Dickerson’s wife tested negative
earlier this month and has been on bed rest ever since, seeing only her
mother, who also has tested negative. She was waiting at the team hotel
when her husband arrived late Wednesday night, and Dickerson played against the San Diego Padres on Thursday. A few hours later, his life was thrown upside down.
The initial test came back to the Giants just minutes before Friday’s game and
players were taken out of the clubhouse in waves to avoid gathering in
large groups. The Giants did rapid tests on all members of their
traveling party on Friday and all the results came back negative. The Padres facilitated some of the testing, providing their own machine to help speed the process up.
The Giants took saliva tests on Saturday morning but had to wait for the results to get back from MLB’s lab
in Salt Lake City. Late Saturday, they finally got word that the entire
group had been cleared. In the meantime, Dickerson and his wife went to
a local hospital for tests. Every one came back negative. The Giants
consulted with MLB’s doctors and their own and determined that they
could return to the field Sunday, with Dickerson in the lineup after a false positive.
“They expressed a lot of confidence that there was no health concern
in carrying forward with the games today,” president of baseball
operations Farhan Zaidi said.
The Giants are not able to fully figure out what happened with the original result. Zaidi said it’s possible it was contaminated at some point during the collection or transit process or at the lab itself, and
it’s also possible that Dickerson had something in his system at one
point but now is completely clear. MLB told the Giants that they have
done over 100,000 tests and have seen this pattern before.
Zaidi and manager Gabe Kapler both said the overwhelming feeling in
recent hours was relief, for the team but also for Dickerson and his
family. The Dickersons ultimately got good news, although they had a harrowing weekend. The stress is not over.
Dickerson said he is not sure if he
will be able to be there for the birth of his child, although he hopes
to be. There are stricter rules at hospitals in general right now, and
MLB has its own protocols in place.
This is not as simple as Dickerson simply hopping on a flight to San
Diego later this week for the birth and returning to the team when
ready. He said he was still working through all of that, but at the very
least he is past a scare that popped up out of nowhere as he was
stretching Friday afternoon.
“It came as a complete shock,” Dickerson said. “At no point did I ever actually believe it was real. We did take it seriously and both teams did what needed to do and followed all the protocol, but at no point did I ever actually believe it.””
………………………………………
Added: Millions “infected” with virus never knew they were “infected,” recovered having had no symptoms:
4/24/20, “Study shows 13.9% of people tested in New York state have coronavirus antibodies, Cuomo says,” cbsnews.com, Audrey McNamara
“New York’s first survey of Coronavirus antibodies shows that 13.9% of those tested in the state had coronavirus antibodies in their system, meaning they have contracted and recovered from the virus….That suggests that 2.7 million people have been infected statewide.”
…………………………
Added:
May 28, 20, “Most people infected with coronavirus never show symptoms,” UK Telegraph, Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
“The vast majority of people who contract coronavirus never show any symptoms, the first analysis of antibody tests by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has shown, leading to fears the new test, track and trace programme will not work.
Under government plans, those showing
symptoms are required to self-isolate and be tested while the NHS app
will inform people who have been in close contact so they can also
quarantine.
But new figures show 70 per cent of people testing positive for the virus do not have symptoms at the time of their test, or in the week before or after. Just 21 per cent reported symptoms on the actual day of testing.
Likewise for people who reported a symptom on the day of the swab test, only 2.6 per cent were actually found to have coronavirus.
Latest government testing figures also show that just 1.5 per cent of
people are currently testing positive for the virus even though most
are reporting symptoms.
The findings suggest that the government’s test, track and trace policy will fail to pick up at least seven in 10 cases and most people who suffer symptoms will not actually have the virus.”…
“Personally, it was a little scary,’’ said Red Sox left fielder Michael Chavis.
