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   Eric Topol (erictopol@mstdn.social)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jul-2023 10:49:22 JST Eric Topol

   If you'd have told me 2 or 3 years ago that a real-time wastewater surveillance algorithm would become the primary way to detect Covid on the rise, I wouldn't have believed it. But it is now:

   https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2216021120

   • Embed this notice
     Michael Porter (michaelporter@ottawa.place)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jul-2023 10:49:21 JST Michael Porter

     in reply to

     • Lisa Melton

     @erictopol @lisamelton Cool thing I learned about wastewater surveillance - There is a virus, pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV), present in peppers that are used for hot sauces, etc.

     According to Wikipedia, it “is consistently found in wastewater from around the world at concentrations greater than 1 million copies per milliliter of raw sewage” and so makes for a good water quality indicator (as it comes almost exclusively from human feces, is stable, and detection is straightforward) as well as a tool to normalize SARS-CoV-2 concentrations for wastewater tracking.

     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper_mild_mottle_virus
     https://www.nature.com/articles/s41545-018-0019-5
     https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35864362/

     clacke likes this.
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     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jul-2023 10:49:32 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Colin Oatley

     @ColinOatley It's incredible that it has been made doable enough that we are doing it. That's how I read "I wouldn't have believed it". I don't read a connotation that it would be bad.

     @erictopol

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     Colin Oatley (colinoatley@mas.to)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jul-2023 10:49:33 JST Colin Oatley

     in reply to

     @erictopol

     Is this a bad thing? If so, what’s bad about it?

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     Colin Oatley (colinoatley@mas.to)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jul-2023 20:27:06 JST Colin Oatley

     in reply to

     • clacke

     @clacke

     Perhaps you’re right; it’s hard to tell. I read it as a comment on how poorly we’re managing individual testing and data collection that wastewater testing provides the only data still useful from a public health perspective.

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jul-2023 20:27:06 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Colin Oatley
     @ColinOatley Can't keep mass-testing individuals on a regular basis, they won't stand for it. But tell them "your block has increased levels, please test yourself and report" and many people will do it.