re: MLB Tests Over 5,000 Employees for Coronavirus Antibodies for Study, 0.7% Tested Positive

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Anti-body tests are not accurate.

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Yeah, I'm beginning to think that the massive difference we are seeing in the results of antibody tests are just some tests show something crazy like 20% fake positives while other versions show 20% fake negatives.

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I am so confused about how this thing is supposed to be so incredibly contagious yet not very many ppl at all relative to the population seem to have had it?

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Because we are a country of nearly 350 million spread out over nearly 4 million square miles.

For the same reason why the lock down rules shouldn't be universal, you have to be careful trying to extrapolate localized studies into the entire country.

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Then each time we have one of these antibody tests come out somebody tells me the tests are worthless, so who knows what to believe

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Part of the problem is that antibody tests ARE the holy grail. And everyone is rushing to be the first to make the big break.

Can't speak internationally, but there was at least one study being revised because they failed on the statistical controls (the oft meationed Stanford study) and at least one study used a serological test that identified coronavirus, but not exclusively CoV-SARS2.

The fundamental problem is that epidemiology is a long, drawn out analysis that is retroactive in nature.


But in the 24/7 news cycle, its all about the hot takes.

Hell, how many people post here about singular studies, non peer reviewed preprints at that, and advertised it as fact because they liked what the title inplied.

Science is a process, not a conclusion. And people are running with whatever one guy says is truth, and then gets confused when someone else says something different later.

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But at the same time, we have a zero percent mortality rate

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Open the bars back up to full capacity NOW

I had a high fever early March with coughing. Two days ago, i got an antibody test. negative. Oh shite...I might still get it apparently.

I work for a contract IV PICC company. and we go in and out many hospitals and rehabs every day.
I’ve done at least 30-45 COVID pts in past 2 months. And we have ultrasound we bring around.
We have 85 employees. Not a single one has gotten it or had symptoms. It’s not as contagious as they say. Promise you that.
And I talk to many of the ICU nurses at different hospitals. And very very few have had it.

My cousin is a hospice manager I New Jersey, every death since the Cares Act passed has been classified as covid on the death certificate because they get paidmore from Medicare for covid deaths. Only 4 actual positive tests of more than 200. Those 4 were in hospice for cancer and would have died within weeks regardless.

If just ne life is saved...

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MLB Tests Over 5,000 Employees for Coronavirus Antibodies for Study, 0.7% Tested Positive

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26 of 30 teams participated, so this is by far one of the most geographically diverse studies that I have seen. We can back of the envelope test these numbers to produce an IFR of 3.5%. So right off the bat, we know that this sample, while geographically diverse, isn't representative of the general population. The pre-print says that they did correct for potential issues with the test they used and they say that they expected a much higher number.

The latest pre-prints that I have seen put the IFR b/w 0.5 - 1.5%, so that puts us around 3.5% of the population having been impacted. So this study is certainly an outlier.

A couple of possibilities for this study, the majority of the people who participated are located in areas that haven't been heavily impacted? Did the Yankees and Mets not participate? MLB shutdown pretty early and the employees that participated in this study may have taken COVID-19 serious, since the beginning. and practiced social distancing ahead of the general population? Employees that participated are higher income and already enjoyed some advantages such as not living in cramped quarters, not using mass transit, etc?

I’d also add that a significant number of these players and employees were in Arizona and Central/South Florida as this thing broke out. Which hasn’t been as impacted...presumably because of the climates.