How Wisconsin Scientists Are Tracking COVID-19 Through Your Toilets UPDATED 9:03 AM ET Jan. 08, 2021 PUBLISHED 6:03 PM ET Jan. 07, 2021 PUBLISHED 6:03 PM EST Jan. 07, 2021
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MILWAUKEE When a person catches COVID-19, they can shed the virus that causes it in a few different ways. Mostly, this happens through the respiratory system: Sneezing, coughing, breathing, talking.
But scientists have learned that the SARS-CoV-2 virus also exits out of another end of the body the back end, to put it delicately.
Sandra McLellan, a professor at UW-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences, learned from early reports out of China that the virus’s genetic signature could be traced in feces. For McLellan, who has spent years studying wastewater, the research sparked a “light bulb.”