Poop could be the key to tracking COVID-19 outbreaks
Sampling our stool could offer a faster and cheaper way to pinpoint where outbreaks of COVID-19 are brewing before scores of people become seriously ill. (ASU, Media Relations/)Your poop might soon be pressed into service in the fight against COVID-19.When we flush the toilet, our effluvia are whisked out of sight and mind and in most cases wind up at a wastewater treatment plant. All this waste represents a golden (so to speak) opportunity to track the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.Around the world, scientists are detecting remnants of the virus in municipal sewage. Sampling our stool could offer a faster and cheaper way to pinpoint where outbreaks of COVID-19 are brewing before scores of people become seriously ill, they argue. This technique also picks up virus bits that were “shed” by people whose mild or asymptomatic infections often go unnoticed.“We can actually measure hundreds of thousands of...