Why the MLB antibody study matters

10,000 MLB players and employees are volunteering to help scientists study how COVID-19 has spread throughout the country.
Watch on YouTube

Each week, Freethink’s Progress Report will explore what the solutions of today will mean for your tomorrow.

In this episode, we interview Dr. Daniel Eichner, the president and laboratory director at the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory (SMRTL).

The SMRTL is helping conduct the nation’s largest coronavirus antibody study to date, with 10,000 subjects. The volunteers are all members of the Major League Baseball organization, from players to owners to concession stand employees.

Most of the testing that’s been done for COVID-19 so far has only determined if the virus is currently present in the body. However, those who contracted the virus and never showed symptoms, or those who had the virus and recovered, possibly never knowing it was COVID-19, have not been tested.

Antibody tests can help us learn more about these cases, so we can better understand how the virus has spread throughout the country.

Thanks for watching this week’s Progress Report. Let us know what you thought of this episode on YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook.

Subscribe to Freethink for more great storiesĀ