There were no reports of coronavirus in Yosemite. Then they tested the park's sewage

[Nevilledog]

https://www.sfchronicle.com/health/article/There-were-no-reports-of-coronavirus-in-Yosemite-15414351.php


Like a lot of the rural West, Yosemite National Park stood as a safe haven from the coronavirus. No park employees or residents tested positive. No visitors reported being sick. The fresh air and open space seemed immune.

That’s until local health officials started looking for the coronavirus in the park’s raw sewage — that’s right, the poop. This week, lab analysis of feces at two wastewater treatment plants serving Yosemite revealed the presence of the virus that causes COVID-19. Dozens of people in Yosemite Valley are believed to have been infected.

“It’s one thing to live in denial: We live in the mountains, no one’s sick,” said Eric Sergienko, the health officer for Mariposa County, who is overseeing coronavirus testing in the Yosemite area. “But we can now confirm it’s here.”

With the pandemic surging across the country, more and more communities are keeping watch for the virus in wastewater. As foul as it may be, untreated sewage has long been used to track some of society’s most persistent ails, from illicit drugs to pollutants to disease. In 2013, a polio flare-up was famously identified through wastewater in northern Israel, helping authorities get a jump on containing the outbreak.

*snip*

[soothsayer]

1. Very interesting

[Nevilledog]

4. soothsayer likes poop posts. So noted.

[soothsayer]

5. I think they call them ess-word posts

[ornotna]

9. What a shitty thing to say

[Nevilledog]

10. *snicker*

[fleur-de-lisa]

2. Well, shit.

[OriginalGeek]

6. This post has been up for 2 whole minutes

And does not have nearly the love it deserves. If I could like it a million times I would.

[mr_lebowski]

8. +2 DUzy

[Takket]

11. DUZY!!!

[marlakay]

3. Its all part of the if we don't test

Its not here theory.

[mr_lebowski]

7. Disturbing. I have family in Tuolumne County plus my folks have a house there ..

Apparently the locals have been pretty hostile towards outsiders since this started. There's been only a couple cases in the whole county last I heard.