(The Guardian) The White House has hired a satanist! Or at least that’s what some conservative media outlets would like you to be believe.
Politico has published a fascinating interview with Demetre Daskalakis, the Biden administration’s deputy monkeypox coordinator, which gets into his passion for fighting HIV, his path to the White House and the thirst trap photos on his Instagram that led to some rather outrageous allegations of satanism. First, a bit about his career: As a kid, he always knew he wanted to be a doctor (“Fisher Price play kit,” he muses). But it wasn’t until he was an undergraduate at Columbia University that he experienced an epiphany.
He was working on a big display of the AIDS memorial quilt, he says, and was tasked with flying to San Francisco to bring back a “roll of carpet that looked like a body in a shroud.” On the day the exhibit opened for the finished quilt, he watched as men his age — people who should have been enjoying their 20s — walked in, coughing and raging with a disease very likely to kill them. “My job is going to be to never let anyone get HIV or if people have HIV, make sure that they don’t get sick and die. It hit me like that,” he recalls with a snap of his fingers.
Daskalakas’s appearances at the White House briefing room have put him in the public eye, but much of the hubbub around him stems from photos on his Instagram account and elsewhere that show off his substantial tattoos, including one of a pentagram that led to allegations of satanism – which he denies. “I wish I were that interesting,” he told Politico, noting that he also has a large but less noticed tattoo of Jesus on his stomach.
As for the intent behind the photos, Daskalakas said he posted them for the same reason many people use Instagram. “I spent a lot of money on my tattoos and a lot of time at the gym. I’m showing it off.”
Politico has published a fascinating interview with Demetre Daskalakis, the Biden administration’s deputy monkeypox coordinator, which gets into his passion for fighting HIV, his path to the White House and the thirst trap photos on his Instagram that led to some rather outrageous allegations of satanism. First, a bit about his career: As a kid, he always knew he wanted to be a doctor (“Fisher Price play kit,” he muses). But it wasn’t until he was an undergraduate at Columbia University that he experienced an epiphany.
He was working on a big display of the AIDS memorial quilt, he says, and was tasked with flying to San Francisco to bring back a “roll of carpet that looked like a body in a shroud.” On the day the exhibit opened for the finished quilt, he watched as men his age — people who should have been enjoying their 20s — walked in, coughing and raging with a disease very likely to kill them. “My job is going to be to never let anyone get HIV or if people have HIV, make sure that they don’t get sick and die. It hit me like that,” he recalls with a snap of his fingers.
Daskalakas’s appearances at the White House briefing room have put him in the public eye, but much of the hubbub around him stems from photos on his Instagram account and elsewhere that show off his substantial tattoos, including one of a pentagram that led to allegations of satanism – which he denies. “I wish I were that interesting,” he told Politico, noting that he also has a large but less noticed tattoo of Jesus on his stomach.
As for the intent behind the photos, Daskalakas said he posted them for the same reason many people use Instagram. “I spent a lot of money on my tattoos and a lot of time at the gym. I’m showing it off.”
