MLB is participating in a study that will test for coronavirus antibodies to help give a better sense of how widespread COVID-19 has been throughout the country.
ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the news on Tuesday about the study, which is being conducted by Stanford University, USC and the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory.
According to Passan’s report, the test kits will draw blood using a pin prick and be able to test for two antibodies that develop in those who have COVID-19. The testing, which will be conducted on up to 10,000 people, will help show how many people have developed antibodies. Such testing should give a good idea of what percentage of the population has already gotten the coronavirus but may not have known so because they were asymptomatic.
The results of the study could help guide politicians’ decisions on reopening the country in the future.
The reason why MLB was selected for the study is because they reportedly moved extremely quickly in terms of cooperating with the testing. They have a large population of players, front office employees, and even stadium workers who reportedly agreed to be testing for the purposes of public health.
The logical LBS takeaway here is that if the study shows that a high percentage of the participants have antibodies, that would give politicians and health experts confidence that the virus has already spread through the country and many people are immune to it, which would then allow the reopening of the country. If a low percentage show antibodies, that would tell us the public immunity is probably low and things would need to be reopened gradually and cautiously.
MLB has been working on a number of possible scenarios for a return, including one that would involve players resuming training as early as May.
