Wednesday, May 13, 2020

AP reports on antibody test, gets one fact as the headline, then reports speculate wildly

The test was a great start, checking antibody levels on most MLB players and people associated with the clubs.  It was not the test for the virus, and it doesn't mean that no one had it - only that they don't have the antibody.  As the researcher said "this is good and bad" because it's hard to draw any conclusions. And besides these are mostly young, healthy men who have been using masks and washing hands, and who have been in quarantine. So it's not necessarily conclusive, in itself.

The study goes off for peer review, and then we'll know more about It.  But the follow up testing will also be interesting to see how it goes. 

But of course the <1% having the antibody grabbed the attention, though the AP struggled to explain why it was meaningful.  Of course "sports!" Latched onto it because that's what they do in the absence of games, and started positing that this means baseball can begin soon....because...again no one can quite explain why they think that (intelligently anyway).

But at least we're seeing some actual scientific studies being conducted.  Here's to hoping there are a lot more, and soon!

Headline "Under 1% of MLB Employees Test Positive for Virus Antibodies | Sports News | US News"



Sent from my iPad

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.