4 ms·

Dutch Scientists Find a Novel Coronavirus Early-Warning Signal

92 points by toshk 6y ago

rubidium 6y ago
This is pretty cool. Poop’s a good universal, non- invasive test. If the sample rate was high enough would be helpful to detect outbreaks, esp. if this becomes seasonal. Probably not economically feasible, but you could envision “in-line” sampling systems spread throughout the waste system to localize where an outbreak is starting and send in the contact tracers and testers.
- arcticbull 6y ago
  If it becomes endemic is there really a need?
  - grafs50 6y ago
    It'd be pretty cool if we had a general system in place for capturing the spread of future diseases.
    - arcticbull 6y ago
      Yeah for sure, though I wonder by the time we realize that’s where we’re at, and by the time we design, ramp and scale the detection grid, how much the ship will have sailed.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- jillesvangurp 6y ago
  Given some automated tests and strategically positioned inspection points, it should be possible to monitor the outbreak of this and other deceases. That might be more cost effective than being surprised by outbreaks and then dealing with the consequences. Right now we have entire countries on lock down to preempt the decease spreading because we lack fine grained detection mechanisms that can effectively give us a high degree of certainty that a given area is affected or not and take measures quickly if something pops up. At this point, most countries seem to be getting this under control and most of the business of hand washing, mask wearing, and social distancing, etc. that is wrecking our economies is just that: preemptive measures because we just don't know other than by monitoring death rates and new reported cases numbers.
- de_watcher 6y ago
  Google Toilet must become real.
  - blululu 6y ago
    The Apple Toilet SE is a better product.
dopylitty 6y ago
They claim "the first report of detection of SARS-CoV-2 in sewage" but if I search Google News for 'covid wastewater' I find several reports of similar studies going back months. That aside I wonder if there's already an infrastructure in place for mass testing of wastewater for all sorts of things. If it's useful for covid it might be useful for other diseases or health problems. Then I start to wonder about the privacy implications of mass sewage collection. If it was localized I can imagine an authoritarian state using it to enforce anti-drug or anti-beef policies.
- ObsoleteNerd 6y ago
  Yeah I’m sure this is at least the third article I’ve seen posted in the last month or 2 boasting about being the first to use sewerage to detect the virus.
  - toshk 6y ago
    Yes article from March. By now also published about by Nature (at least online), and also part as of the signals they are looking at in the NL
    - imjasonmiller 6y ago
      From what I gather, according to the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, they started sampling on a weekly basis from the 17th of February [1]. To paraphrase, they didn't find anything the first two weeks, but samples from the 2nd, 9th and 16th of March showed signs of the virus, four days after the first person in the Netherlands tested positive for the virus. They mention that they have applied this technique for the norovirus, measles and others before. 1. https://www.rivm.nl/nieuws/nieuwe-coronavirus-aangetroffen-in-rioolwater https://www.rivm.nl/nieuws/nieuwe-coronavirus-aangetroffen-i...
      - toshk 6y ago
        Thanks, interesting! Shame they didn't start in the south in februari, could have made a difference.
azepoi 6y ago
Paper Preprint https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00357 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00357 a french team in this space too https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.12.20062679v2 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.12.20062679v... https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/coronavirus-found-paris-sewage-points-early-warning-system https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/coronavirus-found-pa... also this from Yale https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.19.20105999v1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.19.20105999v... at EPFL https://actu.epfl.ch/news/covid-19-les-eaux-usees-pour-detecter-l-evolution-/ https://actu.epfl.ch/news/covid-19-les-eaux-usees-pour-detec...
devy 6y ago
This was dated in March 31, 2020. For a very rapidly developing global pandemic event, any news that's more than one month old could potentially proven to be false or irrelevant. For example, Hydroxychloroquine, CDC adivce on wearing Masks, ventilators demand, etc.
- rantwasp 6y ago
  the CDC advice on not wearing masks early on was pure BS. pure BS and misinformation spread to cover lack of resources.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- airstrike 6y ago
  > CDC advice on wearing Masks I don't know what the consensus is about this, but my take on it is that this was never not false...
CrazyPyroLinux 6y ago
Time for SmartPipe! :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ

92 points by toshk 6y ago

This is pretty cool. Poop’s a good universal, non- invasive test. If the sample rate was high enough would be helpful to detect outbreaks, esp. if this becomes seasonal. Probably not economically feasible, but you could envision “in-line” sampling systems spread throughout the waste system to localize where an outbreak is starting and send in the contact tracers and testers.

arcticbull 6y ago
If it becomes endemic is there really a need?
- grafs50 6y ago
  It'd be pretty cool if we had a general system in place for capturing the spread of future diseases.
  - arcticbull 6y ago
    Yeah for sure, though I wonder by the time we realize that’s where we’re at, and by the time we design, ramp and scale the detection grid, how much the ship will have sailed.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
jillesvangurp 6y ago
Given some automated tests and strategically positioned inspection points, it should be possible to monitor the outbreak of this and other deceases. That might be more cost effective than being surprised by outbreaks and then dealing with the consequences. Right now we have entire countries on lock down to preempt the decease spreading because we lack fine grained detection mechanisms that can effectively give us a high degree of certainty that a given area is affected or not and take measures quickly if something pops up. At this point, most countries seem to be getting this under control and most of the business of hand washing, mask wearing, and social distancing, etc. that is wrecking our economies is just that: preemptive measures because we just don't know other than by monitoring death rates and new reported cases numbers.
de_watcher 6y ago
Google Toilet must become real.
- blululu 6y ago
  The Apple Toilet SE is a better product.

dopylitty 6y ago

They claim "the first report of detection of SARS-CoV-2 in sewage" but if I search Google News for 'covid wastewater' I find several reports of similar studies going back months. That aside I wonder if there's already an infrastructure in place for mass testing of wastewater for all sorts of things. If it's useful for covid it might be useful for other diseases or health problems. Then I start to wonder about the privacy implications of mass sewage collection. If it was localized I can imagine an authoritarian state using it to enforce anti-drug or anti-beef policies.

ObsoleteNerd 6y ago
Yeah I’m sure this is at least the third article I’ve seen posted in the last month or 2 boasting about being the first to use sewerage to detect the virus.
- toshk 6y ago
  Yes article from March. By now also published about by Nature (at least online), and also part as of the signals they are looking at in the NL
  - imjasonmiller 6y ago
    From what I gather, according to the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, they started sampling on a weekly basis from the 17th of February [1]. To paraphrase, they didn't find anything the first two weeks, but samples from the 2nd, 9th and 16th of March showed signs of the virus, four days after the first person in the Netherlands tested positive for the virus. They mention that they have applied this technique for the norovirus, measles and others before. 1. https://www.rivm.nl/nieuws/nieuwe-coronavirus-aangetroffen-in-rioolwater https://www.rivm.nl/nieuws/nieuwe-coronavirus-aangetroffen-i...
    - toshk 6y ago
      Thanks, interesting! Shame they didn't start in the south in februari, could have made a difference.

azepoi 6y ago

Paper Preprint https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00357 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00357 a french team in this space too https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.12.20062679v2 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.12.20062679v... https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/coronavirus-found-paris-sewage-points-early-warning-system https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/04/coronavirus-found-pa... also this from Yale https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.19.20105999v1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.19.20105999v... at EPFL https://actu.epfl.ch/news/covid-19-les-eaux-usees-pour-detecter-l-evolution-/ https://actu.epfl.ch/news/covid-19-les-eaux-usees-pour-detec...

devy 6y ago

This was dated in March 31, 2020. For a very rapidly developing global pandemic event, any news that's more than one month old could potentially proven to be false or irrelevant. For example, Hydroxychloroquine, CDC adivce on wearing Masks, ventilators demand, etc.

rantwasp 6y ago
the CDC advice on not wearing masks early on was pure BS. pure BS and misinformation spread to cover lack of resources.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
airstrike 6y ago
> CDC advice on wearing Masks I don't know what the consensus is about this, but my take on it is that this was never not false...

CrazyPyroLinux 6y ago

Time for SmartPipe! :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ