Human viruses lurking in the environment activated by excessive use of COVID-19 prevention supplies

Due to extensive COVID-19 prevention measures, millions of tons of chemicals penetrated into natural environment. Alterations of human viruses in the environment, the neglected perceiver of environmental fluctuations, remain obscure. To decipher the interaction between human viruses and COVID-19 related chemicals, environmental samples were collected on March 2020 from surroundings of designated hospitals and receivers of wastewater treatment plant effluent in Wuhan. The virus community and chemical concentration were respectively unveiled in virtue of virome and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The complex relationship between virus and chemical was ulteriorly elaborated by random forest model. As an indicator, environmental viruses were corroborated to sensitively reflect the ecological disturbance originated from pandemic prevention supplies. Chemicals especially trihalomethanes restrained the virus community diversity. Confronting this adverse scenario, Human gammaherpesvirus 4 and Orf virus with resistance to trihalomethanes flourished while replication potential of Macacine alphaherpesvirus 1 ascended under glucocorticoids stress. Consequently, human viruses lurking in the environment were actuated by COVID-19 prevention chemicals, which was a constant burden to public health in this ongoing pandemic. Besides, segments of SARS-CoV-2 RNA were detected near designated hospitals, suggesting environment as a missing link in the transmission route. This research innovatively underlined the human health risk of pandemic prevention supplies from the virus - environment interaction, appealing for monitoring of environmental viruses in long term.