Scientists are trying to find a mystery person in Ohio who has a new kind of COVID, and is shedding it into the sewage

A researcher has found a "cryptic" COVID lineage (a version of the virus never seen before) in Ohio. One person is shedding the virus into wastewater.

• "Cryptic" COVID lineages are new versions of the virus that haven't been seen before. 
• A researcher says one person in Ohio is shedding massive amounts of a new kind of COVID.
• Identifying people with mysterious strains can help scientists to preempt dangerous mutations.

Earlier this year Marc Johnson, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, took to social media with an appeal: "Help me solve a COVID cryptic lineage mystery," he wrote on Twitter. 

Johnson told Insider that he was looking through a database of COVID samples when he came across a brand-new version (or, "lineage") of the virus. There were massive amounts of this unique strain — all coming from a single mystery person in Ohio. 

The viral material has been primarily found at two sites: The city of Columbus, and 40 miles away, in the city of Washington Court House, — Johnson guessed that the person might live in one city, and work in the other. 

He noted that this isn't "an imminent public health threat;" this person likely has a form of "long COVID" that is not contagious.

But finding these lineages, and identifying the people who spread them, could unlock new clues into how COVID mutates, as well as why as some people become super-shedders of the virus for long periods of time. 

—Marc Johnson (@SolidEvidence) April 24, 2023

"Cryptic" COVID lineages show how the virus can mutate in new ways

Johnson told Insider that he has been identifying "cryptic" COVID lineages in wastewater around the country since 2021. These are strains "that don't match anything we've seen before," he said, showing SARS-CoV-2 still has some tricks up its sleeve and there's plenty we don't know.

While these cryptic strains have only been identified in wastewater, they could be harbingers of variants to come. Long before Omicron emerged, researchers were collecting samples of COVID that they didn't recognize — cryptic lineages that we now understand to be similar to Omicron, according to a preprint paper (not-yet-peer-reviewed) published last month by Johnson and his team. 

The first cryptic COVID lineage Johnson found, in 2021, was a classic example of his discoveries. There was so much virus in the wastewater that he thought it was coming from a nursing home, or maybe an animal reservoir like a dog shelter. But his team traced it to a single office building in Wisconsin with about 30 employees, they wrote in the preprint paper.  

"I didn't believe a person could shed that much," Johnson said. 

All the workers in the building were notified and able to get tested. Eventually, the lineage disappeared from the wastewater. 

Trying to reach a mystery person in Ohio 

Now, the situation is replaying in Ohio.

Johnson and his Twitter followers have narrowed down the suspects to about 1,600 people, the number of people who make the daily commute between Washington Court House and Columbus, according to US Census data.

While some people have voiced concerns that he might be invading someone's medical privacy, Johnson says "there's no manhunt" going on; the only reason he's being public about the situation is in the hopes that someone recognizes themselves, a friend, or family member is the person with the cryptic lineage, and seeks help. 

"If someone has this infection, the chances that they're going to figure out what it is is nil," he told Insider, since there is currently no test in the US available to test stool for COVID-19. "I'm trying to get the word out so that they might figure it out and put it together."

He says that the person likely is experiencing some sort of gastrointestinal symptoms, and may not even know that they have a long COVID infection. He hopes that if someone does recognize that they are the ones shedding the virus, the first thing that they do is see a doctor. "I would love to know the details," he said, but "mostly I want them to seek treatment."