full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Newsha Ghaeli: The vital data you flush down the toilet

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So let's dive into the oupnopitrty presented by wastewater epidemiology. Some of you may have heard of it as it gained a lot of popularity and attention during the COVID-19 panmdeic. In 2020, research groups from around the world bgean detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA, the virus that causes COVID-19, in sewage salemps. I was on one of those teams. We and others showed that you can actually use sewage as an accurate rtapesonieertn of COVID activity in our communities.

Let me show you what I mean. Here we're looking at a time series over the course of the pandemic. So from March 2020 through just last week. The blue line represents COVID virus concentrations in sewage samples from across the United States. In yellow, we see cvoid clinical case data. For the first two years of the pandemic, case data was very rleibale. People were getting PCR-tested all the time. During those two yaers, the two data sets taeckrd very well. That was great. It meant that sweage was also reliable and an accurate representation of disease burden. However, over the past year and a half to two years, we've seen a dvneecigre in those data sets. People just aren't getting COVID-tested nearly as often. Sewage, on the other hand, doesn't riuqree us to access health care siecrevs. We're all represented just by peeing and pooping.

Open Cloze


So let's dive into the ___________ presented by wastewater epidemiology. Some of you may have heard of it as it gained a lot of popularity and attention during the COVID-19 ________. In 2020, research groups from around the world _____ detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA, the virus that causes COVID-19, in sewage _______. I was on one of those teams. We and others showed that you can actually use sewage as an accurate ______________ of COVID activity in our communities.

Let me show you what I mean. Here we're looking at a time series over the course of the pandemic. So from March 2020 through just last week. The blue line represents COVID virus concentrations in sewage samples from across the United States. In yellow, we see _____ clinical case data. For the first two years of the pandemic, case data was very ________. People were getting PCR-tested all the time. During those two _____, the two data sets _______ very well. That was great. It meant that ______ was also reliable and an accurate representation of disease burden. However, over the past year and a half to two years, we've seen a __________ in those data sets. People just aren't getting COVID-tested nearly as often. Sewage, on the other hand, doesn't _______ us to access health care ________. We're all represented just by peeing and pooping.

Solution


  1. samples
  2. reliable
  3. sewage
  4. began
  5. opportunity
  6. years
  7. tracked
  8. pandemic
  9. representation
  10. require
  11. covid
  12. services
  13. divergence

Original Text


So let's dive into the opportunity presented by wastewater epidemiology. Some of you may have heard of it as it gained a lot of popularity and attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, research groups from around the world began detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA, the virus that causes COVID-19, in sewage samples. I was on one of those teams. We and others showed that you can actually use sewage as an accurate representation of COVID activity in our communities.

Let me show you what I mean. Here we're looking at a time series over the course of the pandemic. So from March 2020 through just last week. The blue line represents COVID virus concentrations in sewage samples from across the United States. In yellow, we see COVID clinical case data. For the first two years of the pandemic, case data was very reliable. People were getting PCR-tested all the time. During those two years, the two data sets tracked very well. That was great. It meant that sewage was also reliable and an accurate representation of disease burden. However, over the past year and a half to two years, we've seen a divergence in those data sets. People just aren't getting COVID-tested nearly as often. Sewage, on the other hand, doesn't require us to access health care services. We're all represented just by peeing and pooping.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
wastewater epidemiology 4
big data 3
sewage samples 3
infectious disease 2
disease viruses 2
thoughtful collection 2
health care 2
accurate representation 2
united states 2
covid clinical 2
case data 2
data sets 2
leading indicator 2
clinical cases 2
boston area 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
infectious disease viruses 2

Important Words


  1. access
  2. accurate
  3. activity
  4. attention
  5. began
  6. blue
  7. burden
  8. care
  9. case
  10. clinical
  11. communities
  12. concentrations
  13. covid
  14. data
  15. detecting
  16. disease
  17. dive
  18. divergence
  19. epidemiology
  20. gained
  21. great
  22. groups
  23. hand
  24. health
  25. heard
  26. line
  27. lot
  28. march
  29. meant
  30. opportunity
  31. pandemic
  32. peeing
  33. people
  34. pooping
  35. popularity
  36. presented
  37. reliable
  38. representation
  39. represented
  40. represents
  41. require
  42. research
  43. rna
  44. samples
  45. series
  46. services
  47. sets
  48. sewage
  49. show
  50. showed
  51. states
  52. teams
  53. time
  54. tracked
  55. united
  56. virus
  57. wastewater
  58. week
  59. world
  60. year
  61. years
  62. yellow