> We started out with a survey, and then they filtered down automatically, manually, and then did brief interviews - 83 of them! With my approval, organizers rejected anyone associated with e/acc, because we don’t need to give nice things to people hastening our doom. Organizers herded all the attendees through a special form of STI testing, the service PASS, which directly sends your clear status to approved organizers (to prevent anybody faking anything). Special shoutout to MPowerr, a lab in Atlanta who heroically handled processing the confusing custom lab orders of dozens of men.
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> The lab orders were confusing and custom because we required some unusual tests - namely HSV and mycoplasma genitalium. I somehow, weirdly, do not test positive for either HSV 1 or 2, and so we wanted to know who had it so we could check outbreak history (outbreaks in the last few years increase risk of transmission; no outbreak history probably has extremely low transmission rates) and require they take antivirals. Nobody who tested, tested positive for any STI except HSV (which means mgen rates were 0!).
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> Of HSV, 32% tested positive for HSV1, and 8% tested positive for HSV2.
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> “How does HSV transmission work and how bad is it” is a whole nother post, but basically we read a gajaillion studies and then set our risk tolerance at 1/1000 chance of catching HSV this party, and set corresponding requirements (condoms, antivirals, no-outbreaks) based on the studies. I also took antivirals as a preventative measure. But realistically, given my bodycount and my age, this might possibly be some evidence that I might have a natural resistance to HSV anyway. We also had a ‘no kissing’ rule, which was probably overkill but with an orgy of internet people we decided to err on the safe side.