Tracking a single person through wastewater DNA

Re:Tracking a single person through wastewater DNA by adastra22 on Thursday June 08, 2023 @01:45AM (#36237715)

This is addressed in the twitter thread. It is believed that a gastrointestinal infection of COVID simply doesn't shed virus particles, except through excrement, and the GI tract does a good job of denaturing the viral proteins so that they are mostly inactive. That is probably why it hasn't spread. Yet.

But that says nothing about how infectious this strain would be, or how virulent if it were to be contracted as a respiratory infection. This could be the new Delta/Omicron, or worse. We could be one explosive diarrhea away from a new pandemic.

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Re:Tracking a single person through wastewater DNA by talkmess on Thursday June 08, 2023 @06:25AM (#36239595)

Emphasis on "would be".

Currently it's not. So, currently no problem. If it changes, then it could be, yes. Which is true for any virus. If they change, they could potentially harm lots of people. That's life, and that's why we have the CDC and WHO etc. who keep an eye on things and try to react once that's needed. (Which lots of conspiracy theorists don't like, but that's life too.)

(Also, please avoid inhaling somebody else's feces.)

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