MLB players, staff participating in US's largest coronavirus antibody study

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Ten thousand Major League Baseball employees will participate in a study — conducted by Stanford, USC and the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL) — to test for coronavirus antibodies, according to The Athletic and ESPN.

The study, featuring volunteers from 27 MLB teams, is the largest of its kind in the U.S. and will help determine how widespread the coronavirus is across the nation. It doesn’t look for an active COVID-19 infection, but a specific protein the human body produces in response to it, according to The Athletic’s Molly Knight.

The study has no relation to when the 2020 MLB season will start.

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Participants include players, their family members, team staff, concessionaires, ushers and other part-time employees. They’re using pinprick test sticks to draw blood, obtaining results within 10 minutes. 

Once completed, participants are instructed to email photos of their test sticks to a team health employee. The employee will interpret the results and forward findings to Jay Bhattacharya, MD, Ph.D, a Stanford professor and lead researcher in the study.

MLB’s participation will allow the study to obtain results in a manner of weeks rather than several years, according to Bhattacharya.

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