Mystery person who has a new kind of COVID and is shedding it into the sewage

"Cryptic" Covid-19 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 Twitter with an appeal: "Help me solve a Covid cryptic lineage mystery." 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 one 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 says the person may live in one city and work in the other. He says that this isn't "an imminent public-health threat," and that the person likely has a form of "long COVID" that isn't contagious. But finding these lineages, and identifying the people who spread them, could unlock new clues into how Covid mutates as well as why some people become super-shedders of the virus for long periods...Read more

How concerning is this "new type of Covid"?