Wastewater Surveillance: A Fairness-Focused Approach

Wastewater monitoring has become a powerful tool for tracking public health since 2020. It's quick and cost-effective. But what's often missing is a focus on fairness. Current ethical discussions mainly center around privacy and legal issues, mostly in North America and Western Europe. We've teamed up with experts from various fields and countries to create a fairness-focused framework for wastewater surveillance.First, we found common worries across different monitoring programs: defining community, being transparent, and dealing with uneven geographical coverage. Then, we used political scientist Nancy Fraser's justice framework to evaluate local practices. This framework helps spot problems like unequal resources, lack of respect, and exclusion. We think it's a great way to ensure fair outcomes, rather than having strict rules that might not fit all situations.