keroscenefire

I think the WHO is cautioning that we don't know enough about COVID-19 to say whether reinfection is possible. They also are a bit skeptical of the antibody tests that are currently out because many have pretty high error rates. But actually I think a lot of scientists are saying reinfection is probably unlikely at least for most who have recovered and for a certain amount of time. This Vox explainer I thought did a good job of laying it out. I think as we start to understand more about COVID-19, we will have better antibody tests and a better understanding about how they protect against the virus. I feel like we're kinda in the early ages of when HIV first broke out, but maybe in a better position because COVID-19 effects everyone, not just those at the margins of society that can easily be ignored like gay men and drug users.

Do you think you're going to wait to start up again until you get sick and develop antibodies? Or is that part of the decision maybe?

Denver has a few hour glasses as well. Though interestingly two guys who had them previously took them off. In some ways I am kinda surprised, while cases have "plateaued" here, they haven't really gone down and have only started to build our testing capacity. Denver and its suburbs just expanded shelter-at-home orders until May 8th, which I think is a great idea (they were originally going to expire at the end of the month).

I came down with a pretty bad illness in March that even my primary care physician suspected was COVID. Unfortunately they weren't testing then unless you basically were in the hospital with critical symptoms. They just started doing antibody testing at one site in Denver for $100 a pop. Unfortunately, they already booked up the appointments for the next two weeks before I could get one. I definitely would like to see if I was exposed and possibly have some level of immunity to the illness.

And of course with hiring (or having sex at all really) there is also no such thing as "no risk." I once got gonorrhea from an escort, who called me a week after our session to let me know about his own positive test (He's one of the guys I would hire again). In some ways, a COVID test isn't very different from an HIV test. Someone could still test as "negative" or possibly even having antibodies, but there is no guarantee that they haven't caught something more recently. But yeah I agree that we need to follow the science and hopefully with more testing, we'll have more of an understanding so we can make more informed choices.

I hear you on the trustworthy provider. When I hire again, it will definitely be with a trusted regular (probably one of two guys), who I know genuinely would not want anything to bad to happen to me and vice versa. Of course, you could still unintentially infect someone, but with these guys I know they would be honest if they had gotten antibody tests, etc. Some new guy (or a guy who is kind of sketchy) who knows.

I know most of us are currently taking a hiatus from hiring in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just curious about when you will consider hiring again? For me, I am not sure I would wait for the vaccine as that could be a year or more away. But I might meet up again once it looks like there is a very low transmission rate happening in my community and there is a lot more testing happening so we know it's real. Still feel like that is a while away too. When would you consider contacting your regulars again?

I'm definitely starting took more and more like early 60s Beatles. I can probably wait another month or so..we'll see. Might do the clippers thing too, though if I do, it'll be a straight buzz cut.

A lot of them came back this week. Denver is back up to its usual 3 pages of ads, though the last page is a bit shorter than usual. Several people who paused or deleted their ads, put them back on and we have a few travelers coming through optimistically in May. Denver usually has about a third of its ads as traveling escorts, so the drop off was definitely due in part from less traveling guys. What is it looking like in your cities? Staying the same? More ads?

I've actually seen "Covid" specials on a few different ads. Don't think the discount is worth the risk, IMO.

It's interesting how the death rates have played out. I think it's partially about the healthcare of the country (number of hospitals, ICU beds, ventilators, etc. per capita) and partially about the health and lifestyle of the people. Italy for example has a pretty old population (45 years old on average), and a lot of families of different generations live together so maybe a younger asymptomatic son is giving it to his older parent or even grandparent who has a lot harder time with the disease. Italy and Spain also have lower numbers of ICU beds per capita than many other countries that have lower mortality rates like Germany, Japan and South Korea. I also think in the long run we'll find that COVID-19 is not as deadly just because there is so little testing going on in many countries. In the US, you basically have to be directly exposed to someone with COVID or you have to be admitted to a hospital with severe symptoms. There are likely thousands of people who have had symptoms but couldn't get a test because there are so few available. Maybe even tens of thousands more who don't have symptoms at all but would still test positive for the virus. I think I read that in China they aren't counting people who are asymptomatic even when they do test positive for COVID. There is a bit of skewing in these statistics I think towards the more severe cases getting tested and then because they are already severely ill, they are more likely to die as well.

I've done a couple of "social distancing walks" with friends. There are some nice large parks in my neighborhood with pretty wide grassy meadows where we can spread out six-feet and still talk while wearing our masks. It works mostly except we probably have to talk louder than we normally do because of the distance and masks. There is probably some risk, but it is very nice to get out for some exercise and see a friend in person. I think it's nice to be able to have some limited and fairly low-risk social interaction. I think your dinner is fairly similar. Just be careful with cleaning plates and utensils as we know coronavirus can stay on hard surfaces for a couple days. Maybe just use latex gloves and clean them off very well with soap and water. Probably not a bad idea to lysol spray the chair and table around there after too.

We have to remember that COVID-19 and the Spanish Flu and these types of mass pandemics are still fairly rare events. And in the long-term cities still have many health advantages. Being closer to doctors and hospitals is one. Not having to drive is another (about 38,000 deaths per year from car accidents). If you look at car accident deaths per capita, denser states like New York, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia have much lower rates that rural/suburban states like Florida, Wyoming and Mississippi. In some ways even dealing with a pandemic is easier in a city than rural area. You can much more easily lock down a city and well-staffed public health infrastructure gives cities a much clearer idea of what's going on with a disease in a community and can better spread out treatment and vaccination programs. We only have to look back to 2015 to Mike Pence's Indiana to see how quickly an HIV outbreak in a rural county can grow without proper monitoring.

Yeah it doesn't make sense to pay for an ad if you're not going to get many clients. I kinda expect a huge increase in ads as the health situation improves and the economy remains depressed. A lot of guys who lose their jobs might consider escorting to make ends meet.

Yeah that's how I have mine. I helped my dad last fall with a drywall project and he bought like a 10 pack to share. They actually were more common in construction and manufacturing contexts to prevent breathing in dangerous dust or other particles in the air. In most cases, medical professionals used surgical masks and only N95 masks if there was a patient with TB or Flu or something with airborne pathogens.

Honestly, if someone is legitimately advertising now (not in safe-mode or whatever), I would expect them to offer pretty much the same services as before. Whether or not a client should look into getting those services is another story.

Remdesivir is looking promising..it's being tested with a variety of populations at many different sites and with large numbers of patients. It looks like it could really help people with COVID-19 recover a lot more quickly, which of course would be very helpful to not only decreasing mortality but with alleviating the pressure on our hospitals. Gilead said we will know a lot more by the end of the month about the drug's efficacy, but promising so far. If Remdesivir is a solid treatment it could really help us "raise the line" in treating coronavirus patients.

Just curious to see if you've noticed a significant decrease in the number of escort ads in your city. In Denver, I'd say it's about a third fewer ads than before the COVID-19 pandemic on Rent.Men at least. Still some of the regulars are sticking it out, which is interesting. How is it in your city/town?

Just to be clear that article doesn't say that people who have recovered from COVID-19 are being reinfected. There could be issues with the testing or it could be that in some people the virus (or dead virus) is remaining for a while after symptoms subside. The fact that 140 of the likely thousands who have recovered and been tested are coming back with positive results is important to catch so we can do more research. But it doesn't mean people are being reinfected and might even be expected at this point since we are still learning so much about the virus and how testing for it works. It sounds like scientists are studying this some more to see what's going on. Until then I don't think we can really make any real conclusions about the fact that a very small percentage (probably only 1-2%) of those recovered from COVID-19 are testing positive for the virus after recovering from the illness.

It looks likely that people who get COVID-19 become immune for a year or so, but many things are still unknown. I liked this article that was recently in the New York Times that lays out the limitations of that immunity: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/opinion/coronavirus-immunity.html

Since I work with youth at a school I actually make it a policy to delete dating apps during the school year. I redownload them over breaks and if I am visiting somewhere over a weekend or something. I stayed away from apps after seeing one of my students on Grindr (he was over 18, FYI). I deleted it immediately after seeing his profile on there and made it a policy to keep the app off my phone whenever I am working. So yeah, you definitely have to be careful with these apps. Even though I agree 100% that this sheriff is engaging in entrapment and should face consequences for his actions.

Oh good to know...I know some Canadian and American holidays are different (Thanksgiving comes to mind), but good to know that Labor Day is the same. Yeah I haven't bought plane tickets yet. Will probably be waiting until at least August until I decide.

I live near a Trader Joe's and they constantly have long queues. So I have been going to Safeway more often. Never any lines going in but one-way aisles, plexiglass for the check-outs and most people wearing masks including the employees. Most things were available except sanitizer-type stuff. TP was low but still available. They are only allowing one pack per customer.

I have concert tickets in Toronto for (American) Labor Day weekend. At this point, I'd say it's probably a 50/50 that I will be able to go. My cousin and his toddler daughter live there so was really looking forward to time with family, but it may be that I'll have to hold off. But who knows, it could taper off by then. I think with proper testing and screening, we could get back to normal-ish. But I also don't feel confident that we will do what we need to do.

I haven't noticed that at all. Was just at the grocery store and they had plenty of condoms. TP and hand sanitizer not so much....