2026-04-06

Flush Report

Your sewage knows what's spreading before your doctor does. We read the poop data so you don't have to.

Consumer-facing multi-pathogen wastewater intelligence — combining CDC NWSS data for 6+ pathogens (COVID, Influenza A, RSV, Mpox, Measles, H5 Bird Flu), European drug consumption signals from SCORE/EUDA, and Google search trend correlations into a beautiful, opinionated, city-level "what's going around" site with weekly narrative dispatches, threat level scorecards, pathogen heatmaps, and data-backed advice on when to mask up, stock up on tissues, or skip the indoor birthday party.

Niche Explored

Consumer-facing wastewater disease intelligence — translating CDC NWSS, WastewaterSCAN, and Biobot data into a hyperlocal “what’s going around in your area” multi-pathogen tracker with narrative journalism, trend analysis, and drug consumption signals.

Existing Competition

CDC NWSS Dashboard (cdc.gov/nwss) — the official source. Tracks COVID, Flu A, RSV, Mpox, Measles, H5 Bird Flu across ~1,500 sites. Data is free via SODA API on data.cdc.gov. However: government-standard UI, no narrative, hard to interpret for consumers, no “should I be worried?” context.
WastewaterSCAN (wastewaterscan.org / data.wastewaterscan.org) — Stanford/Emory research program. Dashboard with ~180 municipal treatment plants. Has a Ghost newsletter (wwscan.ghost.io). Research-focused, not consumer-friendly. No personality, no narrative.
Biobot Analytics (biobot.io) — The big commercial player. B2B platform. Tracks 20+ pathogens AND drugs (fentanyl, cocaine, meth, heroin, Xylazine). White House partnership announced March 2026 for opioid tracking. Data is PAYWALLED for commercial use. Some limited public data.
FluRadar (fluradar.substack.com) — Independent Substack focused solely on H5N1 bird flu. Single pathogen, no wastewater data integration, newsletter-only.
COVID Data Dispatch (coviddatadispatch.com) — Shut down November 2023. Creator moved to “The Sick Times” focusing on Long COVID. Left a gap.
HealthMap FluTrends (healthmap.org/flutrends) — Estimate-based flu tracker using multiple data sources. US only, flu only.
FluStar (flustar.com) — National cold & flu activity map. Basic, flu/cold only.
Local “What’s Going Around” articles — Many local TV stations run weekly “what’s going around” columns (e.g., ClickOnDetroit). Manual, reporter-driven, not data-backed, only local.

Key gap identified:

NO consumer-friendly, multi-pathogen, narrative-driven site exists that:

Combines all CDC NWSS pathogen data into one dashboard
Adds the drug angle (opioid/stimulant trends via wastewater)
Provides plain-English “should I be worried?” city-level reports
Generates beautiful data viz and maps
Has editorial VOICE and personality

Data Sources Found

Free Government APIs (all via data.cdc.gov SODA API)

COVID-19 Wastewater Data: https://data.cdc.gov/resource/j9g8-acpt.json — complete time history, sampling locations, calculated metrics
Influenza A Wastewater Data: https://data.cdc.gov/resource/ymmh-divb.json — same format
RSV Wastewater Data: https://data.cdc.gov/resource/45cq-cw4i.json — same format
Mpox Wastewater Data: via data.cdc.gov (dataset ID TBD, listed on catalog.data.gov, updated March 2026)
Measles Wastewater Data: via CDC NWSS (newer addition)
H5 Bird Flu Wastewater Data: via CDC NWSS (newer addition)
All datasets: updated weekly (Fridays), JSON/CSV accessible via Socrata Open Data API (SODA), no API key required for basic access, app token recommended for higher rate limits

Additional Free Data Sources

CDC FluView ILINet: https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/fluview/fluportaldashboard.html — clinical influenza surveillance, complements wastewater data
CDC RESP-NET: Hospitalization data for flu, COVID, RSV
EMCDDA/EUDA Wastewater Drug Analysis: European multi-city drug consumption data from sewage — https://www.euda.europa.eu/publications/html/pods/waste-water-analysis — covers cocaine, amphetamines, MDMA, meth, cannabis metabolites
SCORE (Sewage Analysis CORe group Europe): Annual reports on drug consumption via wastewater for 100+ European cities
Google Trends API: Correlate search interest (“flu near me”, “stomach bug going around”, “norovirus symptoms”) with wastewater detection spikes
WastewaterSCAN Dashboard Data: data.wastewaterscan.org — publicly viewable, may need scraping

Timely News (March-April 2026)

Biobot-White House partnership for opioid wastewater tracking (March 18, 2026)
WastewaterSCAN newsletter reports continued high viral activity (Feb 2026)
Barcelona cocaine levels tripled in wastewater data (March 19, 2026)
CDC NWSS now tracking 6 pathogens (expanded from COVID-only)
Vallejosun.com reported RSV/HMPV spikes from WasteSCAN data (March 18, 2026)
PubMed paper on combining internet search trends + wastewater surveillance for outbreak detection (Jan 2026)

SEO Analysis

“what’s going around” — massively searched every flu season, millions of monthly searches, very weak competition (local TV articles, no authoritative data-driven site)
“flu near me” — Google redirects to health panels, but no dedicated wastewater-backed tracker
“wastewater surveillance” — growing search interest post-COVID, but mostly academic results
“what illness is going around right now” — high seasonal volume, poor quality results
“norovirus in my area” — rising searches, no good answer exists
Keyword gap: “wastewater data [city name]” — near-zero competition, CDC data makes this highly rankable
Long-tail opportunity: “is [pathogen] spreading in [city/state]” — thousands of variations, each answerable with NWSS data

Communities

r/COVID19 (1M+ members) — still active, interested in wastewater data
r/Flu (smaller but engaged during flu season)
r/publichealth — professional community
r/dataisbeautiful — perfect for viral data viz posts
Public health Twitter/X — very engaged with wastewater data
Parent groups (Facebook, Reddit) — “what’s going around at school” is a perpetual concern
Prepper/prepared communities — track disease trends

Image/Graphic Feasibility

Excellent: Wastewater data is inherently geographic (sampling sites have lat/lng) → beautiful maps
Pathogen heatmaps: state/city level viral activity heatmaps → highly shareable
Trend charts: time-series charts for each pathogen → classic data viz
Multi-pathogen radar: single “what’s spreading” composite visual per region
Correlation overlays: wastewater signal vs. hospital admissions vs. Google search trends
Drug consumption city comparisons: bar charts, European city rankings
All auto-generable with D3.js, Chart.js, or Recharts in a TypeScript static site