The government officials who can't wait to clean out stadium toilets
Article excerpt
Los Angeles County's health department is collecting wastewater samples from SoFi Stadium during World Cup 2026 matches to detect disease outbreaks before they spread through the population. The effort represents a shift in public health surveillance: instead of waiting for patients to show up sick, officials are mining stadium toilets for early warning signals of emerging pathogens. This wastewater epidemiology approach has gained traction since the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing health authorities to identify infections in real time and potentially intervene faster. The stakes are high, a major sporting event draws thousands of spectators from around the world into close quarters, making SoFi an ideal testing ground for the strategy.
INGLEWOOD, Calif., Those in charge of SoFi Stadium have two days to clean out SoFi Stadium between the United States’ thumping of Paraguay on Friday and a face-off on Monday between Iran and New Zealand. They can count on the L.A. County Department of Health to help with the grossest part.
County health officials are already removing wastewater from the stadium before, during and after every match played at SoFi Stadium, to test for the presence of various viruses. The county health department, which is responsible for the well-being of ten million residents, developed its syndromic-surveillance capacity during the Covid pandemic, but is now deploying it for the first time it at a sports facility.
You can read more in a fascinating report from POLITICO health-care reporters from coast to coast, led by my Sacramento-based colleague Rachel Bluth, about how public-health authorities have prepared for a World Cup unfolding amid an Ebola outbreak, rising measles cases in the United States, and continued fears of hantavirus.
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