MLB participating in COVID-19 antibody study

News broke on Tuesday evening from Jeff Passan of ESPN that Major League Baseball would be participating in a massive COVID-19 antibody study.

https://twitter.com/JeffPassan/status/1250174092751376385?s=20

The study will be the largest of its kind, sending tests out all across the country in a bid to get a better sense of how widespread the novel coronavirus is. Although it’s a major step in the right direction, the findings from the study aren’t expected to have any major implications on an improved or accelerated return for baseball, Passan said.

The study, which is being spearheaded by Stanford University, USC and the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL), will incorporate 10,000 people in their test in an attempt to gauge how widespread the disease is and how many appear asymptomatic and have antibodies.

The test itself essentially tries to find out after the fact whether participants had been exposed to coronavirus and were asymptomatic or not. The test kits are set to be administered to members of all 30 Major League teams, and will be in the form of a pinprick test, drawing blood and offering concrete results in the space of 10 minutes. The test would be unlike others previously fielded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Those in Major League baseball are prime candidates for the test due to their wide geographical spread as well as their ability to quickly mobilize players, front office staff, concession workers, and others and coordinate logistics of the study. It’s for that reason that this test is set to be groundbreaking, in the sense that it’s the largest and most diverse test of its kind to be fielded in the COVID-19 era.

Major League officials have stressed that the test in no way advances any agenda for the sport, Passan noted. Dr. Daniel Eichner of SMRTL was adamant that “MLB did not partner with us for any selfish reason to get their sport back sooner … they jumped in for public health policy. That was their intention and their only intention.”

Surveying such a wide array of people will only serve to benefit the medical community in understanding how aggressive the disease is and how valuable antibodies will be in this fight. Although it won’t have any direct implications on the return of Major League Baseball, we should remain hopeful that these results will play a pivotal role in reopening the country in the weeks and months to come.