10,000 individuals from the league are helping test a new COVID-19 identification kit
There is not much that major sports leagues can do at the present time to help the current world situation; most sports activity is on hold. While than happens, the MLB is putting aside its plans to resume season games as soon as possible and are now pitching in with coronavirus-related study. According to Jeff Passan from ESPN, everyone from players, league employees and executives, and even those individuals who work the stadiums, are participating in the study. The goal of this research is to put together a map of how the virus spreads across the US.
This seems to be the largest study of this kind that has been conducted in the US, and the total sample is 10,000 people. This antibody research study is being conducted by the Stanford University (SU), along with the University of Southern California (USC) and the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL). They are collecting thousands of pinpricks, taking blood samples and test the results. These testing kits were made by a company named Premier Biotech, which promises to deliver results in ten minutes tops. This could also be a great resource for other areas since the current tests are taking hours or even days to be ready.
“This is the first study of national scope where we’re going to get a read on a large number of communities throughout the United States to understand how extensive the spread of the virus has been. Why MLB versus other employers? I’ve reached out to others, but MLB moved by far the fastest. They’ve been enormously cooperative and flexible. We’re trying to set up a scientific study that would normally take years to set up, and it’s going to be a matter of weeks,” said SU physician Jay Bhattacharya, who will be analyzing and publishing the data.
