Some shocking news coming out of Massachusetts and the town of Chelsea on Saturday morning.
Nearly one third of 200 Chelsea residents who gave a drop of blood to researchers on the street this week tested positive for antibodies linked to COVID-19, a startling indication of how widespread infections have been in the densely populated city.
Sixty-four residents who had a finger pricked in Bellingham Square on Tuesday and Wednesday had antibodies that the immune system makes to fight off the coronavirus, according to Massachusetts General Hospital physicians who ran the pilot study.
The 200 participants generally appeared healthy, but about half told the doctors they had had at least one symptom of COVID-19 in the past four weeks.
This means they have already been infected and recovered – 16 times the rate known to be infected. This is a huge figure, beginning to approach herd immunity. Chelsea is much more like New York City than a lot of other American towns and suburbs – densely packed – and this kind of number could be a precursor in what NYC antibody testing would show.
You can read more from our friends at The Boston Globe.
