One of the country’s most ambitious COVID-19 antibody studies is being conducted in Ventura County.<\/p>\n
Residents of the county can once again get a free test for COVID-19 antibodies thanks to a new study funded by a grant from the Ventura County Community Foundation.<\/p>\n
Testing will be offered in almost every city in the county from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Nov. 20 and will be conducted on a first-come, first-serve basis. It is only available to Ventura County residents.<\/p>\n
The tests\u00a0allow members of the public to see if they have had the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as well as collect data for research into how much a large population has been infected by the virus.\u00a0It follows the first round of antibody testing<\/a>\u00a0which was offered over the summer during the county\u2019s first spike in cases.<\/p>\n The tests involve a blood draw to check if a person\u2019s immune system has created antibodies in response to a past infection with the virus. They are different from the nasal swab tests offered by the county and some health facilities, which check for current infection of the virus instead of past infection. Antibody tests cannot determine when exactly a patient had been infected with the virus.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is being undertaken in Ventura County is the most ambitious COVID-19 antibodies study in the United States currently underway,\u201d said Matthew Fienup, an economist at California Lutheran University and one of the scholars involved in the study.<\/p>\n Among the distinguishing factors of the study are the thorough demographic data collected for each participant, the large number of people getting tested and the fact that positive antibody samples are run through a second antibody test by a different manufacturer to ensure accuracy, Fienup said.<\/p>\n Dr. Todd Larsen, an emergency physician at St. John\u2019s Regional Medical Center who has overseen the antibody tests, said the county actually never stopped testing people, rather that this is just the second time it has opened to the general public again.<\/p>\n The county has conducted\u00a013,266 total antibody blood draws as of October, according to Fienup, over half of which were done during the first round of public antibody testing at the end of June.<\/p>\n The remaining antibody tests have been given to subpopulations who are either highly exposed to the virus or are vulnerable to serious illness. Samples include 2,620 first responders, 1,867 frontline healthcare workers, 266 longterm care facility residents and staff members, 154 farmworkers and 61 homeless residents.<\/p>\nStudy findings<\/h2>\n