Use wastewater data?

[velocitybucket]

The CDC publishes data relating to COVID prevalence in wastewater:

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

This seems like it might lead to a much better way to estimate COVID prevalence in the population, since it doesn't rely on individual testing, which varies by time and geography and efficacy. Has anyone looked into using this data?

[apiology]

Thanks for the link, @velocitybucket! I wonder if there's an aggregation for non-US data as well.

In general, I'd love to see some someone dig in on this and pull together some thoughtful points on the ways this could potentially be integrated and the pros and cons of each.

Other wastewater discussion:

• Announcement: microCOVID needs your help #1626 (comment)
• Risk levels inaccurate due to undercounting in data sources vs wastewater data? #1383

[CABearyy]

Canadian wastewater data is available here:
https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/wastewater/#download

[dbostrom]

Nice updated (Sept. '23) overview of how wastewater stands now, with a collection of good references to academic publications. Possibly some leads?

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sewage-key-track-disease-covid-19-wastewater