Where does the U.S. stand in widespread sewage testing for COVID-19?
By: Newsy
and last updated 2020-12-18 13:33:42-05
The country is heading into a COVID-19 winter without fully deploying widespread testing of sewage for traces of coronavirus, a Newsy investigation has found.
Wastewater surveillance is one of the few proven tools able to track community spread of the disease, with the potential to help monitor immunity rates from new vaccines. It is frustrating, said David Larsen, an associate professor of public health at Syracuse University s Falk College. We re going to see a huge amount of sadness over the next few months. And it s not too late to scale up wastewater surveillance at this time to help us with that.
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The country is heading into a COVID winter without fully deploying widespread testing of sewage for traces of coronavirus, a Newsy investigation has found.
Wastewater surveillance is one of the few proven tools able to track community spread of the disease, with potential to help monitor immunity rates from new vaccines. It is frustrating, said David Larsen, an associate professor of public health at Syracuse University s Falk College. We re going to see a huge amount of sadness over the next few months. And it s not too late to scale up wastewater surveillance at this time to help us with that.