Virologist expects long battle with delta variant in Illinois

ST. LOUIS - The hunt for COVID-19 variants has led some researchers to the gutters--literally.

"It doesn't matter if you've been vaccinated, it doesn't matter whether you have health insurance, it doesn't matter whether you believe in COVID. If you use the toilet, we're sampling you," said Professor Marc Johnson. He's a virologist and wastewater researcher with the University of Missouri School of Medicine.

The Missouri Sewershed Surveillance project collects samples that cover entire communities and tests them for traces of RNA that the COVID-19 virus leaves behind in the people who get sick.

Those traces end up going down the pipes, and that's where Johnson's team finds them.

It's faster than testing the COVID-19 genome for every person who gets a nose swab. The COVID traces in sewer water aren't contagious, and it's entirely anonymous.

Right now, this testing method is showing Johnson the way that the delta variant has taken over all across Missouri.

The Department of Health and Senior Services says that they were first notified of the delta variant in Missouri on May 8.

Usually, Johnson said, COVID-19 variants followed major transportation lines across the state, particularly the interstate highways. Delta was different, starting in Branson and then popping up at points halfway across the state.

"It's weird that it was, just, scattershot, across the state," said Johnson. "By the third week it had already sort of made it all over the place."