“It gives the general public an idea, and they can decide for themselves,” said the institute’s senior research scientist and wastewater team lead Sandra Gesing. “Maybe it’s time to wear a mask again, for example.”“IDPH is really working hard to give transparency and individuality to people to make those calls,” said Bill Jackson, executive director of the institute. “And that’s what this site allows to happen.
“The great thing about wastewater is it gives you a surveillance capability but it also allows you flexibility to figure out where, how, what happened where the breakout did happen,” Jackson said.The dashboard is designed to make educational information more accessible to different ages and levels of experience, “from kindergartners to seniors,” and to promote wastewater testing, according to Gesing.