Story at a glance
- NBA players and staff are working with Mayo Clinic researchers to study coronavirus antibodies.
- This study aims to deepen understanding of how the virus spreads and help develop treatment.
- Multiple professional sports leagues have postponed seasons due to the pandemic.
The shutdown of professional sporting events in the U.S. was a hallmark step in the country’s response to the coronavirus. Seasons for the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Professional Golf Association (PGA) and Major League Baseball (MLB) have all been delayed or rescheduled due to pandemic safety concerns.
Now, the NBA is looking to support research efforts to better understand the coronavirus and help find a way to treat it. The Associated Press (AP) reports that the NBA and Mayo Clinic will partner to conduct a study focused on coronavirus antibody testing.
Sources: The NBA and its players are supporting a Mayo Clinic study for antibodies using serology testing (blood draw) to better understand prevalence of coronavirus among players and staff and promote long-term efforts to develop vaccine.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 5, 2020
NBA players — several of whom contracted the virus when the pandemic landed stateside — were informed about the study this week. Entire teams and staff were reportedly invited to volunteer and participate.
“I think this is one step towards understanding when we might be able to open things back up,” said Priya Sampathkumar, the Mayo Clinic’s Chair of the Immunization and the Infection Prevention and Control Specialty Councils.
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“It’s certainly not that at the end of the study, we’re not going to be able to say, ‘OK, on X, Y and Z date everything can open up again.’”
Testing for coronavirus antibodies allows scientists and public health officials to better understand how the virus spreads, especially regarding asymptomatic carriers.
The study will start by teams receiving materials from the Mayo Clinic researchers, and then phlebotomists will collect sample specimens from the athletes for scientists to review.
About two days after the samples are shipped, test results will be recorded.
AP notes that participants will also complete a survey to estimate their level of exposure to the coronavirus.
John DiFiori, the NBA director of sports medicine, told reporters that the goals of the study are multifaceted.
“It really has a couple of different potential goals in the sense that one is that it does help to assess the prevalence of antibodies within society in general and certainly for those players who participate with the NBA in terms of exposure,” he said, “But it also is a study that is attempting to do sort of a higher-level validation of a tool that will be more easy at point of care or at home. So, it has two parts to it.”
One key component of the study will be using the results to gauge which patients with the coronavirus are eligible to donate plasma for further treatment and vaccine research.
“Obviously, the goal here is to help support research,” DiFiori told AP. “And the more participation that we have, the better we’re able to achieve that.”
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