterized the Philippine government’s pandemic response.

KEYWORDS:

• Philippines
• antibodies
• biosociality
• COVID-19
• pandemics
• science and technology studies

Acknowledgments

The author would like to acknowledge Dr. Mutya Bernardo, Dr. Gerome Bolalin, and Howie Severino for their inputs. The research that this article draws from obtained ethics approval from University of the Philippines Diliman Interim Research Ethics Board.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Except for names of public figures or as otherwise mentioned (e.g. Howie Severino), the names in this article are pseudonyms.

2. CD4 is a glycoprotein found in immune cells that become depleted in severe HIV infection (see Okoye and Picker 2013).

3. Various antibody tests were used in the country throughout the pandemic. Rapid (i.e. finger-prick) antibody tests – which indicated the presence or absence of IgG and IgM immunoglobulins – became popular in the first months of the pandemic, leading the government to warn against their use specially since they were being used to diagnose individuals for active infection and there were questions about their accuracy. Quantitative tests, on the other hand, involved drawing blood from a vein in the arm and provided a numerical value either expressed as a percentage (%) or as an amount (e.g. μg/dl or U/mL). Both locally and internationally, how to interpret these values has been the subject of controversy and debate (see Gray et al. 2020).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Gideon Lasco

Gideon Lasco, MD, PhD is a physician, medical anthropologist, and writer based in Manila. He is senior lecturer at the University of the Philippines Diliman’s Department of Anthropology, research fellow at the Ateneo de Manila University’s Development Studies Program, and honorary fellow at Hong Kong University’s Centre for Criminology. His research focuses on contemporary health crises including vaccination scandals, the drug wars in Asia, and the COVID-19 pandemic.