41 People Test Positive After Swingers Event

'I wouldn’t do it again,' New Orleans organizer says
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 1, 2020 4:20 PM CST
41 People Test Positive After Swingers Event
The French Quarter In New Orleans sits empty in May.   (David Grunfeld/The Advocate via AP)

Bob Hannaford said coronavirus protocols were in place when a swingers event began this month in New Orleans. There were masks, social distancing, and virus and antibody tests. Still, NOLA.com reports, at least 41 of the attendees have tested positive for the coronavirus. "If I could go back in time, I would not produce this event again," the organizer said in a blog post, adding, "It weighs on me and it will continue to weigh on me until everyone is 100% better." Most of the patients were asymptomatic or had mild cases, Bob Hannaford said. Although Naughty in N'awlins drew 2,000 people last year, attendance this time fell to about 250. The event took place as the city entered a phase of restrictions that allows indoor gatherings of 100 people and outdoor ones of 150, per the Daily Mail.

After talking to those who tested positive, as part of contact tracing efforts, Hannaford said he thinks he knows what the problem was. "In almost every case, they admitted to us that they were super diligent on the first two days, and then they relaxed a little on Friday," he said. But on the last day, they told him, they really let their guard down. That, Hannaford wrote, "is probably why they ended up positive." Before the event, Hannaford had said, "I think what we're doing is responsible and correct for these times." After it, he said, "I wouldn't do it again if I knew then what I know now." (More swingers stories.)

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