CDC figuring out ‘logistical and legal’ aspects of testing airplane wastewater for coronavirus variants, source says

The US CDC is ironing out the “logistical and legal” aspects of testing wastewater from airplanes for coronavirus variants as it continues to explore such a Covid-19 monitoring program. The agency is still “figuring out how to operationalize this program,” a person close to CDC discussions said, adding that there are “logistical and legal” hurdles that need to be sorted out before the program “would be operational.” Some of the agency’s partners tell CNN that they are poised to help roll out this potential next frontier in the nation’s Covid-19 surveillance effort. Monitoring sewage for traces of coronavirus variants is a “validated” scientific process – no longer in its pilot phase – and airplanes are a logical next step, said Matt McKnight, general manager at Boston-based synthetic biology company Ginkgo Bioworks. Its Concentric by Ginkgo biosecurity and public health unit has been chosen to partner in the CDC’s traveler-based genomic surveillance program to detect Covid-19 and flu variants among international travelers. For now, the use of testing services to collect and analyze airplane wastewater for variants “is an active conversation between CDC, the White House and the airlines,” McKnight said. But the process of testing airplane wastewater itself is “validated methodology, and it is a program that can be run actively,” he added. “The system is ready to go.”<br/>