Sewage Sludge Can Be an Early Warning of Coronavirus

Last year I wrote about how the testing of sewage sludge in Flint could shed light on the evolution of lead levels in its water. But it turns out that sewage sludge can do more: you can test the sludge for coronavirus too. A team of Yale researchers did this in New Haven and came up with this:

The red line shows the concentration of coronavirus in sewage sludge. The black line shows the number of new COVID-19 cases. It’s a perfect fit with a lag of about one week.

It’s not clear how useful this result is, but anything that gives an early warning of coronavirus infections allows public health officials a head start on countermeasures. It won’t stop the spike in cases, but it might reduce the length of the spike if countermeasures are put in place a week earlier than they otherwise would.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate