In order to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, finding out who has it is the first step.

We hear from John Carter, a research technician from the UW's Civil & Environmental Engineering department, about how wastewater is collected from manholes and neighborhood pump stations, and see how he handles these samples in a lab to begin testing for markers of the coronavirus. They hope to be able not only to see if a sample tests positive, but eventually determine how many people may be infected within that sample.

Lead researcher Mari Winkler, an assistant professor at the UW, explains that this is a cost efficient way to test communities over time, especially as we roll out vaccinations, to see infection levels as they change on a neighborhood level. This is particularly effective to measure areas where people haven't done a lot of individual testing, and see which areas may need more or less help.

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