How (Not) to Do an Antibody Survey for SARS-CoV-2

Preprints from the first round of seroprevalence studies indicate that many more people have been infected with the virus than previously reported. Some of these studies also have serious design flaws.

Written byCatherine Offord

| 11 min read

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Update (May 18): A whistleblower complaint filed last week with Stanford University reveals that the Santa Clara study was partially funded by JetBlue Airways founder David Neeleman, who has spoken out against the use of lockdowns to slow the spread of COVID-19, BuzzFeed News reports. The information, which was not publicly disclosed, raises “concern that the authors were affected by a severe conflict of interest,” according to the complaint, which was filed by someone involved with the research. The complaint also suggests that the study’s authors disregarded warnings raised by Stanford professors about the accuracy of the antibody test used. In interviews with BuzzFeed, Neeleman and study coauthor Eran Bendavid denied that Neeleman or other funders had influenced the study.

Update (May 1): Bhattacharya and colleagues respond to criticisms of the Santa Clara study in a revised preprint posted yesterday. Using updated statistical analyses, the team ...

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Meet the Author

Catherine Offord
After undergraduate research with spiders at the University of Oxford and graduate research with ants at Princeton University, Catherine left arthropods and academia to become a science journalist. She has worked in various guises at The Scientist since 2016. As Senior Editor, she wrote articles for the online and print publications, and edited the magazine’s Notebook, Careers, and Bio Business sections. She reports on subjects ranging from cellular and molecular biology to research misconduct and science policy. Find more of her work at her website.
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