Sewage Surveillance Reveals Omicron Arrived In US Even Earlier Than Believed (And Is Disappearing Fast)
Shortly after the start of the COVID pandemic, scientists at Yale University started testing wastewater collected from the sewers of New Haven for any insights it might convey about the spread of COVID among the local population. It didn't take long for researchers in other parts of the country (and the world) to follow suit by testing their own wastewater.
In its report on the findings, BBG added that "analyzing wastewater containing human feces can be an important way to look for warning signs of new mutations, as well as track those already spreading to determine how long existing surges will last."
Wastewater can also provide advanced warning of a COVID surge. Dutch researchers reported in March 2020 that they were able to find genetic material from the virus in wastewater before COVID cases were reported in the population.
Like one BBG source said: "everybody poops".
The technique "gives you a heads-up because people may not want to pick up the phone for surveys, but everybody poops,” said Gigi Gronvall, an immunologist at the John Hopkins Center for Health Security. "And it’s so unbiased because everybody uses the same sewer system."
The CDC now funds 43 health departments that participate in the National Wastewater Surveillance System, which provides data on COVID's presence and trends in water systems.
The great news is that the last week or so has seen the Boston wastewater RNA data plunge...
The end of omicron is imminent... because everybody poops.