Small percentage of U.S. adults have coronavirus antibodies

Less than 10% of U.S. adults have antibodies for COVID-19, according to new research, and antibody rates vary widely by race and geography.

The study, which examined data from 28,000 dialysis patients, also showed that very few of the people who had antibodies had actually been diagnosed with COVID-19, and it suggests that the country is nowhere near achieving herd immunity.

William Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a member of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, said in a September 25, 2020, USA Today article that the study is further evidence that the outbreak in the spring was “ridiculously” underestimated.

Hanage, who was not involved with the study, added in a September 25 Wall Street Journal article that the new findings show that the U.S. is “very much still at risk of seeing more disease in the fall and the winter.”

Read the USA Today article: About 9% of Americans exposed to COVID-19 by midsummer. That’s a long way from herd immunity.

Read the Wall Street Journal article: Coronavirus Antibodies Found in Small Portion of Americans, Study Says