OPINION:
Right now, scientists at multiple universities are doing something remarkable: analyzing sewage to keep our communities safe.
It may not sound glamorous, but wastewater surveillance is one of the most powerful health tools we have. That is why I introduced the PREDICT Act. It would ensure that this kind of early-warning capability reaches every corner of South Carolina and the rest of the nation.
I have long believed that the best kinds of government programs are those that work quietly in the background, preventing crises before they require emergency responses. Wastewater surveillance does exactly that.
When someone is infected with a virus-like influenza, measles or another infectious disease, they shed viral material through everyday biological functions, often before they even know they are sick. By monitoring what flows through our sewage systems, public health officials can detect an outbreak days or even weeks before hospital admissions begin to rise.
That is not just smart science; it is also lives saved.
South Carolina knows this firsthand. As we respond to a serious measles outbreak in the upstate, the need for early-detection tools has never been more apparent.
Had robust wastewater surveillance been in place at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we would have had a clearer picture of how rapidly the virus was spreading in those critical early weeks, and we could have responded with more precision and speed to protect families and our way of life.
That is why it is critical that Congress pass the PREDICT Act. This legislation directs the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to expand grants to state and local health departments, universities, nonprofits and public-private partnerships, empowering them to build, maintain and improve wastewater monitoring networks.
It supports advanced laboratory capabilities, enabling us to detect new and emerging pathogens quickly. This bill requires a national strategic plan to ensure that surveillance doesn’t exist only in a handful of well-funded cities but reaches communities nationwide.
For South Carolina, the benefits are concrete. The University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health is already a national leader in this field, and its existing partnerships with Clemson University, Medical University of South Carolina and Claflin University position our state to maximize the reach of surveillance tools across all our communities.
The PREDICT Act would strengthen and sustain those efforts with federal support so that every South Carolinian from the Low Country to the upstate is protected by a modern, responsive public health network.
This bill would also improve data transparency by establishing an accessible, real-time dashboard that provides state and local officials with the information they need to act swiftly. We cannot afford to be caught flat-footed, and with the resources provided through the PREDICT Act, we don’t have to be.
This is not a speculative investment in untested technology. It is a commitment to scaling already proven science so that every community has access to the same early-warning advantages that our leading research universities have developed. It is also a reminder that protecting public health need not be a partisan issue. This legislation was built through bipartisan cooperation because infectious diseases do not care about party registration.
South Carolinians deserve a prepared and proactive government that sees threats coming before they become emergencies. The PREDICT Act is a step toward exactly that: smarter, earlier and more coordinated public health protection for our state and our nation.
• Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina Republican, has served in Congress since 2013.
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