Saliva-based testing as a method for monitoring population immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection Researchers in the United States have shown that saliva-based sampling could serve as an accurate and non-invasive alternative to blood sampling for monitoring people’s antibody responses following infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or vaccination against the virus. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is the agent responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that continues to pose a threat to global public health and has now caused more than 2.66 million deaths worldwide. Christopher Heaney from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and colleagues assessed the durability of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies against three SARS-CoV-2 antigens in saliva samples collected from more than 200 people up to 8 months after they tested positive for the virus.