In the Tales Told by Sewage, Public Health and Privacy Collide

From the article

In early March 2020, as Covid-19 cases were accelerating across the globe, the American aircraft carrier U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt made its way to Da Nang, Vietnam for a scheduled stop to celebrate the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the nations. Nearly 100,000 cases of Covid-19 had been confirmed worldwide, and more than 3,000 people had died from it, when thousands of sailors poured off the ship for five days to mingle with locals, posing shoulder to shoulder for photos, overnighting in local hotels, and shooting hoops with Vietnamese kids.

The tool Daughton was eager to share with the Navy begins at the toilet. He first proposed it 20 years ago: analyzing sewage to see what it says about public health. The field, called wastewater-based epidemiology, began in the early 2000s with researchers isolating the residues of illegal drugs to understand community-wide use. But over the last two decades, wastewater-based epidemiology expanded to look at the remains of other substances, such as pharmaceuticals and alcohol; pathogens, to identify existing and emerging infectious diseases; and substances made in the body that illuminate the overall health of a given population. The research can happen at a single wastewater treatment plant, or scale up to capture information from an estimated three-quarters of the U.S. population and roughly 25 percent of people worldwide.

more….

Interesting read.

More from the article

Less than two weeks after pulling anchor, three crew members tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. In the ensuing weeks, the illness zipped through the vessel, eventually infecting 1,271 of the nearly 5,000 sailors, along with the ship’s captain. Twenty-three sailors were hospitalized, with four admitted into intensive care. One died. The acting secretary of the Navy fired the captain for skirting the chain of command when he begged for help with the crisis, before the acting secretary himself resigned.

Tau.Neutrino said:

More from the article

Less than two weeks after pulling anchor, three crew members tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. In the ensuing weeks, the illness zipped through the vessel, eventually infecting 1,271 of the nearly 5,000 sailors, along with the ship’s captain. Twenty-three sailors were hospitalized, with four admitted into intensive care. One died. The acting secretary of the Navy fired the captain for skirting the chain of command when he begged for help with the crisis, before the acting secretary himself resigned.

Can’t imagine anything harder than social distancing on a warship, you’d be crammed in

Cymek said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

More from the article

Less than two weeks after pulling anchor, three crew members tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. In the ensuing weeks, the illness zipped through the vessel, eventually infecting 1,271 of the nearly 5,000 sailors, along with the ship’s captain. Twenty-three sailors were hospitalized, with four admitted into intensive care. One died. The acting secretary of the Navy fired the captain for skirting the chain of command when he begged for help with the crisis, before the acting secretary himself resigned.

Can’t imagine anything harder than social distancing on a warship, you’d be crammed in

a submarine?

Tau.Neutrino said:

More from the article

Less than two weeks after pulling anchor, three crew members tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. In the ensuing weeks, the illness zipped through the vessel, eventually infecting 1,271 of the nearly 5,000 sailors, along with the ship’s captain. Twenty-three sailors were hospitalized, with four admitted into intensive care. One died. The acting secretary of the Navy fired the captain for skirting the chain of command when he begged for help with the crisis, before the acting secretary himself resigned.

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Firing a captain that was trying to limit the spread of a disease which impaired the capabilities of the ship by over one fifth, doing nothing would have impaired the crew to nearly 100 percent.

roughbarked said:

Cymek said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

More from the article

Less than two weeks after pulling anchor, three crew members tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. In the ensuing weeks, the illness zipped through the vessel, eventually infecting 1,271 of the nearly 5,000 sailors, along with the ship’s captain. Twenty-three sailors were hospitalized, with four admitted into intensive care. One died. The acting secretary of the Navy fired the captain for skirting the chain of command when he begged for help with the crisis, before the acting secretary himself resigned.

Can’t imagine anything harder than social distancing on a warship, you’d be crammed in

a submarine?

My GP at one stage had been a submariner. Nice bloke.

We need to apply sewage epidemiology to other diseases, such as HIV, TB, ross river fever, malaria, flu strains, deadly strains of e coli etc.

mollwollfumble said:

We need to apply sewage epidemiology to other diseases, such as HIV, TB, ross river fever, malaria, flu strains, deadly strains of e coli etc.

Sounds good to me.