Marc Johnson

Do you think you've had long-term GI problems since having Covid? We are performing a study examining the characteristics of viruses, specifically persistent SARS-CoV-2 infections, in stool samples. 1/3

Guess what experiment I'm doing now.

@kasthomas It's not public.

@SolidEvidence Link?

One of the things that has surprised me from wastewater surveillance is just how much cocaine Americans are still consuming. It's everywhere, and there is a lot of it. No real decrease with all of the increased border security either. Who knew?

@beansprouts_mom @CDCofBC @MetroVancouver @jeffgilchrist @DrFiliatrault I tried to recruit them for metagenomics so we could sequence everything. They turned me down.

👀 @CDCofBC & @MetroVancouver will increase wastewater surveillance to 3x per week during FIFA World Cup in #Vancouver Jun 4 - Aug 13. Normally, only Flu A/B, RSV, COVID are public. I wonder what else they will be testing for 🤔 @SolidEvidence @jeffgilchrist @DrFiliatrault

@OldYesButWise Yeah, but that has been the case all along and wastewater results have always been relative.

@SolidEvidence Is it possible, when wastewater contains not only viruses excreted, but numerous drugs, that many of these could interreact, and thus alter chemical or viral composition? So maybe wastewater is undercounting a lot of these components, as they get reacted away? 🤔

@DJCanoe @StephMeisner2 roughly.

@SolidEvidence @StephMeisner2 Wow! Can you estimate number of users from levels and where it appears more than otherss? Ditto chemotherapy drugs?

@SuebeeTexan @jlerollblues Dunno, it's everywhere.

@SolidEvidence @jlerollblues Based on geographics, do you think it's young ppl looking to party later, study harder, or ambitious mid career ppl. Alternatively, yes to all?🍚🍚🍚

BA.3.2 is such a creeper. Here are the wastewater detections from roughly the last month. It's still mostly in the Northeast. I hope this data source doesn't go away, but I'm afraid it probably will.

@_Old2shoes oops

@SolidEvidence Little Rock, AR. (AK is Alaska)

This cryptic has been playing peek-a-boo with me for a while, but I finally got a good look at its RBD. Little Rock, AK: 5/4/26 Some kind of early Omicron. 417T-440R-445P-450R-452M-455F-456L-460K-462R-475V-477N-478K-484A-496S-498R-501Y-505H-516Q

I think the highlight of my career was the day that Stephen Colbert quoted one of my papers in his opening monologue (I almost wet myself). I'm really going to miss his show.

@2Chronicles36 Not sure what you've had and what is available. In addition to boosting antibodies, getting exposed to a diversity of strains has distinct immune advantages.

@SolidEvidence Are you expecting in the near future to find either? I was planning to get my 14th COVID jab soon, but it seemed better to wait for now. What are your thoughts about that?

Second plate done. Still no Ebola or Hanta. The only Measles we detected on this plate was the vaccine (not the first time). That's a nice change of pace.

@JusDayDa I leave the specific messaging to the local health departments.

@SolidEvidence Anything in Merced or Sacramento? Hoping both wastewater positives are just vaccinations.

@andrewpekosz @JudyMinkoff We've seen D68 mostly in the Fall, and last year was an unexpectedly bumper year.

@SolidEvidence @JudyMinkoff Enteroviruses? It's getting close to the time of enterovirus surges and this should be an ev-d68 surge year

First plate is done. No Hanta, no Ebola. Flu season is over, and COVID is 100-times lower than it has been. The only respiratory viruses on the rise are Rhinoviruses and Parainfluenzavirus 3, but they always surge in late Spring and I have no idea why.

@BettyB2007 @ChristinaVirgil Could be. Sounds like interferon at work.

@SolidEvidence @ChristinaVirgil Yay on Covid! I wonder if the bad flu season has given us a slight reprieve, as we know flu suppresses our ability to get Covid for a few months, but Covid doesn’t suppress our ability to get the flu

@wolfeagle1989 @SpeakOutNow16 BA.3.2 has been circulating sooo long. I can't understand why it hasn't improved its receptor binding.

@SpeakOutNow16 @SolidEvidence BA.3.2 has gotten some press recently, but it was first noted around the same time as the other major current lineages XFG and NB.1.8.1. All were designated over a year ago. And for BA.3.2, it has high immune evasion but low receptor binding.

2 more Novaseq 25B plates about to finish. 55 wastewater samples, ~30 million people, 3 coasts. Before anyone asks - yes, we would be able to detect Ebola Bundibugyo. If it has an RNA or DNA genome, we can detect it. afro.who.int/countries/demo…

@cin8di That is a personal decision. There are always going to be respiratory pathogens around that would be prevented by masking. All I can tell you is that the relative level of respiratory pathogens in wastewater is low right now.

@SolidEvidence I am 75 and immunocompromised with ME/CFS is it safe to go unmasked when my son visits from San Diego? Thank you for your valuable work!

@BobKerns I started out sequencing manually with P32 and long gels. This stuff is still science fiction to me.

@SolidEvidence It's hard to wrap my head around making sense of a signal that complex! I'm old enough to remember the first sequence. A singe gene was mind-blowing in 1972!