Rand Paul says ex-monkeypox czar’s weird sexual fetishes should have disqualified him for CDC job

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, says a recently-resigned Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) leader should never have been hired in the first place.

Demetre Daskalakis used to be the CDC’s Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases director, but resigned alongside three of his colleagues last week. The group complained that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s changes were keeping them from doing their jobs.

Paul had no sympathy for Daskalakis, whose lifestyle he believes should have excluded the man from government work entirely.

“One of the guys that is the biggest proponent of doing all this is the guy who describes the risky behavior that he and his lifestyle involve,”  the senator said. “A guy that is so far … out of the mainstream, I think most people in America would discount his opinion because of the things he said in the past. He does not represent the mainstream of anything in America.”

“He should have never had a position in government. And he brags about his lifestyle, you know, this whole idea of bondage and, you know, multiple partners and all that stuff. He brags about that stuff, but he’s got no business being in government. It’s good riddance.”

But Paul isn’t the first elected official to call Daskalakis’s lifestyle into question. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Georgia, also expressed concerns about the “BDSM Satan worshipper” during a Sunday CNN visit.

“In 2021, Daskalakis posed for the cover of Plus Magazine wearing a leather harness, an article of clothing popular among gay men and tied to the gay leather and BDSM communities. The cover and other posts Daskalakis made on social media have come under scrutiny in conservative media since his resignation,” The Hill reported.

“Daskalakis came to wider public recognition when he led the CDC’s response to the 2022 mpox outbreak that primarily affected the social networks of men who have sex with men.”

X users debated Paul’s comments:

Yes. His behavior opened the door to blackmail, and worse. So yes. Rand Paul is right.

— Sour Patch Lyds ن (@sourpatchlyds) September 3, 2025

Yes. He was a public activist for BDSM fetishism and Satanism. Noone like that should work in government.

— Jeff Cleghorn (@jeffcleghornga) September 2, 2025

Dude couldn’t recommend stopping orgies even in the face of a Monkeypox epidemic. Disqualifying.

— Its A Dry Heat (@Its_a_dryheat) September 2, 2025

Yeah it should

— The Iron Lady (@ironwitch_) September 3, 2025

I’m glad people are starting to say these things.

— DanPietsch (@DanPietsch) September 2, 2025

Very libertarian of him to say that. I guess the R always wins.

— Dustin VanCleave (@ForeverYips) September 2, 2025

I thought libertarians didn’t care about things like this is he a Christian libertarian any way get 10 libertarians ask them what it means to be libertarian you get 10 different answers

— Eamo (@eamonn_scott) September 3, 2025

NOT because he was gay, because he was a satanic masochist that is fine with mutilating children.

— Nancy Mom (@NancyS50926) September 3, 2025

Writer/Columnist

Sierra Marlee is a millennial whose hunger for the truth in a world of fake news has led her to BizPac Review.

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