A coalition of top scientists loaded its last set of wastewater samples for analysis Sunday after receiving the final word from San Diego County late last week that the work should cease due to a nationwide clawback of federal public health funds. Since February 2021, the San Diego Epidemiology and Research for COVID Health program (SEARCH), a collaboration of UC San Diego, Scripps Research Institute and the genomics program at Rady Children’s Hospital, have used advanced science to analyze wastewater samples collected from three different treatment plants in San Diego County. Samples have been used to estimate both the amount and type of viruses shed by the region’s 3.3 million residents. … But those efforts ground to a halt Monday after researchers received word that the roughly $400,000 per year provided by the county’s public health department would cease.