Fortune October 2, 2022
Scientists have spent an inordinate amount of time during the COVID pandemic sifting through sewage—an attempt to consult the so-called “oracle in the toilet” as to what the virus holds next.
Their goal: trace the level of COVID in human waste to gauge its spread in individual cities and states. Scientists are even able to follow the trail further downstream, tracing particular variants to neighborhoods, and even buildings like offices.
But is it ethical?
Wastewater surveillance is a decades-old approach to epidemiology. It rose to prominence during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when it allowed universities to efficiently track outbreaks in dorms and quarantine accordingly. With COVID testing becoming less and less frequent, it’s become public health officials’...
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