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.
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?
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