Will I receive reports for each sample? Can I get a report?
Within The Biobot Network, we are not sending individual PDF reports with results for each sample. Instead, we are aggregating the results by county and sharing them via the public data visualization on our website. Our goal for The Biobot Network is to provide transparency and ease of access to wastewater data for all, while still enabling the organizations submitting samples to identify the data points they contribute to and view trends in their community.
Sample-specific PDF reports continue to be available as a paid product, and if you are interested in receiving those, please reach out to support@biobot.io.
How can I view my data?
To view the data from the samples you provide, you can access the Covid-19 Wastewater Monitoring data visualization on our website. This visualization displays wastewater data at countrywide, regional, and county levels. By viewing the plot for your specific county and hovering over the graph, you can view the individual data points that represent an aggregation of samples from your county. This data is updated weekly, so you can identify the specific data point that represents a week of samples from your county, including any samples you have collected in that week.
Why is data aggregated to the county level?
For the reporting of wastewater data on our public data visualization, we use county-level data to match the finest level of granularity that is publicly available for Covid-19 clinical case data. The CDC also promotes county-level insights, so we are adopting this industry standard for the wastewater data as well. While county boundaries may not exactly align with sewershed boundaries, aggregation of data at the county level still allows users of the data to easily compare wastewater data to clinical case data within the representative county, in addition to other data sources that the CDC promotes.
How will variant data be reported?
Variant data will be added to our publicly available data visualization as soon as it becomes available. Variant sequencing data is updated approximately 2 weeks after the sample collection date. Variant data is available at the county level, and represents an average of the wastewater measurements for any contributing facilities in the county.
If the variant data for my county is not shown, does that mean it was not detected?
Variant sequencing from the most recent batch of samples is reflected on the website. Where no variant data is shown, it is possible that either there was not a sample to sequence in the most recent batch, there was a PCR inhibitor in the sample, or the virus concentration level was too low to sequence.
How many other participants are there in my county? Am I the only one?
In order to respect the privacy of participants in The Biobot Network, we are not able to share details about which or how many wastewater treatment plants are included in each county. Aggregating the data from samples analyzed to the county level preserves a degree of anonymity for participating organizations, while also showing data that is meaningful and specific to each community.
Thank you for your participation in the Biobot Network and for enabling the public sharing of wastewater data! If you are interested in our paid reports that provide results specific to your organization alone, please email us at support@biobot.io.