A senior New York City environment official touted the benefits of wastewater testing for tracking diseases such as COVID-19, mpox and polio, citing the fact that it doesn't rely on individuals going to the doctor to get tested.
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2023.A senior New York City environment official overseeing its wastewater surveillance program for signs of the coronavirus, mpox and polio said the data is “becoming more and more useful for tracking illnesses,” but that the city has a way to go before using it to inform public health. The reason? The city’s health department and other agencies haven’t fully bought into the wastewater program as a trusted source for decision-making.
The comments came Wednesday during a presentation at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan by Jonathan Hoffman, director of regulatory compliance for the NYC Department of Environmental Protection — and represent a sharp departure fromlast month by the city’s health and environment agencies, which called wastewater surveillance a “developing field,” stressing a need for further research before it could be used to inform policy action.
Hoffman told a crowd of museum members and self-described science nerds that wastewater is becoming more useful as fewer people get the lab-based PCR tests that are reflected in the city’s COVID-19 dashboard. The talk was part of, in which experts from the museum and other city institutions provide informal overviews of new science topics.
An audience of science nerds at the American Museum of Natural History waits for NYC environmental protection official Jonathan Hoffman to begin his talk on sewer surveillance, as part of the museum’s SciCafe series, Jan. 4, 2023.Analysis by Gothamist and MuckRock found that, as PCR testing declined in 2022, data from our sewers showed a higher level of coronavirus spread than official case numbers – suggesting that the sewer data may be more accurate.
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