The San Francisco Department of Public Health is teaming up with UCSF for a wide-ranging COVID-19 study aimed at getting a handle on the coronavirus. Sergio Quintana reports.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health is teaming up with UCSF for a wide-ranging COVID-19 study aimed at getting a handle on the coronavirus.
They’re combining resources to interview every person who has tested positive for the virus in the city, about 560, and reaching out to everyone that person has been in contact with as well.
“Because public health in general has been defunded in the United States, so to do all these major initiatives, I think the group requires manpower,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong from UCSF.
This weekend, San Francisco city librarians, members of the city attorney’s office and researchers in other studies that are paused because of the pandemic, will be getting trained at UCSF on how to track, interview by phone and even text people who may have been infected.
The idea is to get as much information about the spread of the virus as possible and that includes testing people.
UCSF will also be launching a study similar to what Stanford is currently conducting in Santa Clara County.
They’ll be looking for people who may have been infected but never got sick. Their immune system successfully developed antibodies to fight off the virus.
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WIth more information, public health officials can ease shelter-at-home restrictions.
Dr. Chin-Hong said UCSF is still working out the details on when the antibody study will roll out and how people can volunteer to be tested.
