In New Orleans, a sex-positive swingers convention has been linked to 41 positive Covid-19 test, according to the party’s organizer.
Naughty Events boss Bob Hannaford revealed in a blog post that he regrets staging the four-night Naughty N’awlins event that kicked off Nov. 11 and climaxed with a Mardi Gras Masquerade Ball.
According to the post, the party implemented its “strictest protocols,” which included masks, temperature checks, and wristbands that shown testing dates or confirmed antibodies. But still, it turned into a super spreader soiree.
He said, “If I could go back in time, I would not produce this event again. Even though most of the 41 positive cases have mostly been asymptomatic or very mild cases.”
Hannaford said a good friend of his was infected and ended up in the hospital in serious condition.
“If I thought for one minute that he or anyone would end up in the hospital, I would certainly not have had our event,” he wrote. “It is the first hospitalization I have heard about, but I know it isn’t really the first, it’s just that no one is talking about this.”
Hannaford said, looking back at what became a hedonistic hotspot, he believes the problem was that “complacency set in” among the 300 attendees.
He wrote, “When we contacted the people that were positive, we asked them several questions to find more potential positive cases and try to find out where the biggest risks took place.” He added, “In almost every case, they admitted to us that they were super diligent on the first two days (Wednesday and Thursday), and then they relaxed a little on Friday and then they said, ‘F–k it, it’s our last day,’ and many admitted that their lax effort on that final day is probably why they ended up positive.”
“It weighs on me, and it will continue to weigh on me until everyone is 100% better,” he wrote in the post picked up by local media, including New Orleans’ alt-weekly newspaper Gambit.
