Univ. of Arizona attacks COVID detection from the downstream side of things
After discussing that IU is a mess this morning, Univ. of Arizona is attacking the COVID problem from the other end and has scored a success. Good news applicable to settings like university housing.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/28/arizona-coronavirus-wastewater-testing/
August 28th, 2020 at 1:31 PM ^
Fecal.
Aerosol.
Plumes.
August 28th, 2020 at 1:43 PM ^
By god, my pastor was right! Fap will kill you!
August 28th, 2020 at 2:27 PM ^
I think the article suggests that FAP will save you.
August 28th, 2020 at 3:58 PM ^
Will someone pleases hurry up and decide one way or the other?
August 28th, 2020 at 4:25 PM ^
But was it a....
... double-blind study?
August 28th, 2020 at 2:49 PM ^
It's always disturbed me to know that when you smell a fart, that it was air touching poop in someone's poophole just moments before.
August 28th, 2020 at 1:35 PM ^
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE FECAL PLUMES, BABY!!!
I came here to do two things: Drink some beer and eat some ass. And we're almost out of beer...
August 28th, 2020 at 1:37 PM ^
That's pretty much how Wildcats roll.
August 28th, 2020 at 1:45 PM ^
I'm sure a lot of places are going to be using this. MSU is also testing wastewater to detect spikes without relying on students getting themselves tested. Given that it can take several days to get test results back in some cases, and a lot of asymptomatic students probably won't voluntarily go get tested, wastewater can show a spike before it can be detected from normal testing.
August 28th, 2020 at 2:08 PM ^
Hope College has already been testing wastewater as well.
August 28th, 2020 at 3:17 PM ^
Same-sies at UC San Diego
August 28th, 2020 at 1:45 PM ^
after all those years of being called immature for laughing at fecal gas, I am starting to feel scientifically vindicated for my youthful behavior
edit:
I can't believe my extensive knowledge in this area actually prepared me for the future
August 28th, 2020 at 3:20 PM ^
If fecal gas is now an area of academic study, then my father was a Ph.D.
After two beers and a coney, he could've provided enough material for a doctoral thesis.
August 28th, 2020 at 1:53 PM ^
Seeking solutions wherever we have to.
August 28th, 2020 at 1:54 PM ^
imagine that job
August 28th, 2020 at 2:05 PM ^
Holy shit!
August 28th, 2020 at 2:19 PM ^
There was primary literature out of nordic countries on wastewater testing in the spring. It does seem more limited than individual testing (PCR, antigen, etc.), however, in terms of contact tracing and mitigation.
Also, as IU is showing (I'm a biochemist and M.D. in Bloomington), testing can only go so far. As I recall, IUB literally tested every human on campus last week. And now they are performing follow-up testing of the general public with a slight bias for the greek and dorm systems. The goal has been to repeat those roughly weekly (scaling up to keep hitting every student) and to send the sick ones either to "quarantine dorms" run by nurses or home. If even with that much of a "gave it our best try" and investment of resources, can't work, then there's relatively little hope for schools ... anywhere.
Especially the poorer ones.
August 28th, 2020 at 2:32 PM ^
It's a smart idea and I give them credit for thinking about it from a different end. I'm honestly a bit surprised they were able to get 2 positive tests from 2 students' #2s in all that waste, but kudos.
August 28th, 2020 at 3:14 PM ^
I was thinking about that also. They are testing the feces from 311 kids in a dorm and found enough trace from the 2 carriers that it was caught in their testing? Not to mention the time factor involved here - this can't be a real-time test where someone with a test tube and bunson burner is hiding in the basement of the dorm....so how exactly did they catch this so fast and effectively?
If they really did - the engineering behind the sensitivity, speed, and accuracy of their poop testing should be the focus of the article.
August 28th, 2020 at 3:20 PM ^
They've hired Najeh Davenport as an expert consultant.
August 28th, 2020 at 3:41 PM ^
"The University of Arizona says it caught a dorm’s covid-19 outbreak before it started. Its secret weapon:
Poop."
How many people would have predicted a year ago that one of the nation's most prominent newspapers would be running this headline today?