CHICAGO _ The Cubs medical staff has maintained close contact with health officials and Major League Baseball since February amid the coronavirus outbreak in the United States.
But according to an NBC Sports Chicago report Thursday night, the Cubs were one of three teams that didn't participate in a nationwide coronavirus antibodies study this week that researchers at Stanford and USC conducted.
A source stressed that the study, which involved 10,000 people and included those from corporations and MLB, was voluntary. Employees from participating MLB teams, ranging from executives to stadium employees, represented a large group throughout the country that could help gauge the number of people infected.
Kits were sent to participants, who pricked a finger to provide a blood sample to be tested for antibodies.
Tom Zimmer, a scout for the Giants and the son of former Cubs manager Don Zimmer, told the Tampa Bay Times he tested negative after taking the test Wednesday. Zimmer told the Times he mixed his blood in a few drops of a solution in a device that provided the results in 10 minutes.
Zimmer took a photograph of the test results and sent them to the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory, based in Salt Lake City.
The tests are connected to collecting data and not toward efforts to start the season.
