Boston Partners With MGH On Coronavirus Antibody Study
BOSTON (CBS) - The City of Boston is partnering with Mass General Hospital on a coronavirus antibody study. "This antibody testing initiative is certainly a big step forward," Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said Monday.
Mass General Hospital will collect samples from 1,000 city residents.
"Testing in our community will give us a better idea how widespread the outbreak really was and is in Boston. The data will help us estimate how many people will likely be infected," said Walsh.
UMass Memorial is also doing antibody testing on some of its staff.
"This is a nice addition to have, but it's still no replacement or not as important as testing for actual live virus," said UMass Memorial Health Care CEO Dr. Eric Dickson.
Roughly 80 employees working at the Beaumont Skilled Nursing Facility were tested Friday. The results show about one in five have coronavirus antibodies.
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"It means they probably had the virus at some point and they probably have some degree of immunity although that's not clear yet with this virus," said Dickson.
Uncertainty with antibody testing is what has Governor Charlie Baker taking a wait and see approach. He wants more guidance from the federal government before moving forward with statewide antibody testing.
"The FDA needs to decide, needs to do that work and then decide which test they view as being the ones that are approved and effective and accurate and at that point in time a lot of people including us will do a lot more of it," said Governor Baker.