A helpful new tool to track COVID

Minnesotans now have a valuable new tool to help navigate an ongoing pandemic. They ought to make good use of it.

On Wednesday, a new statewide COVID-19 wastewater surveillance dashboard made its public debut, thanks to a conscientious collaboration led by the University of Minnesota Medical School. It's available online at z.umn.edu/ww_dashboard. What this means: Anyone can track regional levels of the COVID virus detected in sewage.

People infected with the COVID virus shed it when they use the toilet, an off-putting but useful fact. Measuring viral loads downstream where sewage is treated provides a pandemic weather vane. It can signal that viral transmission is increasing or decreasing in an area, "approximately two weeks before clinical cases show up in hospitals or clinics," according to the U.

That information can help medical providers and policymakers, enabling them to prepare earlier for COVID turbulence or alternatively loosen whatever mitigation measures are left. But the public can make good use of this, too, which is why the Star Tribune Editorial Board previously urged the U to make its wastewater surveillance data accessible.

Now that it's up and running, Minnesotans should use the new dashboard like a weather app. COVID isn't going away. While the latest wastewater data suggests the surge fueled by the omicron variant is rapidly declining across the state, other variants are likely. Viral spread among white-tailed deer, an animal reservoir in which variants threatening to humans could also evolve, underscores the need to keep our collective guard up.

Calculating individual risk for infection will be an ongoing part of life — just like the weather. The wastewater data, while it has limitations, can nevertheless help people make informed decisions.

For example, some may feel more confident about attending events in crowded indoor settings — high risk for transmission — if the latest wastewater data suggests low COVID prevalence. The opposite may happen if wastewater data is detecting increasingly high levels.

One drawback is that data is limited to homes served by wastewater facilities, not those relying on private septic systems. Nevertheless, the science behind wastewater surveillance is solid.

Would it have been nice to have this information earlier in pandemic? Sure, but good science takes time. This specialized surveillance started as a research project in 2020 and then, "We had to validate the scientific findings. After the process and findings were found valid at the end of 2021, we started working with MDH and many university units to compose a public dashboard," a U Medical School spokeswoman said.

Federal lawmakers should build on the U's good work. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partners with wastewater treatment plants across the United States, but there are still wide gaps in the data gathered. Maybe collecting this data and reporting it should be required, not voluntary? Also, is a federal investment needed to expand the number of local collection sites?