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  • Many have said one of the keys to reopening the country may be testing for antibodies to see if Americans have been exposed to the virus.

  • And if they might have some immunity, it would certainly offer some reassurance as families decide if it's safe to go back to work tonight.

  • We're with the researchers with an experimental test, checking for antibodies, a simple pin prick.

  • But can the federal government do they have the ability to get tens of millions of these tests ready and quickly what they said about that today?

  • Here's A B C's Kaylee Hartung Tonight tonight on the front lines of a key battle in the fight to get America back to work.

  • A line of people in Northern California waiting for an antibody test to determine whether they've been exposed to the Corona virus without knowing it and may now be immune.

  • The heater reopening is going to be testing the antibody testing in California, part of a USC Stanford study requires just a drop of blood, a simple pinprick.

  • They say it costs about 10 bucks and results are available in about 10 minutes $10.10 minutes.

  • Protest and you are gathering incredibly valuable information.

  • We can do this on a very large scale if you want.

  • The federal government has yet to deploy a nationwide test.

  • New York state, the epicenter of the crisis, is developing its own, but they're only able to perform a few 1000 tests a week.

  • It's not enough if you want to reopen on a meaningful scale and reopen quickly, we need unprecedented mobilization where government can produce these tests in the millions today.

  • Governor Cuomo, calling on President Trump to use the Defense Production Act to make private companies produce antibody tests.

  • But today from the White House, there's not a lot of issues with testing.

  • The president has downplayed the need for nationwide testing to diagnose Covert 19 or detect whether a person has had the virus and is now possibly immune.

  • You wanna have it and we're going to see if we have it.

  • You need it?

  • No.

  • Is it a nice thing to do?

  • Yes, we're talking about 325 million people, and that's not gonna happen.

  • But Dr Anthony Fauci says, testing his key and today announced the federal government is closing in on an antibody test within a period of a week or so, we're gonna have a rather large number of tests that are available.

  • President Trump now making this pledge.

  • We're confident that the production will scale up to tens of millions of tests very quickly.

  • A lot of eyes will be washing to see if that actually comes to fruition.

  • And Kaylee with us tonight, the president doctor found.

  • Two were both asked today, Kaylie whether Americans might one day have to carry some sort of proof that they have immunity from the virus.

  • Yeah, David Doctor found.

  • She was asked if he could imagine that day when Americans would carry around a so called certificate of immunity, he said, It's possible.

  • It's something.

  • They're disgusting, he says.

  • We need to make sure we know the difference between who's still vulnerable to infection and who's not.

  • David Kaylee Hartung, who has recovered from Corona virus herself, and we're glad to see that Caylee.

  • Thanks for reporting tonight.

  • Hi, everyone.

  • George Stephanopoulos here.

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Many have said one of the keys to reopening the country may be testing for antibodies to see if Americans have been exposed to the virus.

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