Doge Cuts closed the San Diego County Wastewater Test System – San Diego Union -Tribune

A coalition of main scientists has instructed its latest set of wastewater samples for the analysis on Sunday after receiving the last word from the County of San Diego at the end of last week that the work should stop due to a match at the national level of the Federal Public Health Funds.

Since February 2021, the San Diego Epidémiology and Research for Cavid Health Program (Search), a collaboration of the UC San Diego, the Research Institute scripts and the genomic program of the Rady Children’s Hospital, have used advanced sciences to analyze the wastewater samples taken from three different treatment plants of San Diego. Samples have been used to estimate both the amount and the type of virus lost by the 3.3 million residents in the region.

What started with the coronavirus during the COVVI-19 pandemic extended to include MPOX in 2022 and research efforts are underway on the use of the same genetic analysis techniques to detect flu, hepatitis and measles and other pathogens.

But these efforts stop on Monday after the researchers learned that about $ 400,000 per year provided by the county public health service would cease, a victim of an initiative of the program of the Department of Government efficiency to a national program “epidemiology and laboratory capacity” managed by American centers of control and prevention of diseases. While other wastewater test services will always be available, the efforts of the county of San Diego have provided more information on the types of viruses circulating in the community.

DRE Louise Laurent, Director of Perinatal Research at UC San Diego, and Kristian Andersen, director of the genomic of infectious diseases at Scripps Research, said on Monday that the search for withdrawal of forces to stop working.

“We are going to make one more lot, because we have already bought the reagents,” said Laurent, noting that weekly delivery of new laboratory samples is now over.

Laurent said that the funding would be expected, because the county was planning to add wastewater monitoring to his list of current operations, including the special equipment necessary for the operation in his new $ 93 million public health laboratory in Kearny Mesa which should open in May.

The researchers said that they provided for a gradual transfer of knowledge of research laboratories that have led this highly technical service for years to those of the county who will be responsible for providing specific results in the future.

“The plan was that we finish the contract this year at the end of August, then there would be an ordered transition where they were going to return and learn our process from start to finish,” said Laurent.

She added that the key would have been to have both UCSD and the county laboratory which treat the same wastewater samples on the equipment of each organization in parallel in order to ensure that the results corresponded.

“Part of the problem is that this is messy,” said Laurent. “Discover, you know, one day given that your contract ended a week ago and that there is no transition time and that you are just supposed to stop, it is not the most effective way to do it.”

The county accepted.

“In an ideal situation, the county laboratory would have started its internal program while the UCSD was still underway to create an equivalence between the county data and the UCSD,” said a press release by email. “The laboratory can always develop an entirely functional program internally without it, but it can be more difficult to compare data.”

The public health services, added the county press release, “works on the logistics of the transfer of historic samples from the UCSD to the new County laboratory”.

This does not mean, added Andersen, that research agencies plan to move away from the county’s efforts, but without subsidies, there are limits to what can be accomplished.

“We are not angry with the county because we know they don’t want to do this,” said Andersen. “Even without any funds, we will continue to help as much as possible in terms of creating the county.

“But, to be clear, all this is due to the mandates coming from the federal government, and in particular those who cut all the funding, not the county itself.”

Asked about the situation, the county said in a statement that the existing wastewater test contract “had been interrupted in the light of the federal cuts”.

“The county continues to anticipate the displacement of these tests and the investigation procedures related to the new laboratory,” said the press release. “In addition, the wastewater scanner and the CDPH (California Department of Public Health) both provide local tests. Public health services are grateful for services that the UC San Diego and Scripps have provided this contract and are looking forward to pursuing a close relationship in the future. ”

The county referenced scan wastewater, a draft wastewater analysis on a national level, managed jointly with philanthropic funds from the University of Stanford and Emory University in Atlanta. The project does not indicate any indication that it will also stop. And California Department of Public Health also regularly publishes wastewater readings for coronavirus.

What is different in the San Diego research project is the level of detail made available to the community. Other projects provide regular updates to the total quantity of viral genetic equipment found in wastewater samples, a critical factor in the early detection of the construction of new epidemics in the community. Peaks in the overall number of virus detected are generally correlated with the arrival of a new variant capable of spreading quickly and quickly provoking many new infections. The research goes further, using genetic sequencing to determine which subtypes of the virus cause an increase in global activity.

“This is essential to understand because all the variants do not behave in the same way, and we must know which circulate in order to select new variants for future vaccines and, above all, what variants could escape the monoclonal antibodies used for the treatments and the prophylaxis of those who cannot take the vaccine or cannot generate their own immunity.”

Originally published: April 7, 2025 at 8:48 p.m.