Antibody testing can determine if a person’s blood shows signs of COVID-19 exposure.
Based on the initial data, researchers estimate that the range of people who may have had the virus to be between 48,000 and 81,000 in the county of 2 million -- as opposed to the approximately 1,000 in the county's official tally at the time the samples were taken. Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor, cautioned that the results for the California county are not necessarily representative of the U.S. population and noted the use of online ads to find participants could skew the candidate pool. But, he said, the work is"adding to this confirmation of what we've expected, which is a much larger number of cases than we ever anticipated.
And while there is no guarantee of total, long-term immunity even if a person has antibodies, doctors hope that those who do have them may have some degree of immunity protection. Experts hope that could be a tool to help determine who could potentially more safely re-enter the workforce -- and just as importantly -- when.
The initial data is the first to provide greater clarity about where a community is in the pandemic. But Bendavid cautions that the work was more illuminating about what’s happening on the community level than it was for any one individual. Public health experts are calling for more antibody tests and, until the U.S. has more widespread testing and contact tracing, say they still believe social distancing is a cornerstone to controlling the pandemic.
bryanwx I always wondered if this was here before we knew it & things went bad.
Oh lord people need to take it more serous. O stay home all the time. Im worry about my family
JulieBorowski 🤔
Duh. You guys are finally listening to the real doctors & researchers.
I’m pretty sure I had it in January after a trip to Switzerland. I had fever, fatigue, body aches, sore throat, & cough. Felt crappy for about a month. Have asthma & I kept saying this was very different from usual stuff.
Make no sense. Santa Clara 3% would have ~60k infected and at least 20% of that would be elderly and thus would have ~6,000 deaths (50% of elderly) alone in that county. Not to mention that adjacent counties would be in same scenario which would bring CA deaths much higher.
Who on earth could possibly be surprised by this? PayAttention ThisIsntHard
Which means that the case fatality rate is much lower than suggested.
And based on antibody research, it's been here longer than originally thought and many deaths attributed to flu were most likely actually covid-19
and this is exactly why we should have been testing everyone like crazy over the last 2 months and we need to keep testing. We need to know the facts about this virus.
Jamesbeall8 I believe it is worst than any one of us could have imagined because we have been terrorized by trump for 4 yrs now so nothing is unbelievable anymore!
If the study passes peer review and is confirmed, this will pretty much lock up the election for Trump. People are gonna be pissed man.
Meanwhile hospitals are PADDING the death toll numbers, because Pelosi PAID them to report more deaths from the virus.
JackPosobiec Not surprising. Pretty sure my wife and my parents had it in early December.
Bingo!
JackPosobiec That’s good- why? Less deadly than thought
JoeConchaTV Anyone with half a brain has known that for over a month. Great reporting.
JackPosobiec cause they test for old flu shots lol
Still very low considering u need 60+% for herd immunity
EdMorrissey It also seems to indicate that the mortality rate could be well below 1%.
JackPosobiec My neighbor said 3 weeks ago that we've all been exposed to it one way or the other.
stevelackmeyer Is anyone surprised by this?
More wide spread than Trump wants anyone to know. Thus he has not allowed more testing. His ego can not handle the world knowing how much he f_cked up. He is hoping the nice weather will make it all go away before anyone finds out!
Send a DM if you need your credit card debt cleared I'm doing this to give back to my followers and interested Americans during this pandemic and beyond I'm Stephen Piechocinski a powerball lottery winner
JackPosobiec Duh
It is everywhere you want it to be.
840WHAS Because its been here since December
TheView Agree
JackPosobiec Of course it is, when it’s been here since last FALL! Open your damn eyes 🤦🏻♂️
Duh
And started much earlier
JackPosobiec That’s what a lot of us have been saying...it’s been here far longer than the “experts” are dating.
And far less deadly
JackPosobiec You don’t say! Imagine that!
EdMorrissey It is a data point, but given it's a self-selected sample of a small percentage of the population of Santa Clara County, I wouldn't read too much into it. The data from San Miguel County (CO), when complete, will be interesting. 1/2(?)
JackPosobiec duh
But CNN MSNBC have told me this is a conspiracy theory!
TheView Let’s open up the country though anyway! Yay!
We knew this .... captain obvious
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