Christopher Gavin, Boston.com Staff
May 4, 2020 | 10:47 AM
Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu says she was probably infected with the coronavirus at some point during the local outbreak but never knew it.
In a pair of tweets Monday, the at-large councilor wrote that she was among the Roslindale residents randomly selected for an antibody study conducted by Massachusetts General Hospital last week.
“Got my test results last night: negative for coronavirus & positive for antibodies,” Wu wrote.
The findings mean Wu was “most likely infected at some point without knowing it,” she said.
“That’s why physical distancing & testing are so important: anyone can get this virus & spread it without even showing symptoms!” Wu wrote. “We all need to keep wearing masks outside & we need WIDESPREAD testing, especially in hardest hit communities like Mattapan, Hyde Park & Roxbury.”
That’s why physical distancing & testing are so important: anyone can get this virus & spread it without even showing symptoms! We all need to keep wearing masks outside & we need WIDESPREAD testing, especially in hardest hit communities like Mattapan, Hyde Park & Roxbury.
— Michelle Wu 吳弭 (@wutrain) May 4, 2020
1) The swab was definitely VERY unpleasant! 2) I believe they wrapped up the study on Friday. There isn’t widespread antibody testing yet bc the tests haven’t been approved by the FDA so these are studies. 3) Was told the false positive rate was under 2% but can’t know for sure! https://t.co/RsnygCAAi7
— Michelle Wu 吳弭 (@wutrain) May 4, 2020
The study tested roughly 1,000 city residents in hotspots where the virus has flourished, such as East Boston, Roslindale, and parts of Dorchester.
“It is our hope that by conducting this testing, we as a collective city will get a better understanding of the true prevalence of COVID-19 in our community,” Mayor Marty Walsh said in a statement announcing the study late last month. “The more we can expand our testing, the more we can learn how to use our medical resources more efficiently, and how we need to focus our current efforts to contain the virus.”
As of last Wednesday, 27,824 Boston residents had been tested for the coronavirus and a little less than a third of those individuals tested positive, according to the city’s public health commission.
Testing increased by 44.3 percent last week over the previous week, officials said.
In Roslindale, of the 1,598 residents tested, results for about 32.3 percent came back positive for the coronavirus, according to the latest city data.
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