Human excrement. Poop. Dookie.
It's an important part of the digestive process
and difficult to clean out of a wedding tuxedo,
but it may just save our lives.
NEWSMAN: Finding potential hot spots
of the coronavirus through sewage.
It's a method that scientists hope
will eventually help us stay safe in the future.
KOSTA: That's a Biobot, a tech company
started by a few MIT grads, is doing right now.
To treat this important story with the gravity it deserves,
I've decided to not make any juvenile poop jokes.
I'm gonna make two. Let me make two juv... Three.
I get to make three poop jokes in this segment.
But that's it.
Starting now.
So, Biobot is based on a very simple concept.
Everybody pees and poops every day.
How do you know that?
Hmm. Has...
Has every person you've ever met poop and pee?
Okay, so it's not a formal study.
We know that waste contains a rich source of information
on our health and our well-being.
Um, our doctors look at it all the time
to understand things that are going on inside your body.
-Mm. -But every day, we're flushing
this information down the toilet.
So, at Biobot, we're collecting samples at...
the waste water treatment facility in our cities.
You know what this reminds me of?
When I take my dog for a walk
and he take a giant load on the sidewalk,
typically, I'll leave it there.
But sometimes I look at it and I say,
"Oh, wow, looks like my dog ate a tennis ball.
"There's yellow felt everywhere.
Maybe we got to take him to the vet."
Is that essentially what you're doing but for us?
Yeah. Absolutely. Exactly.
In the same way that we can tell a lot about a person
by analyzing their gut,
we can tell a lot about a community by analyzing sewage.
Who came up with this?
Was it the Germans?
They love this kind of stuff.
No, so, this field,
the field of waste water epidemiology has been around
for about a decade or so.
But Biobot is the first company in the world
that is commercializing this technology.
KOSTA: So poop has uses besides leaving an upper decker
in the executive bathroom at work.
Funny, right?
It also contains a wealth of information
about any chemicals we consume.
We designed our first product around understanding
the consumption of various different types of opioid drugs,
-things like cocaine. -Check.
-Marijuana. -Check.
-Ecstasy. Methamphetamines. -Check. Check.
-Heroin. -Check.
And... nicotine.
Only when I'm doing number two.
It helps with the smell.
Let's talk about privacy for a moment.
Could I opt out of this by shitting in a bucket?
What's great about sewage is that,
when we collect a sample,
we actually can't tie that back to an individual person.
Okay, that's good.
Phew.
Newsha, let's talk about COVID-19.
How did you start testing sewage for that?
About two months ago,
when the scope
of the coronavirus outbreak became clear,
we developed the methods
to actually detect the virus in sewage
and also start to quantify it.
Some of our initial findings actually showed that,
in a community in Massachusetts,
there were about 450 confirmed clinical cases of coronavirus.
And yet our samples on that same day suggested
that there were up to 100,000 cases.
KOSTA: So Biobot launched a national campaign
asking cities around the U.S. to send 'em their poop.
At this point, the company is working
with waste treatment facilities in 42 states
and analyzing the crap
of more than ten percent of the population.
So every time I take a number two,
I'm actually helping the country.
It's my civic doody.
We imagine that this is going to become very critical data
in helping governments evaluate when and how
to reopen our cities again.
KOSTA: As America reopens, waste water testing
can tell us in real time if COVID cases are increasing
and whether it's really safe to go back to normal life,
like pooping at the office,
in a Starbucks bathroom,
or even on the street between parked cars.
Damn, I miss that.
There will be another public health crisis
like the one today.
And having something like this in place beforehand
can really act as an early warning
so that we're not blindsided again.
I know this is a hectic time and we appreciate your expertise,
uh, but I actually have to go.
I have to drop my kids off at the pool.
No, no, no, that's not a joke. Stop.
I'm serious. My kids have swimming lessons right now,
so-- It's a private pool.
(dinging)