Dr. Demetre Daskalakis was announced as the new acting director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases on Tuesday
Daskalakis spent the last year running the White House’s national response team to the monkeypox outbreak, according to StatNews. His current role is apparently “winding down” and the White House plans to close their monkeypox team by the end of August, little more than a year after it launched.
Prior to working with the Biden Administration, Daskalakis ran the CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention. He’s also worked with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, focusing on LGBT communities.
Meet Joe Biden’s monkeypox czar: a “progressive, radical gay” doctor who performs HIV screenings in sex clubs and gives meningitis shots in drag. Now he’s in the White Househttps://t.co/sfQjvA8JQ9
— Dylan Housman (@Dylan_Housman) September 8, 2022
Daskalakis’ most controversial work revolved around screening potential HIV and hepatitus patients out of a clinic inside a small sex club in Manhattan called “Paddles.” He also dressed in drag to administer meningitis vaccines at sex clubs and “bath houses” (basically also sex clubs) during previous outbreaks in NYC.
He credits his bedside manner to “East Village drag queens,” and was once described as a “progressive, radical gay doctor,” though he refers to himself as a “gay health warrior.” (RELATED: Diplo Says He Got Oral Sex From A Man, Not Sure If He’s Gay)
His Instagram is almost exclusively made up of shirtless or near-shirtless photographs, but at least he’s a lot nicer to look at than most government doctors.