Detecting virus in sewage - levels rise 7 days before cases rise

[Librarian]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020...-of-outbreaks/

Between March 19 and May 1, the scientists took daily samples of sewage sludge from the East Shore Water Pollution Abatement Facility in New Haven, Connecticut, which serves a population of around 200,000 people. The researchers then measured the total amount of RNA in each sample, as well as the amount of SARS-CoV-2 RNA. This showed that levels of coronavirus rose over that time, peaked, and then decreased.

When the researchers then looked at daily COVID-19 admissions to the Yale New Haven Hospital, as well as laboratory confirmed cases in the communities served by the sewage plant, they discovered a clear correlation to the viral levels that lagged by seven days. In other words, a rise of viral load in sewage showed up a week before a similar rise in new COVID-19 cases.

Report is still a pre-print - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...999v1.full.pdf

[ACfixer]

Well that's downright interesting.

[duenor]

Mike Rowe needs to do a dirty jobs episode on this kind of career

[cleonard]

Thanks for posting a link to this paper.

[theLBC]

poop is dangerous

that is how scum bill gates crippled 1/2 million kids (or however many).

people were given his new oral polio vaccine, and they pooped out live viruses that infected anyone that wasn't vaccinated.

[as_rocketman]

This was reported some time ago but looks like it's finally being reduced to practice.

As an aside, early guidance suggested the virus could work its way backward in black water lines... possibly explaining a faster spread in dense housing units. I haven't heard much about this for a couple of months, so guessing it was overblown; however, this is a another point in favor of single family dwellings.

[BakoJ]

Originally Posted by as_rocketman

This was reported some time ago but looks like it's finally being reduced to practice.

As an aside, early guidance suggested the virus could work its way backward in black water lines... possibly explaining a faster spread in dense housing units. I haven't heard much about this for a couple of months, so guessing it was overblown; however, this is a another point in favor of single family dwellings.

People could sanitize their drains with chlorine and quat, much like food processing does. That would surely slow the spread.