Molecular virologist, Professor, sewage sage and wastewater wizard.
Same handle on bsky.
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I’m trying to find this person without invading their privacy, if they are willing to be found.
There is a cryptic lineage (unique, evolutionarily advanced SARS-CoV-2 lineage detected in wastewater) that we have been detecting from a Maryland sewershed all year. 
You probably know that our team screens all of the wastewater sequences submitted to SRA for cryptic lineages. 
A lineage popped up in our cryptic screen because most of the seqs did not have the s2m deletion (meaning it was from 2022 or earlier).
We are almost certain that these lineages are derived from individuals that have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 for several years that are shedding a ton of viral material.
The lineage is derived from BA.5.1.10, but taken at face value, it has over 90 additional mutations and deletions. 
I thought I would give an abbreviated summary of the last year in variants.
In my thinking, there are 3 things that contribute to these fluctuations: the viral lineage, host immunity, and human behavior. 
This sewershed only started sequencing earlier this year, so I don't know how long it has been around, but it is clearly Delta-derived, which means the infection probably occurred in the second half of 2021, nearly 3 years ago.
This one is practically a caricature of a cryptic. It has 6 of the classic Sarbeco reversions.
However, then I checked and realized that there were actually 3 BA.1.1 sequences deposited from Nebraska in the last month. They are very divergent, but closely related to each other, and they are from at least 2 different patients. 
