I missed blogging about this important preprint when it came out for some reason. “Viable SARS-CoV-2 in the air of a hospital room with COVID-19 patients“. I’ve talked in the past about how many of the environmental sampling studies come out are only looking at SARS-CoV-2 RNA and not viable virus. Here’s a nice …
Another article showing the value of wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2. This group took weekly samples through the early days of the pandemic and on into the more recent stages and show how well that correlates with what’s known about outbreaks in the catchment area over that time. They again highlight the value of this …
Another chapter in the Diamond Princess story… you can read our last couple of journal club blog posts about the ship here and here. The latest article “Mechanistic Transmission Modeling of COVID-19 on the Diamond Princess Cruise Ship Demonstrates the Importance of Aerosol Transmission” expands this story by modeling the possible routes of transmission of …
So this one is from back in June, I had been meaning to check it out but was just reminded today on Twitter by Bastien Chevreux. “SARS-CoV-2 in environmental samples of quarantined households” is a fairly straightforward application of environmental surveillance to a household. Virtually every other monitoring study I’ve seen (wastewater aside) has been …
So we’ve written a lot about wastewater monitoring as a tool for community-level surveillance for SARS-CoV-2. I thought this article was a nice twist on that… looking at airplanes and cruise ships as a way to better monitor the virus in a travel setting. Abstract below: Abstract Background Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) for the severe acute …
Another useful preprint by Shelly Miller at CU Boulder and colleagues. In this case, “Implementing a Negative Pressure Isolation Space within a Skilled Nursing Facility to Control SARS-CoV-2 Transmission” is exactly what the title says. A demonstration of modifying an existing HVAC system to control the flow of air in a high risk environment. Good …
Just a quick post here that our paper just came out, “Draft Genome Sequences of Bacillus glennii V44-8, Bacillus saganii V47-23a, Bacillus sp. Strain V59.32b, Bacillus sp. Strain MER_TA_151, and Paenibacillus sp. Strain MER_111, Isolated from Cleanrooms Where the Viking and Mars Exploration Rover Spacecraft Were Assembled“. This describes the genomes of a couple new …
(h/t to Heather Bischel for the link) Yet another really nice and comprehensive review of the state of things regarding wastewater sampling for SARS-CoV-2. “Detection and Survival of SARS-coronavirus in Human Stool, Urine, Wastewater and Sludge“. This paper does a particularly nice job of looking at the following three questions: 1)What is the evidence for …
This one from our collaborators at the University of Oregon, “Identification of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Healthcare Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Units“. In this work they swabbed a bunch of locations on various air handlers in a healthcare setting and looked for SARS-CoV-2… finding it in about 25% of swabs. Most potentially worrying is the …
This is less of an article than an announcement of a global collaboration and website for wastewater sampling for SARS-CoV-2. “Wastewater-Based Epidemiology: Global Collaborative to Maximize Contributions in the Fight Against COVID-19“. This is a non peer-reviewed opinion piece that summarizes the current state of knowledge on wastewater testing for SARS-CoV-2 and describes their COVID-19 …