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Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

publichealth.verily.com

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Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#4
post #2

See also: https://biobot.io/data/

Popped in to share this one, it has COVID data on my area while the Verily site doesn't seem to yet.

I've been using wastewater data to adjust my behavior since official testing and reporting is down and under-reporting cases. Detected COVID goes up, I reduce my exposure and remind my vulnerable loved ones. Detected COVID goes back down, I adjust my behavior accordingly.

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#5
post #3

Lots of cities missing from this, many exist but lack any data Not sure how helpful this is when huge swathes of the population aren’t represented here

Wastewater facilities are almost always run by local government. I expect it takes time to get buy in for a project like this. I didn't see if there was a grant to cover the testing, but you at very least need a worker to package up samples and mail them to a lab.

Still, this is tremendously useful where there is coverage, and looks like enough data to make sampling type of conclusions. Hopefully we'll eventually see some kind of network effect.

For example, I'm in the NYC area - and Newark NJ has coverage. There is enough overlap that I expect flu and covid curves (including strains) to be close enough to be interesting.

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#7
Wastewater surveillance is a pretty crazy technology. My neighbor works on projects using it for wildlife tracking, and they can get startling amounts of information about what is going on in a given watershed. What (e.g endangered) animals are present, what animals humans are eating, etc. And all the way down to the viral level, obviously.

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#8

It's Suspect that adjacent cities have such divergent trends. For example Novato vs San Rafael CA. Novato: http://publichealth.verily.com/#Novato,%20CA:SARS-CoV-2 San Rafael: http://publichealth.verily.com/#San%20Rafael,%20CA:SARS-CoV-...

I don't find it suspect (well, suspect of what exactly?) as a native to these cities but I may lack perspective. Go one city over all over the Bay Area and you get wild differences. There's a lot of land between north bay cities too. Also, weren't we all just using these divergences a year ago to back up Covid statistics - i.e. Santa Rosa was higher than surrounding cities from my recollection, and that was "expected" one you knew the areas.

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#9
post #5
post #3

Lots of cities missing from this, many exist but lack any data Not sure how helpful this is when huge swathes of the population aren’t represented here

Wastewater facilities are almost always run by local government. I expect it takes time to get buy in for a project like this. I didn't see if there was a grant to cover the testing, but you at very least need a worker to package up samples and mail them to a lab. Still, this is tremendously useful where there is coverage, and looks like enough data to make sampling type of conclusions. Hopefully we'll eventually see…

With fewer people commuting to work there's less overlap, but enough new yorkers have family in NJ and vice versa that I suspect suspect Newark should be pretty accurate for NYC +/- 5-15% with a lag time of a week max.

Re: Graph showing level of Covid, flu and RSV in US wastewater systems, by city

#10
post #4
post #2

See also: https://biobot.io/data/

Popped in to share this one, it has COVID data on my area while the Verily site doesn't seem to yet. I've been using wastewater data to adjust my behavior since official testing and reporting is down and under-reporting cases. Detected COVID goes up, I reduce my exposure and remind my vulnerable loved ones. Detected COVID goes back down, I adjust my behavior accordingly.

There are some seriously long delays and gaps in wastewater reporting, though. They only do it in my local area very 6 weeks or so.
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