Athletics, Giants Agree to Participate in COVID-19 Coronavirus Testing Study
News that members of the Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants organizations are stepping up to be part of a study of aimed at combatting the COVID-19 coronavirus is some of the most encouraging news to come out of the sport in this pandemic-induced age where we’re having to get by without baseball.
The A’s and Giants’ participation is part of a large Major League Baseball program in which 27 of the 30 big league teams will have about 10,000 of their employees partake in a study on the viability of antibody testing related to the COVID-19 coronavirus.
The goal of the study is to help determine whether or not test subjects have been infected with COVID-19, regardless of whether or not they have shown symptoms. Some players will be involved, but the study, which is based out of Stanford University, the University of Southern California, and Utah’s Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory, will include personnel from throughout the organizations.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a source told the newspaper that the A’s “immediately joined the study,” once the invitation to participate was broached. “It seemed like a great way to contribute in a small way to the science that is hopefully going to lead us out of this quarantine.”
The A's have an immediate connection to the pandemic. Minor league coach Webster Garrison remains in a New Orleans hospital on a respirator, although his fiancée, Nikki Trudeaux, said in a tweet Tuesday night there was some hope Garrison would soon be off the respirator.
The goal of the study doesn’t have anything to do with trying to find a vaccine. Rather, it is to determine how many people in a given population in large metropolitan area have contracted COVID-19, whether or not they are aware of it.
Baseball stepping up like this is the kind of thing that is good for the population as a whole. And since baseball organizations can offer up a wide cross section of the population, they are an ideal source for this kind of research.
Talking Tuesday with CBS Sports, Stanford’s Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said that the tests involve a blood sample taken through a pin prick. Typically, test results are accessible in 15 minutes. He said the test, which is similar in look to a pregnancy test, differs from a standard coronavirus test because it doesn’t indicate if the virus is active but only registers if there are antibodies present that would fight COVID-19.
More than that, this test can be administered at home. The data accumulated from the estimated 10,000 persons involved could be used to help policymakers decide when it would be prudent to lift the current levels of self-isolation being experienced across the country.
In sum, tests on the members of the A’s and Giants organizations will be part of the determination of when baseball can return as part of a large reopening of the U.S. health policy and economic drives.
According to CBS, Dr. Bhattacharya was careful to note that this isn't an example of MLB leveraging its wealth and power to cut in line for testing. Rather, he was connected to MLB through a third party. The 10,000 participants will include not only fulltime employees but also some part-time and game-day workers such as concession stand workers.
All the testing is anonymous, Bhattacharya said. At the same time, participants will be asked to fill out demographic and health questionnaires tied to an ID number.
“I want a broad population; I wrote that in the study protocol and they didn’t blink,” Bhattacharya told the Chronicle in talking about bringing MLB officials aboard. “They didn’t just want their athletes, they wanted concession workers and security guards, everyone. I asked for random samples.”
He said that test subjects who show the need for full coronavirus tests will get the viral tests rather than the antibody tests.
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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