Penn State project releases preliminary info on COVID-19’s impact on Centre County, asks for volunteers
After months of planning and gathering data, a Penn State project has released preliminary results on COVID-19’s sociological, biological and economic impacts on Centre County — while also calling for more local volunteers.
The Centre County COVID-19 Data 4 Action Project, a collaborative effort between the university and local community, has conducted about 7,000 surveys so far and has moved to the next stage of the initiative by testing volunteers for coronavirus-related antibodies.
It’s hoped at least 2,000 volunteers will be tested for the antibodies eight times over the next two years, while also similarly filling out new surveys that measure the personal impact of the coronavirus, like whether someone has experienced job loss as a result of the pandemic.
“We’re starting to shine a light on the magnitude of this thing,” said Matthew Ferrari, a researcher at Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and associate professor of biology.
Sociological/economic impact
The anonymous 10-minute surveys remain open, and permanent Centre County residents (18 years old and over) who are interested in helping the effort can still take them online. Or they can call 753-4799 between noon and 7 p.m. on a weekday.
But, so far, according to results released earlier this week, the impact of COVID-19 has unsurprisingly been far-reaching: 4% of respondents said their life has not at all been disrupted, while 63% said life has been moderately disrupted, and 33% said life was significantly disrupted.
When it comes to employment, 12% said they’ve lost their job, were furloughed, or have a paid job but are not working.
Full survey results are expected sometime before the end of the calendar year, likely in the fall.
The goal of the study, according to the project’s website, is to “provide community and university decision-makers with data about changes in COVID-19 prevalence as well as changes in residents’ and students’ experiences related to the pandemic.”
Antibody testing
The point of antibody testing is to essentially determine whether a person has been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 at some point in the past. (It can’t determine whether someone is currently infected.)
That’s important, Ferrari said, because antibody tests could help show the prevalence of the virus in the community, since some patients show no outward signs of infection and never realize they were positive.
How long antibodies stay in a person’s body could also help determine how vaccines might work. The longer antibodies last, the longer vaccines should be effective.
So far, of the 324 project samples tested in Centre County, three (0.9%) had a positive antibody test.
“The epidemic itself, the actual virus, has been a relatively small thing while the impact has been a large thing,” Ferrari said. “Now, that may not hold over the next couple of years. I can’t imagine two years from now that it’ll still be only 1-2% that have experienced COVID.
“That number could become much bigger — or maybe we have a vaccine and it won’t be. I don’t have a crystal ball to see into the future. But, now, we’ll have a set of baseline numbers to compare where it is in the future.”
What’s next?
This project is still in its early point, but results from the survey that involve about 20 questions will be released later this year. The other part of the project involves following 2,000 permanent community residents and will continue for the next two years.
Although 3,000 have signed up to volunteer, the project isn’t expecting a 100% response rate — so it’s still asking for more community members to sign up for antibody testing. (Those who did sign up should have already received an email, or will receive one soon.) Depending on the response, Ferrari said, it’s possible the project could follow more than 2,000 residents — or that the time frame might last even longer.
For now, however, Ferrari said the project plans to release data every three months after the first round of surveys and antibody tests.
Anyone who’s interested in participating and has further questions is asked to contact Dr. Meg Small of the Social Science Research Institute via Data4Action@psu.edu or 867-6026.
The project is a collaboration among Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute, the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.
