Covid-19 wastewater surveillance is promising tool, but critical challenges remain
CNN
Covid-19 surveillance is at a crossroads in the United States. With at-home tests now outnumbering those done in laboratories, official case counts are more incomplete than ever as the nation -- and world -- faces down increasingly transmissible coronavirus variants.
Wastewater surveillance is poised to fill in the gaps and help avoid the threats that an invisible wave of the virus could bring. This surveillance can help identify trends in transmission a week or two earlier than clinical testing, giving public health leaders the chance to focus messaging and resources. It can be used as a tool to sequence the virus and find new variants sooner, too.
But eagerness to use this tool is stifled by uncertainty about exactly how to do so, along with a lack of resources and support to learn.
President Joe Biden warned against a streak of “semi-isolationism” in the US as he stressed the importance of alliances during a symbolic visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery on Sunday, honoring the thousands of Americans who died in World War I at a site former President Donald Trump skipped during a 2018 visit to Paris.
Looking to shore up Latino votes in Nevada and Arizona for his reelection campaign, President Joe Biden is on the verge of soon following up last week’s executive action aimed at curbing border crossings with another move focused on providing legal status for long-term undocumented immigrants married to American citizens and without criminal records.