☕️ Coffee & Covid ☙ Monday, August 1, 2022 ☙ FESTIVUS 🦠

Two major U.S. cities have now declared states of emergency over monkeypox. Is this a sign of a new round of lockdowns and electoral high-jinx going into the 2022 midterms?

It’s both the first day of the week as well as the first day of the new month — and it’s going to be a great one. We live in exciting times. Happy Monday! Two major U.S. cities have now declared states of emergency over monkeypox. Is this a sign of a new round of lockdowns and electoral high-jinx going into the 2022 midterms? I’ve rounded up the current pox news and info for you so you can be informed and not freak out.

🗞 *THE C&C ARMY POST* 🗞

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🗞*MONKEYPOX NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞

🔥 San Francisco joined New York last week in declaring a state of emergency over monkeypox. They are the only two cities in the U.S. experiencing uncontrolled outbreaks of Brokeback Mountain Spotted Fever, making them bicoastal bookends.

I’ll get to the politics in a second. First let’s see what’s really going on.

Notwithstanding its brand-new state of emergency, San Fransisco green lighted a long-awaited community festival — a festival described in the media as a “leather fetish festival” called “Up Your Alley,” or for short, “Dore Alley.”

They cancelled Dore Alley Festival in 2020 for covid. So.

A recent Daily Wire article quoted David Harris, 29, a self-described bisexual who has attended the “fetish festival” in years past. David made the obvious connection, saying what we are all thinking: “The same population that’s being most affected by the disease is the same population that attends these events, most exclusively.”

Michael Davidson, 40, who has also attended Dore Alley in the past, predicted this year’s fair will be a monkeypox “super-spreader event.” Both Davidson and Harris intend to skip the event this year.

On the other hand, the San Fransisco Aids Foundation is encouraging everyone to attend, and even has a helpful web page for “tips and tricks” for avoiding the pox while still enjoying “x-rated fun.” I found this bit of advice particularly suggestive of how things are going to go:

You can’t make this stuff up. The S.F. Aids Foundation advises people that, if you’re “not sure” whether the bumps are monkeypox, just hide them and go out anyway. Sure sounds like a recipe for a super-spreader to me.

All things being even, San Fransisco’s cases are still in pretty small numbers, at least relative to other recent disease emergencies. And there’s no scary trend lines showing. The blue line on the chart below is the “new cases” line, and while it is elevated, it’s not spiking or anything. Not yet at least.

I’ll ask the obvious question: Why is San Fransisco putting all its residents under a state of emergency but allowing a fetish superspreader event to occur where local influencers are encouraging symptomatic people to attend anyway and conceal their symptoms?

It’s a mystery!

Useless corporate media experts are insisting that the pox is NOT an STD and can be transmitted by ANYONE to ANYBODY at ANYTIME. But that’s not what the science says. At least, not if the New England Journal of Medicine is where you find the science.

In the recent peer-reviewed study, the authors said this:

Sexual activity, largely among gay or bisexual men, was by far the most frequently suspected route of transmission. The strong likelihood of sexual transmission was supported by the findings of primary genital, anal, and oral mucosal lesions, which may represent the inoculation site. Monkeypox virus DNA that was detectable by PCR in seminal fluid in 29 of the 32 cases in which seminal fluid was tested further supports this hypothesis.

So. Unless we are redefining “sexually transmitted disease” today, monkeypox sure sounds like one. Any expert saying it’s not an STD is actually spreading dangerous misinformation. Not that they’ll get censored or anything though.

Corporate media experts like THIS knucklehead, for example:

If it’s not an STD, then explain why these are the requirements to obtain a vaccine in New York City:

And, if monkeypox can affect anyone “regardless of sexual orientation,” why is the vaccine limited to gay men who’ve had “multiple or anonymous sex partners in the last” two weeks? (Yech). Before this year, I would have guessed New York’s vaccine criteria described a pretty narrow slice of the population. How many people could possibly fit this description, even in New York? Are they competing with Biblical Sodom or something?

Anyway, Washington DC is the same:

Every single one of the groups defined on the DC vaccination requirement includes the word, “sex.” So, maybe TV doctors and media “monkeypox experts” say it’s not an STD, but everyone else seems to think it is.

Why people listen to media experts anymore is beyond rational explanation.

Geert Vanden Bossche, the kind of expert media ignored, made some impromptu remarks about monkeypox for independent media recently. He says it’s too early to tell, but he is suspicious that the pox sprang up simultaneously in multiple cities — that’s not normal. He remarked on how if SOMETHING might be suppressing people’s immune systems, then a previously harmless virus could be more of a threat.

“It seems like we are living, indeed, in a very strange world right now,” Geert concluded. No kidding.

Bright Light News @BLNewsMedia

Dr Geert Vanden Bossche talks about the strange global emergence of #monkeypox, now unilaterally declared a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) by the @WHO's @DrTedros--who is not a doctor or scientist. @GVDBossche FULL INTERVIEW: brightlightnews.com/geert-vanden-b…

🔥 Okay, that’s the news and science. Now let’s talk politics. Many conservative commenters are darkly predicting that New York and San Fransisco are warmups for, or harbingers of a new pandemic lockdown over monkeypox, to facilitate broad mail-in voting rules designed to affect the midterm elections. I do NOT agree with this, I think it is fear-candy, and I’ll explain why.

First, my bona fides. I have been carefully studying the official government response to covid for over two years now. I have repeatedly and successfully fought in court with government over covid restrictions and in doing so, had to carefully explain the law and its legal implications to judges. I have advised and consulted with hundred of other attorneys around the country over similar lawsuits. Therefore I am a subject matter expert on government response to covid.

There are two key differences between monkeypox and covid that preclude the pox being an excuse for 2020-style lockdowns. They are also the reason why San Fransisco is letting the Dore Alley fetish event continue during a state of emergency. The first difference is: unlike covid, monkeypox is painful and inconvenient but NOT FATAL.

In other words, there’s literally no reason to panic. Lots of things in life are painful and inconvenient. We don’t shut down the country over them.

The second difference is: unlike covid, monkeypox is NOT airborne and does NOT spread through asymptomatic transmission. In other words, citizens can easily avoid monkeypox by avoiding anonymous group sex, or even if you accept the corporate media’s version, by avoiding close physical contact with symptomatic people.

In other words — and this is very important — the risk of exposure to monkeypox is a CHOICE. So, no matter how dumb they are, the fetish festivals should NOT be locked down. (Well, maybe they SHOULD be locked down, but not for THIS reason). If concupiscent festival-goers want to undertake the risk of a painful and inconvenient infection, well, they are free citizens. They’re allowed to do stupid stuff. You can criticize them for other things, but they know the risks and are making informed choices.

The problem isn’t promiscuous gay people. The problem is government overreach. Overreach that was clearly exemplified in this op-ed by Scott Gottlieb published in the New York Times Saturday:

Gottlieb allows that the CDC produced a monkeypox test “at warp speed.” Sounds great, health agency work at its finest. But he complains that wasn’t enough. Widespread population tests would have made Gottlieb happier. And his most terrifying prescription of all: we need “a federal infrastructure capable of dealing with these emergencies.”

That is exactly what we DON’T need. Monkeypox is NOT an emergency. It doesn’t threaten people’s lives, not on any population-level scale. It might be discomforting and incommodious but it can also be easily avoided. Facilitating risk-free group sex events is not the jurisdiction of the federal government, period, full stop.

This kind of thinking epitomizes nanny-state philosophy; the menacing and reckless notion that “the government” should solve every human problem. Charitably, maybe this is just covid hangover, maybe Gottlieb is still jumpy after what we all went through over the last two years. Uncharitably, one wonders if Gottlieb has some festivals on his calendar that he doesn’t want to miss. Either way, if people like Gottlieb are in charge, he is just illustrating how we got into this mess in the first place.

So what do I think is REALLY going on? Why are New York and San Fran under states of monkeypox emergency? Use Occam’s razor.

The mayors of both cities are under enormous political pressure from the powerful gay lobby to get them some vaccines, stat, so they can continue their hedonistic hobbies without consequence. Apparently, monkeypox vaccines are still hard to come by right now and are being rationed. Gay folks are outraged that mayors aren’t doing more harder and faster to protect them.

But one thing the mayors CAN do to show progress is declare emergencies. It’s easy and just takes one piece of paper. Emergencies also provide lots of ancillary political benefits like no-bid contracts, allowing mayors to shower taxpayer cash on allies and insiders, and to get some sweet federal money coming their way. They learned all the tricks during covid.

Absent large numbers of fatalities and unseen asymptomatic spread, courts are NOT going to have patience for new lockdowns or electoral shenanigans. Not after what we just went through. It will never happen. I’m not saying it CAN’T happen in certain deep blue areas, it probably will. But it won’t be any kind of widespread national phenomenon. Not this bug.

The silver lining is: this is another chance for all of us normal folks to watch how the gay lobby operates and learn. We can use the same political tools and techniques if we organize like the gay lobby did after the HIV experience in the 1980’s. It doesn’t happen overnight, but our team needs to learn how to do it. We used to know, but we’ve forgotten.

So. Do not panic! Don’t believe corporate media’s experts. Push back on the monkeypox narrative, loudly and consistently.

And, for crying out loud, stay away from “festivals.” This time, it is NOT a festivus for the rest of us; it’s a painful ordeal, which nobody wants around.

📊 *COVID IN FLORIDA AND ALACHUA COUNTY* 📊

As you can see from today’s chart, it appears the summer covid wave in Florida has peaked and is now heading back down. Deaths and hospitalizations lag case counts, so we can expect them to remain elevated for a couple more weeks. And as you can see, none of the stats in this wave ever approached levels even from the Spring Omicron wave, never mind last Fall’s Delta wave. So, despite the corporate media experts’ gloomy predictions, it appears that herd immunity is a thing after all.

Imagine that!

Have a marvelous Monday and I’ll see you all back here tomorrow for more. Keep the faith!

If you can, I could use your help getting the truth out and spreading optimism and hope: https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/-learn-how-to-get-involved-

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