Sewage as New Data Source

A long time promoter of finding new sources of data, especially where they can be predictive early warning indicators.   An argument for experimenting with data from new sources.  Here an example that shows the possibilities.

Cities are using sewer systems as COVID-19 early warning signs
New Haven, Connecticut and Carmel, Indiana both say sewage data is the canary in a coal mine  By Nicole Wetsman in TheVerge

Each day, workers at the wastewater treatment plant in New Haven, Connecticut, siphon off a bit of sewage and put it in a cooler. Then, researchers from Yale University swing by to pick it up. In their hands, that pile of refuse is a key tool to predict the trajectory of the local COVID-19 outbreak.

Cities around the United States are dipping into their sewer systems to track the levels of the novel coronavirus circulating inside their populations. If someone is infected with the virus, it shows up in their feces, even before they might feel sick. Virus-flecked feces make their way through sewage systems — and checking in on all that sewage gives public health officials another layer of data on the extent of the outbreak.

“It gives us a better idea of what’s going on in the city,” says New Haven epidemiologist Brian Weeks, who uses the data collected by the Yale team. .... "