A group of researchers are collaborating with the Major League Baseball to enroll its employees in a study on antibody testing, according to The New York Times.
MLB players, stadium employees and executives will participate in a 10,000-person study to conduct antibody testing, which can identify the presence of antibodies in blood that indicates a past infection by the novel coronavirus, even in asymptomatic people. Knowing who has been infected with the virus, even when they do not show symptoms, can help guide the reopening of the U.S. amid the pandemic, the Times reports.
Researchers from Stanford (Calif.) University, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory in Salt Lake City, are jointly conducting the study.
The laboratory obtained a large number of antibody tests that had been used in some countries in Asia with success, but the researchers needed a large group of people from different parts of the study to carry out the testing.
The MLB employees offered "a big swath of the American population," said study leader Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD, a professor of medicine at Stanford University.
"The main purpose [of the study] is so that we can inform nationwide policy in every community about how far along we are in this epidemic and if it is safe enough to open up the economy," Dr. Bhattacharya told the Times.
Participation in the study is voluntary, and employees' identities will be separated from the data, a spokesperson for the baseball players' union told the Times.