Document Type
Article
Abstract
This essay argues that sewage testing will outlive the pandemic and become a part of a general policing surveillance infrastructure. We risk adopting this surveillance method without taking care to assess the legal and policy questions raised by its use. Wastewater can provide early clues not just for COVID-19 outbreaks, but also for the presence (and assumed use) of opioids, methamphetamines, and other illegal drugs. Sewage testing at the University of California, San Diego, recently led to an alert that an infected person was “someone who used a restroom [at a specified residence hall] from 6 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 2.” Now replace “methamphetamine” for “COVID-19.”
Recommended Citation
Elizabeth E. Joh,
COVID-19 Sewage Testing As A Police Surveillance Infrastructure,
2
Notre Dame J. on Emerging Tech.
232
(2021).