CDC fully plans COVID-19 antibody research in 25 metropolitan areas

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to conduct a national survey of up to 325,000 people to track how the new coronavirus spreads across the country next year and beyond, a study with a CDC spokeswoman said. Researcher told Reuters.

The CDC study scheduled to start in June or July Blood donor In 25 metropolitan areas antibody It’s created when the immune system fights against coronaviruses, said Dr Michael Bush, director of the nonprofit Vitalant Institute.

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Bush leads a preliminary version of the study, testing the first 36,000 samples funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Kristen Nordlund, CDC spokesperson, officially announced this week that the funding portion of the CDC will extend scope and duration, take samples over 18 months, and see how antibodies evolve over time. Check if

Vitalant, a non-profit organization that runs blood donation centers and tests samples, also leads a wide range of efforts.

Nordlund said researchers are aiming to publish results on a rolling basis.

Antibody research, also known as antibody prevalence studies, is believed to be important in understanding where outbreaks are spread, and can help guide decisions about the restrictions needed to contain them. I will.

The CDC study is also Immune response to COVID It fades over time.

According to Reuters, about 1.5 million people in the United States have been infected with the new coronavirus and about 90,000 have died.

The CDC study tests blood from 1,000 donors each in 25 metropolitan areas each month for 12 months. Researchers then test blood from another 25,000 donors at 18 months. Bush said the samples came from “normal altruists” who came to donate blood.

Some public health officials complain that the CDC is lagging behind in the research and guidance of local governments trying to deal with pandemics. In an interview last week, Dr. Matt Willis, a public health officer in Marin County, California, said in an interview last week: “I don’t see such an organized plan from the CDC, which I feel is exposed at the local level. I will. “

The research news has brought Willis some relief. “Partial answers and preliminary results are better than nothing when making decisions,” which can have a life-changing impact, as when reopening parks or businesses.

To monitor COVID-19, the study “shows how federal leaders work with academia and partners in the blood donation and testing industry,” said Nordlund of the CDC.

She also added that blood donor results can be used by CDC to form estimates for a wider population through statistical methods. “This was done with West Nile virus, Zika, and other emerging infections,” she said.

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The six metropolitan areas investigated in previous studies are New York, Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Boston, and Minneapolis, with another energetic researcher Graham Simmons involved in the project. Says Dr. “Probably” the next phase will include Miami, Atlanta, New Orleans, Dallas, St. Louis, Chicago, Denver and others, Simmons said.

“We chose a site with a wide geographical distribution across the country,” Simmons said, including sites with high infection rates and places where the infection rate could increase.

A John Hopkins University researcher found in a 2019 paper that disproportionately healthy blood donors are not always the ideal population for research.

Northwestern University researcher Thomas McDade said in an interview that CDC research may not be able to “produce generalized results.”

Still, “it could substantially increase our understanding of (COVID-19) infections,” said Dr. Susan Philip, Deputy Health Officer of the San Francisco Public Health Service.

“Sample sizes are large, geographically diverse, and easy to set up,” Philip added.

Some local governments have their own serum prevalence studies. In New York in April, over 20% of the antibodies were found in about 3,000 subjects. This suggests that the number of residents exposed to the virus in the most severely affected is much higher than the 355,000 positive cases.

Last week, an antibody study by Boston City and the Massachusetts General Hospital found that 10 percent of the population had the COVID-19 antibody. The Spanish government conducted a study showing exposure in 5% of people — suggesting 10 times the number of confirmed positive cases.

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