Are you the ill pooper? (Probably not)

Marc Johnson, a virologist at the University of Missouri and one of the authors of a recent paper on cryptic lineages in wastewater, believes he has evidence for a single infected individual who likely lives in Columbus, Ohio but works in the nearby town, Washington Court House. In other words, they poop mostly at home but sometimes at work.

Twitter (Marc Johnson): First, the signal is almost always present in the Columbus Southerly sewershed, but not always at Washington Court House. I assume this means the person lives in Columbus and travels to WCH, presumably for work. Second, the signal is increasing with time. Washington Court House had its highest SARS-CoV-2 wastewater levels ever in May, and the most recent sequencing indicates that this is entirely the cryptic lineage.

This is grimly fascinating: 

I do not know of any persistent infections that shed this much virus without killing the patient. (Correct me if I’m wrong).  The closest would probably be HCV, an infection that often ends in liver cancer. 8/

My point is that this patient is not well, even if they don’t know it, but they could probably be helped if they were identified. 9/ 

Well, here's hoping that Professor Johnson either finds the ill pooper, or that he's wrong about this person.