Yes, Shit

By KIM BELLARD The Conversation had a provocative article by Stanford professor Richard White about how America has a bad pattern of wasting infrastructure spending.  In light of the surprisingly bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill recently passed by the Senate, this seems like something we should be giving some serious thought to.  I’ll posit that we’re doing it again, by not adequately addressing the potential that our excreta, to be polite, offers to detect health issues, including but not limited to COVID-19.  No shit: excrement can be an important tool in public — and personal — health.  Take wastewater monitoring.  It is not a new concept – for example, to track polio – and has been used during much of the current pandemic.  According to the COVIDPoops19 dashboard, run by UC Merced’s School of Engineering, there are 55 countries with 89 dashboards monitoring the wastewater in 2,428 sites for signs of COVID-19.  The project even has its own Twitter handle (@CovidPoops19).  According to Kaiser Health News, the University of California San Diego’s program has identified 85% of COVID-19 cases over the last year, using a largely automated monitoring system.  Infected people shed virus particles long before they show symptoms, allowing such programs to act as an early detection system.  “University campuses especially benefit from wastewater surveillance as a means to avert CO...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health Tech Kim Bellard public health wastewater monitoring Source Type: blogs