Episode 18: Facemasks + Sewers4Covid

On this week’s episode of the RAZOR podcast, Shini and Emma look at a group of researchers studying our sewer system to better manage the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Emma speaks to Dr. Monica Ghandi, an infectious disease expert from the University of California in San Francisco to hear the evidence for wearing face coverings and a hypothesis on how facemasks can work in a similar way to vaccines in fighting COVID-19.  

Sewers4COVID is a collaboration of researchers from Greece, Spain, the Netherlands and the UK who have developed a system of wastewater surveillance to track the spread of COVID-19. Their prototype proves sewer surveillance could be an effective tool in the fight against the pandemic and they are now looking into the feasibility of setting up a Europe-wide monitoring system. 

Shini spoke to Dragan Savic of KWR Water Research Institute to find out more. Savic explains how this technology started and why analysing sewage is a good way to get a picture of a population’s behavior and habits without infringing on individual privacy. He also tells how exactly this technology can help us fight COVID-19 and could be a good predictor of future pandemics.

On what’s exciting us in science this week, Shini explains why staring at a seagull could be the way to help manage their populations.