CNN
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As the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to investigate such Covid-19 surveillance programs, it is working out the “logistics and legal” aspects of testing wastewater from airplanes for coronavirus variants.
A person close to the CDC’s discussions said the agency is still “thinking about how to operate this program” and that there are “logistical and legal” hurdles that need to be resolved before the program is “operational.” added.
Some of the agency’s partners told CNN they stand ready to help deploy this potential next frontier in the country’s Covid-19 surveillance efforts.
Matt McKnight, general manager of Boston-based synthetic biology company Ginkgo Bioworks, said monitoring sewage for traces of coronavirus variants is a “validated” scientific process that is no longer in pilot stages. Instead, it states that planes are the logical next step. His Concentric by Ginkgo biosecurity and public health division at the company has been selected as a partner for CDC’s travel-based genomic surveillance program to detect Covid-19 and influenza variants in international travelers.
For now, the use of test services to collect and analyze aircraft wastewater is “a lively conversation between the CDC, the White House, and airlines,” McKnight said.
But the process of testing aircraft wastewater is itself a “validated methodology and a program that can be actively implemented,” he added. “System is ready.”
Aircraft wastewater testing involves collecting sewage from commercial aircraft carrying individual passengers.
“We can pull it out of the plane in less than two minutes and put it in the lab network right away.
Once these wastewater samples arrive at diagnostic labs for testing, scientists scan them for known or unknown viruses, such as new variants of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. Look for traces of If the sample is positive for the virus, the scientist will perform genome sequencing to pinpoint which subspecies the virus belongs to.
“Sequencing typically takes about five to seven days,” says Casandra Philipson, a researcher and program leader at Ginkgo Bioworks. The scientist can then analyze the results and submit the results to her CDC.
“Analysis can be done very quickly,” says Philipson. For example a few days. “And it will return the results immediately.”
Both McKnight and Philipson said aircraft wastewater monitoring could not only help detect new coronavirus and flu variants acting as a “radar system,” but also which Covid-19 shots hit each year. He said it could alert vaccine makers to whether they need to target
Advisors to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are scheduled to discuss this week that the Covid-19 vaccine will become an annual vaccination, similar to the seasonal flu vaccine.
That process could include streamlining vaccine composition, immunization schedules and regular vaccine updates, according to meeting documents posted Monday. The FDA says it plans to evaluate circulating strains of coronavirus at least annually and make decisions in June on which strains to select for the fall season, similar to the process of updating annual flu vaccines.
“If you give Moderna and Pfizer early information, they can make a vaccine very quickly, which they couldn’t do early in the pandemic,” McKnight said. “The big lesson learned is that we can think about all the variants of these viruses that are circulating around the world, so that we can detect what’s out there and get early warning.” It’s like others that have radar systems to
A report released last week by the National Academy of Sciences and Engineering described wastewater monitoring as a “valuable component” of infectious disease control, with wastewater monitoring at major U.S. airports and ports of entry identifying the first cases of other pathogens. points out that it may be useful to Area among international travelers. This report was produced at the request of the CDC.
Another UK study published last week in Plos One found that the majority of wastewater samples collected from 150 terminals and 32 aircraft at three major UK international airports in March 2022 , were found to be SARS-CoV-positive. 2.
The study found that all samples taken from the sewers of arrival terminals at Heathrow and Bristol airports, and 85% of samples taken from the Edinburgh airport site, were positive for the virus.
“It was not a surprise to find SARS-CoV-2 RNA in these wastewater samples. This was a proof-of-concept study. This was a positive result,” he said in an email Tuesday.
“In our study, we used PCR-based detection, but other studies have successfully used sequencing for these types of samples. It can also be identified, supporting other types of surveillance programs to better understand which variants are circulating around the world,” she wrote. It is noteworthy that our methodology can be used to identify other viruses that could threaten global public health.”
