A professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine claims that one anonymous Ohio local has a novel strain or lineage of COVID-19 and is completely unaware of the fact.
According to Marc Johnson, considerable quantities of a novel, distinct strain of COVID-19 were discovered when scanning through a wastewater database of COVID samples, Johnson revealed to Insider.
Washington Court House, Ohio, which is roughly 40 miles southwest of Columbus, and the city of Columbus are the two main locations where the strain has been discovered.
The strain is isolated to one person in Ohio. In Johnson’s opinion, the individual may be a commuter for a living.
He claimed that last summer and again, back in March of this year, he discovered the new strain in a data sample.
Fortunately, Johnson said, this new strain of COVID is probably not contagious and is more likely a variation of long COVID.
In order to identify the enigmatic COVID strain and possible sources of it, Johnson turned to Twitter.
Johnson posted: “Help me solve a COVID cryptic lineage mystery. We recently discovered a cryptic lineage in Ohio. It appears to be derived from a person that was infected over 2 years ago. The one thing we know for sure it that this person is shedding a ton of viral material. I suspect that they have a SARS-CoV-2 GI infection and may think they have something like IBD or chronic diarrhea.”
Help me solve a COVID cryptic lineage mystery.
Cryptic lineages are distinct SARS-CoV-2 lineages that we detect in wastewater, but do not know their source. We believe they are from patients with very long COVID infections.
Here is more backstory.https://t.co/n9MdSLnVkI
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— Marc Johnson (@SolidEvidence) April 24, 2023
We recently discovered a cryptic lineage in Ohio. It appears to be derived from a person that was infected over 2 years ago. It is a B.1.1 derivative, but is highly divergent.
We first detected this lineage in a sample from last summer, and as recently as last month.
— Marc Johnson (@SolidEvidence) April 24, 2023
The one thing we know for sure it that this person is shedding a ton of viral material. I suspect that they have a SARS-CoV-2 GI infection and may think they have something like IBD or chronic diarrhea.
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— Marc Johnson (@SolidEvidence) April 24, 2023
Johnson has reduced the number of potential patients to around 1,600 with the help of his Twitter followers and data from the U.S. Census.
This number includes 900 people who commute from Fayette County every day, where Washington Court House is located, to Franklin County, where Columbus is located, as well as 700 people commuting in the opposite direction.
Johnson stated that he is spreading this information in the hopes that the infected person, or a member of their family, will become aware of the situation and seek medical attention.
Johnson also shared via the Insider that “If someone has this infection, the chances that they’re going to figure out what it is is nil. I’m trying to get the word out so that they might figure it out and put it together.”
