My local wastewater treatment plant is one of the original CDC Sentinel sites where the CDC samples flu variants circulating in the population. I know that sewage-sheds are not perfect proxies for the general population. But, my wastewater (and that of 4.8 Million people in LA County) goes to the A K Warren Facility in Carson, CA. It's the largest treatment facility in LA County, the US, and among the largest in the world.
The CDC sampled at a number of facilities around the country in different metropolitan areas, determined the circulating diseases discoverable from wastewater, and then formulated the flu vaccine supply accordingly. This is a backwards-looking process. What was circulating last summer may not be what is circulating now. But, there is a long lead time to ordering vaccines and getting shots in arms.
Anyway, we can test for a lot more things now. And, we have the capacity to test at more sites. I'm very nervous about what is at state now that Trump has lost the election and wants to install RFK Jr to lead the CDC. Most people won't know what we lose because they don't even know what the CDC does. This is just a small window in what this agency does.
I just want to provide a few links to useful resources because Google Search has degraded so much, it's hard to find sites. Also, some sites have broken links--either moved elsewhere or lost their funding when the Covid Emergency declaration expired.
This is what I could find today, Jan 2, 2025
CDC National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) main page has state-level data.
California's Department of Public Health has a newly redesigned website and I am still trying to find stuff. I used to visit the Tableau Cal SuWers weekly, but the old link doesn't work or redirect correctly.
New CalSuWers site (made with R Shiny) has data last updated Dec 26. CalSuWers reports to CDC and the national network, so it's showing data that is a bit more recent.
Read the instructions/caveats. Then navigate to the Regional Data top level page. Use the menus of the left to select regional or sewage-shed data. Note that this plant last updated data on Dec 31.
Unfortunately, this data tool only reports Covid-19 data. There's lots more data I found on other sites.
Members of the California Water Environment Association collect a lot more data, including research products in partnership with scientists throughout California and the world.
List of Participating CA Wastewater Surveillance participants.
The best site visualization site I can find right now that collates data from around the US is from WastewaterSCAN, a Stanford-Emory led effort.
Select the region on their national map, then zoom by region and select by sewage plant.
Click View Chart and you can see Covid-19, RSV, Influenza A or B, Human metapneumovirus, Norovirus, Mpox, EVD68, Candida auris, Hepatitis A (for the Warren facility). The number and type of tests vary by location. The most recent data is from Dec 25.
Based on positive detections for Hepatitis A in my subregion, I am glad that I started the 3-shot series that combines vaccines for both Hep A and Hep B. Covid-19, RSV, Inf A & B, and Norovirus are all circulating as well.
Meanwhile, our whole family came down with a cold. We bought the Covid-19 + Inf A + Inf B home test at CVS and we just had a plain old cold. It really ruined our holiday plans.
Mask up and stay healthy!
