COLUMBIA, Mo. — Researchers at the University of Missouri are collecting survey data and voluntary blood samples from students, faculty and staff to study the prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies in the campus community.
The university wants to understand how well the community is responding to mitigation strategies and provide researchers with information about individuals’ immune systems responses to the virus, according to a press release from the university.
“The risk survey asks individuals about behaviors and activities they have engaged in during the past few months, as well as their perceptions about COVID-19 and its impact on various age groups,” said Enid Schatz, professor and chair of the Department of Public Health in the MU School of Health Professions.
“The second part of the study involves a blood draw to test for COVID-19 antibodies, so we are trying to see if we can make any connections between behaviors and antibody prevalence. This could potentially help inform us what things we are doing that seem to be working well or if there are any additional risk mitigation strategies we can think of to continue to make MU a safe place for our community to be.”
Researchers are looking for a randomized sample, so they are emailing students, inviting them to be participate in the project. The blood draws will take place throughout the fall semester.
“Those who test positive for the antibodies will now presumably have some degree of protection from the disease. However, the strength and length of that protection is still unknown at this time,” said John Middleton, a professor in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine who specializes in epidemiology. “By looking at how an individual’s immune system responds to the infection over time, we can gather a lot of data that will help inform us about how to protect people going forward.”
Middleton said if a vaccine were to become widely available, this antibody project might help inform researchers how long the immunity from a vaccine is expected to last or how often people should get vaccinated.
“The data collected from this research could help inform us of what type of immunity a vaccine will need to stimulate,” Middleton said. “Understanding the immune response to natural infection will help inform us whether vaccines are expected to be effective. However, in the absence of a vaccine we are not currently defenseless, as social distancing, hand hygiene and face coverings continue to be effective strategies for reducing the spread of COVID-19.”
Schatz added that individuals who choose to participate in the study will be notified if their antibody results are positive or negative. However, the university will only be made aware of the overall percentage of antibody prevalence and will not learn the identity of the individuals participating.
“If we can better understand people’s perceptions and behaviors, we can design future intervention strategies based on those behaviors,” Schatz said. “Our goal is to not only better understand disease exposure and transmission in our community, but also to provide resources to those that need it.”
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