belkinDC

Pazubane, thx for sharing your GREAT reports! 
With your permission I take exception to your attitude toward after-sex O.
Demanding more than agreed is one of the worst things a garoto can do. Indulging him ensures perpetuation. )-:

Xclay, I tend to do the same and during each trip, I try to discover a new place. There is so much to discover in Brazil. Spending some time in Amazonas or in Pantanal is really awesome ... but boyless (there are a couple of saunas in Manaus). Travelling in Minas Gerais outside of the very well known cities (BH, Ouro Preto, ...) is also amazing. It is a totally  different Brazil : I discovered recently the "montanhas cafeeiras" (moutains where coffee grows). Amazing ! 
I still have quite a lot to discover ... 

So, why did he keep talking back while on the ground and was in the position to get up while on the ground?  And he ran away.  I didn't see any police corruption here.

Bused to São Paulo on Friday. While bus is comfortable, had hours of traffic jams. 9am out of Rio, didn’t get to São Paulo until 6pm.
A quick shower, Uber to Lagoa. A rather slow night. A few fresh faces, but more like Rio Meio Mundo level. munch less energy compared to last May. Left in an hour or so without hit. Maybe it’s because tomorrow they have bingo?
202 also has a big event on Saturday. I don’t follow 202 that much, but I remember last May when I was in Rio, there was a dead Friday and it was also because a party is planned the following day. Maybe 202 is giving up on Fridays and shooting for making Saturday the 2nd best day of the week? 
 
Some thunder and rain 4-6pm on Saturday, bad timing. Thankfully it lightened up by 6, just drops here and there with cloudy sky. A comfortable 26c or so. Made to Lagoa around 6:15. A couple customers are already leaving! A couple more new faces, but this is rather disappointing. Perhaps it has something to do with they raise the boys’ fee to 25? Or is it the weather? 
 
A good surprise is T is in the house, one of my old favorite from Fragata! Had many good times with him between 2017-2019. The boy has slim and completely smooth sun tanned bronze body, light blue eyes and hasn’t aged at all at 28, same boyish look as when I first met him. We hug and kiss, laugh about how long it has been since we last met! Not seeing any new face that stands out, I am happy with refreshing my memories with T.
The boy loves deep throat and chocking himself, and it felt amazing. I love it when a boy has a boner pointing up while he is sucking🤩, his cock jumps when he chokes. And wonderful Brazilian rim job. His hole is hairless as well, tiny smooth round opening. I love it when his eyes meet mine in the mirror during fucking, he flashes a joyful smile 😊 later he switches from doggie to legs up, after I finish, I took another look at his hole, amazing it’s turning back to the tiny round opening! B, my favorite new 202 twink from 2021, would have a somewhat gaping hole afterwards. I suppose T is a much more naturally talented bottom 🤓
Surveying the room a few more rounds before exiting. No one stands out. A little sad, Lagoa was the place that used to have some real stunners! IE: Igor Miller. And cute college boys now and then. This feels quite a slump. Unlike in 117 or 202, I didn’t have to wait for a room here. While 202 seems to have fresh supplies of new boys, is São Paulo turning more online? Hope this is not an omen of an end. I so miss Fragata. 

What you like most about Brazil? For me,  heading back to hotel a little tipsy from a 202 drink and a good time with a 202 boy. 
 
First night in 202, the long flight is already worthwhile. A rainy Monday until 6pm. Was a little doubtful, worried it might be an empty house. Weather app forecasts heavy rain until 10pm, it’s just cloudy with a few drizzle after 6pm! Way off, weather.com! The few drops are rather pleasant for the 30+ hot day. 
 
Junior’s son and a lady are managing the reception. I ask him how many boys are in house as I enter, he said muito. He didn’t exaggerate. Quite a few new faces since my last trip 2022 May. This cute boy with an army crew cut looks somewhat familiar, it’s until later of the night when I overhearing him talking in English with a client and looking closer to his tattoo that I realized it’s Solomon, the boy I had a 2peat in Lagoa on my last trip. 
 
A slim black boy with a pretty face stood out for me as I walk up to the shower and steam room. While I prefer the 30+ rio summer to -15 Canadian winter, you do need a shower after getting to 202 on metro. After surveying the room, I made him my top choice. 
 
The client he was chatting with fell through, so as I walk by him the 2nd time to the steam room, he followed me in soon after. The kiss is sweet and a little rough. The baby smooth Latino/black skin is my favorite, and it often comes with a huge cock too, as for this boy. We make a deal in 5 minutes in the sauna amid kisses. Long waiting list for room, so I bought drinks and we had more kisses while waiting. In the room, Brazilian boys are more often than not eating ass with a passion. When we get to the fucking, his baby smooth hole felt amazing. He likes getting fucked legs up, with a slim build like my all time favorite N, the hole is fully exposed in that position. A great bottom boy. 
 
Down side is he is uncomfortable taking a photo together. Well, on closer look, he is a little too polished pretty, unlike N, naturally handsome, married young with a son at the tender age of 19, cute with a glowing smile but not  the slightest gay. Except that N often had a boner pointing to the sky when he started our encounter by sucking my cock. The wonder of some Brazilian straight boys! Fucking girls in real life, taking dick on the side for money…
Break down of the night: 75 entry charge, 37 for two drinks, 40 for the room. Less than 30us$ for the house, long live 202! 
While 1st night is a happy night. Things outside sauna are quite different. The COVID tourist slump is over, hotel price more than doubled, often tripled in Copacabana compared to last May. long line ups for foreigners at customs too compared to no lines at all last May. Airport Lounges are open now. There is even a lounge for customers after arrival outside security in the parking garage. Handy to kill a couple hours as my flight arrived before 10, it would be too early to uber to my hotel right away as check in starts at 2pm.
Another ugly shock is my debit card from an American bank used to give me very close to posted xe.com exchange rate for ATM no fee withdrawal at Bradesco, now the exchange rate is a full 10 percent off posted rate 😞 (5.2 posted, ATM withdrawal at 4.7). Credit card charge still happens very close to posted rate at 5.16. Tip, always choose getting charged in Real, not your local currency if asked.
Time for bed. 117 tomorrow, muscle gods are not my type, so will be going with low expectations. 

I recall a government official in Canada saying many years ago that while Prohibition in the U.S. and Canada is remembered as a huge failure, in a lot of respects it was a success with big reductions in alcohol related social and health problems. I've seen first hand in my own family with my father, sister and now a niece how destructive it can be and am thankful the only time I ever wanted to drink was to fit in with friends.

It looks like Drogasil (major chain pharmacy) sells generic Truvada for 140 BRL for a 30 day supply. The website does say "sale under medical prescription" but so do the generic Viagra boxes they sell there, and we know how strictly that is enforced: https://www.drogasil.com.br/binav-com-30-comprimidos-revestidos.html?origin=autocomplete
I would venture to guess it wouldn't be too difficult to find a pharmacy to sell you a box fairly cheaply if you don't want to deal with the hassle of the free HIV clinic system.

Hornet has more guys then grindr. I have met many guys in the airbnb in Istanbul center (affordable local hotels are not visitor friendly). Small terrace and view of the Bosporus strait. One really hot and fit guy liked older guys with bold head (I am), well I was happy to fulfill his fantasy. One guy was probably a thieve - he was nervous and strange, next day I realised my cc is gone, not sure when and how he managed. I saw in the banking app purchase attempts in the same evening.

Hi Fellow Members, my apologies.  I was pretty busy when I came back from Brazil because I just sold my house and moving out and moving in a new house and now I am pretty much settled. This is my first time logging in since June.
About Mezzaninu, for me I would not come back because it maybe a hit or miss. I went there Friday and Saturday.  Friday is pretty dead, maybe 5 guys. The one I like with smooth tan a bit muscular, cute face is with a customer in the table. He noticed I kept looking at him but he cannot leave his customer.  So when I started walking around and went upstairs after 30min, we met by the stairs and he started talking and I told him let's go to the Suite and I believe he is not available yet, I think.  He keep telling me I will suck you here and then he started kissing me in the hallway. I am shy so I walked towards the dark corner by the two rooms and he started unzipping my pants and wanted to suck me and I told him again let's go to the room and I was turned on (he has beautiful face and in his early 20's). He pulled out my cock and started sucking it for about 1-2 min because I told him to stop lets get a room and then he is asking for 50Reals for the BJ and he said I am garoto and I work for this and that and I needed to get paid for my service ( I speak little portuguese because I studied the language). The argument started and I dont want to make a scene so I gave him the 50Reals.  I am ok with it but what i did not like is he did not tell me he will charge me for quick BJ. Too bad he is my type, it just turned me off.
I only flirted with the Bar tender who is the regular stripper there. His name is Luis, you will find him in the FB posting of the sauna. He teased me with his body so I booked him the next day afternoon for a private. I just arrived that Friday afternoon and feeling so horny.  Luis bottom for me with plus 100Reals, since I am so horny I said ok.
Saturday, I am hoping to see more boys which there are more boys.  only few muscular but the face not my type.  when there is new guy who arrives and started showering, i just keep watching them and decide who to pick. I smiled at them and they smiled back at me and to the guy i like, i nod and he acknowledge it so when he came out of the shower he come to my table. too bad he is not a bottom because he had pretty face, nice smile and a big cock   😞  Oh he speaks English pretty good because he wanted to do OnlyFans. I didnt get him so I started to looking for other boys and one caught my eye.  His looks is like those young guys on a skateboard. he is 22 but he has a child already when he was 18. and he said he will bottom so we went upstairs. not a super performer but you have to lead the action, tell him what to do and he will do it. kinda boring for me.
I am shocked in Mezanninu because it is not well maintained now. Air conditioner not working in my room. Water is cold and the shocking thing is they ran out of towels when I am ready to go upstairs with the boy.  the garoto said, pointing to the towels in the shelves, "what about that", the grandma who works there said "it's not to be used and when she pulled the towels, and showed it to us, there are holes in the middle ! and also the other towels so overused if you know what i mean by the look of it.
So if you come on Saturday, there are many boys, i would say 25 and there are also lots of cute boys and mostly top. I dont bottom so it was not the best night for me in Brazil.
then Sunday morning off to Rio, I was more excited than POA.
I am coming back next year - Memorial Weekend (end of May thru June) in Rio and SP.  I will skip POA for sometime for now....
thanks for reading...

As a kid: any episode of Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie.

Now... the French spy thriller "The Bureau" (or as it is known in France, Le Bureau des Légendes), which they are supposedly doing an American re-make of. Highly recommend for anyone who likes espionage stuff. You can watch all 5 seasons for free with a VPN set to Australia and making an account here: https://www.sbs.com.au/

Europe is crumbling. I will never go back. 
If I look at the likes of Biden, Justin Trudeau, Lizz Truss, the horse face cunt in NZ. The west is pathetic. These people are criminals and scum. However this new world turns out, I will be on the side of China/Russia and their allies. 
To everyone else, enjoy your energy bills.  

You are entitled to your opinion. I am mine. 
The US / EU and UK governments I regard as criminal filth. I would condemn them before any other global leaders. While Thailand may be corrupt, it has nothing on Ukraine (which most under 40s can't even point to on a map). 

Follow the money. The scum then (30s,40s), are being funded by the same people as the scum now. 

While we are on the subject of rimming, why don't we also discuss scat and golden shower.

If you can speak the same language....

Just resurrecting this old thread with 2022 update: Club 117 is still very popular and busy on Tuesdays because of the free cabins. Closed on Mondays.
Wednesdays are very busy at Pointe 202 because of the same free cabin promotion. Many Club 117 garotos will come to Pointe 202 on Wednesdays.
I suppose Mondays are also busy at Pointe 202 (because Club 117 is closed). Pointe 202 is closed on Sundays.
There was no waiting time for the (free) cabins at neither Club 117 nor Pointe 202 on the days I was there in March.
Club 117 is easily accessible from Copacabana. Just take the metro to Gloria (6 stations from Siqueira Campos/Copacabana) and it is less than 5 min walk from there.  Metro ticket price is now 6,5 BRL; you can enter the metro by using a VISA contactless card so no need to queue up to buy ticket.
Actually Gloria/Lapa/Santa Teresa are more charming than Copacabana IMO and well worth a visit/sightseeing, Centro is deserted on weekends and should be avoided.

For Medellin from Tampa, you could also drive to Orlando and fly direct on Spirit… did a quick search and they have direct flights MCO-MDE in Nov from $460 roundtrip with all the “bundled” stuff included (checked bag, carryon, priority boarding etc). Potentially cheaper depending how light you pack. I know people rag on Spirit but for a sub-4 hour flight I personally wouldn’t hesitate.

My understanding is that the driver is not shown what your destination is until they actually pick you up (or at least that’s how it used to be on Uber) because they wanted to prevent precisely that behavior. 

FWIW I used Uber in CDMX multiple times per day on a 10 day trip about a year ago without any major issues. But I’m curious to hear @Mavica’s fraud concerns knowing that he has much more experience in the country.

How does the fraud work? I always thought Uber was relatively fraud-proof compared to taxis because you are shown the price upfront and the whole journey is tracked by the company, and you can dispute/report any problems to them? 

We will miss you likeohmygod and all your witty and informative comments ! 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/03/us/politics/monkeypox-vaccine-doses-us.html
U.S. Could Have Had Many More Doses of Monkeypox Vaccine This Year
The Department of Health and Human Services delayed asking the manufacturer to process the bulk vaccine the government already owned into vials.
 
By Sharon LaFraniere, Noah Weiland and Joseph Goldstein
Aug. 3, 2022
WASHINGTON — The shortage of vaccines to combat a fast-growing monkeypox outbreak was caused in part because the Department of Health and Human Services failed early on to ask that bulk stocks of the vaccine it already owned be bottled for distribution, according to multiple administration officials familiar with the matter.
By the time the federal government placed its orders, the vaccine’s Denmark-based manufacturer, Bavarian Nordic, had booked other clients and was unable to do the work for months, officials said — even though the federal government had invested well over $1 billion in the vaccine’s development.
The government is now distributing about 1.1 million doses, less than a third of the 3.5 million that health officials now estimate are needed to fight the outbreak. It does not expect the next delivery, of half a million doses, until October. Most of the other 5.5 million doses the United States has ordered are not scheduled to be delivered until next year, according to the federal health agency.
To speed up deliveries, the government is scrambling to find another firm to take over some of the bottling, capping and labeling of frozen bulk vaccine that is being stored in large plastic bags at Bavarian Nordic’s headquarters outside Copenhagen. Because that final manufacturing phase, known as fill and finish, is highly specialized, experts estimate it will take another company at least three months to gear up. Negotiations are ongoing with Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing, a Michigan factory that has helped produce Covid-19 vaccines, to bottle 2.5 million of the doses now on order, hopefully shaving months off the timetable, according to people familiar with the situation.
Health and Human Services officials so miscalculated the need that on May 23, they allowed Bavarian Nordic to deliver about 215,000 fully finished doses that the federal government had already bought to European countries instead of holding them for the United States.
At the time, the nation had only eight confirmed monkeypox cases, agency officials said. And it could not have used those doses immediately because the Food and Drug Administration had not yet certified the plant where the vaccine, Jynneos, was poured into vials.
But it could now. Some states are trying to stretch out doses by giving recipients only one shot of the two-dose vaccine. California, Illinois and New York have declared public health emergencies. In New York City, every available slot for a monkeypox shot is taken.
Lawrence O. Gostin, a former adviser to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who has consulted with the White House about monkeypox, said the government’s response has been hobbled by “the same kinds of bureaucratic delays and forgetfulness and dropping the ball that we did during the Covid pandemic.”
The obstacles to filling and finishing vials follow other missteps that have limited vaccine supply. The United States once had some 20 million doses in a national stockpile but failed to replenish them as they expired, letting the supply dwindle to almost nothing. It had 372,000 doses ready to go in Denmark but waited weeks after the first case was identified in mid-May before requesting the delivery of most of those doses. Another roughly 786,000 doses were held up by an F.D.A. inspection of the manufacturer’s new fill-and-finish plant but have now been shipped.
The government also owns the equivalent of about 16.5 million doses of bulk vaccine produced and stored by Bavarian Nordic. But by the time the health agency ordered 500,000 doses worth to be vialed on June 10, other countries with outbreaks had submitted their own orders and the earliest delivery date was October.
Another order for 110,000 doses for European nations soon followed. When the United States came back with two more orders of 2.5 million doses each on July 1 and July 15, the bulk could only be delivered next year.
Mr. Gostin, who now directs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, predicted that President Biden’s decision to appoint two new monkeypox response coordinators would help “light a fire” under federal health agencies. The White House announced Tuesday that Robert Fenton, an administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, a C.D.C. official, will lead the response.
Mr. Gostin said the nation’s public health agencies have been “kind of asleep at the wheel on this,” and the new coordinators should help with “unblocking all of the obstacles to procuring and delivering vaccines and drugs, which has been deeply frustrating.”
Two senior federal officials, who requested anonymity in order to speak frankly, said Mr. Biden is upset by the vaccine shortage. His administration has often touted its success delivering hundreds of millions of coronavirus shots to Americans, and is stung by criticism that a lack of foresight and management has left gay men — the prime risk group for monkeypox — unprotected.
Some critics blame a failure of leadership at the Health and Human Services Department, saying the department’s secretary, Xavier Becerra, has taken a hands-off approach to an increasingly serious situation. His department not only oversees both the C.D.C. and the Food and Drug Administration, but also runs the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, which helps develop and buys vaccines, tests and treatments to protect against highly contagious viruses, bioterrorism and other hazards.
During a press call on monkeypox last week, Mr. Becerra said his department is doing all it can to ensure that “we not only stay ahead of this virus but that we end this outbreak.” He noted that he had recently elevated the agency’s Office of Strategic Preparedness and Response so it can respond more quickly to public health emergencies.
Sarah Lovenheim, the department’s chief spokeswoman, said in a statement: “Our response has accelerated to meet evolving needs on the ground, and it will keep accelerating. We will use every lever possible to continue allocating doses ahead of timelines, as possible.”
So far, according to the C.D.C., 6,326 cases of monkeypox have been reported. For now, the virus is spreading almost entirely among gay and bisexual men, and those with multiple or anonymous partners are considered especially at risk. Mr. Becerra noted that while more than a million Americans have died of Covid-19, no one in the United States has died of monkeypox.
The official case count is widely considered an underestimate. Not only is testing limited, but public health officials like Dr. Joseph Kanter, the top medical official in Louisiana, said that monkeypox can be hard to diagnose. “It can be one or two solitary lesions, so if it’s not on a clinician’s radar,” he said, it can be missed.
With too few doses, health officials apparently plan to rely heavily on the “test and trace” strategy that figured heavily in the early stages of the Covid pandemic. As the pandemic escalated, the sheer torrent of cases overwhelmed the ability of health officials to contact people who might have been infected by someone who had tested positive for the coronavirus. Once Covid vaccines became available, they became the cornerstone of the administration’s pandemic response.

Through early June, Health and Human Services officials appeared firmly convinced that the United States had more than enough supply of the monkeypox vaccine, called Jynneos, to handle what appeared to be a handful of cases.
Bavarian Nordic was able to develop the vaccine, which also works against smallpox, largely thanks to the federal government’s backing, which surpassed $1 billion in 2014 and is now edging toward $2 billion. Dawn O’Connell, the federal health agency’s assistant secretary for preparedness and response, told reporters in early June: “The world has Jynneos because we invested in it.”
The company opened a new $75 million fill-and-finish plant in 2021 that is now bottling as many as 200,000 to 300,000 doses a week. At the time, the United States was counting on Jynneos to protect against smallpox, not monkeypox, and the government had a large stockpile of another effective smallpox vaccine. No F.D.A. inspection was scheduled until after the monkeypox outbreak, and it did not conclude until July 27.
In early June, Health and Human Services officials agreed to essentially loan back about 215,000 finished doses of vaccine to Bavarian Nordic so the firm could supply them to European countries that were suffering outbreaks.
“It didn’t make sense while we were waiting for F.D.A. to get the inspection done — which is coming — that we sit on doses that our international colleagues in Europe could actually use,” Ms. O’Connell said on June 10. Now the government is trying to reschedule delivery of those doses for later this year, a company spokesman said.
The final stage of putting the liquid vaccine into vials accounts for a substantial share of the cost of vaccine production. Some federal officials say the health department was slow to submit its orders for that work because officials at BARDA argued they were short on funds.
When the demand for vaccines became an outcry, though, the agency found the money to pay for five million more doses to be vialed. Officials are now contemplating shifting half the work to another firm that may be able to finish and fill doses more than twice as fast.
Some experts say it can take as long as six to nine months for a plant to gear up to handle a vaccine like Jynneos, which contains a live virus in a weakened state. Carlo de Notaristefani, who oversaw coronavirus vaccine manufacturing for the federal government until last year, said that such factories must operate at a high “biological safety level,” including a fully enclosed, segregated manufacturing line.
But he and other experts said it should be possible to streamline the transfer of Bavarian Nordic’s process so another plant could be ready in about three months. A company spokesperson said Bavarian Nordic agreed to pay $10 million of the cost of such a transfer after federal officials said they did not have the budget for it.
Kitty Bennett contributed research.

Perhaps I was too quick to say Congress was at least too much to blame  - even though I do think they were very shortsighted re: funding for Jynneos and other MCMs.

The Biden admin absolutely have poorly played the imperfect hand they were dealt.

Perhaps I was too quick to say Congress was at least too much to blame  - even though I do think they were very shortsighted re: funding for Jynneos and other MCMs.

The Biden admin absolutely have poorly played the imperfect hand they were dealt.

More on this point from Politico:

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/18/u-s-officials-knew-for-years-they-did-not-have-enough-jynneos-vaccine-00052694
Before monkeypox outbreak, U.S. officials knew for years they didn't have enough of key shot
  The Strategic National Stockpile was supposed to have about 120 million Jynneos doses, enough for 60 million people, | Mario Tama/Getty Images
By ERIN BANCO and HELEN COLLIS
08/18/2022 03:31 PM EDT
Updated: 08/18/2022 06:26 PM EDT
Officials said the Strategic National Stockpile did not have enough Jynneos doses for a potential smallpox outbreak because of a lack of resources.
Top U.S. health officials have known for years that the country’s Strategic National Stockpile did not have enough doses of a smallpox vaccine that is now key to the monkeypox fight, according to three former senior officials and a current official working on the monkeypox response.
The U.S. has stockpiled Jynneos, the vaccine by Bavarian Nordic, which is also being used to combat monkeypox.

The U.S. never had the money to purchase the millions of doses that experts felt were necessary, the officials said. Now, that shortfall is hampering efforts to contain the growing monkeypox outbreak, one in which the Biden administration has come under fire for failing to deliver enough vaccine for the millions of people at risk.
“Every time I meet a member of Congress, I let them know what the need is,” said Dawn O’Connell, head of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, in an interview. “The SNS … has been chronically underfunded. We need to get this SNS fully funded and stocked against what we think the next threats are.”

The Strategic National Stockpile was supposed to have about 120 million Jynneos doses, enough for 60 million people, said the officials who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive government matters. Jynneos was stockpiled as an alternative to ACAM 2000, a different vaccine that is not suitable for people who are immunocompromised. Prior to 2019, the U.S. had just 20 million doses. In 2020, the U.S. purchased just over 1 million doses to replenish expired vaccine.

Paul Chaplin, CEO of Bavarian Nordic, told POLITICO on Thursday that after the vaccine received approval from the Food and Drug Administration in 2019, the U.S. stockpile requirement called for the protection of 66 million at-risk Americans. That meant about 132 million doses of the Jynneos shot were needed for people who cannot receive ACAM 2000 in the event of a smallpox outbreak.

“That’s people [who] are vulnerable who shouldn’t really receive first and second generation vaccines,” Chaplin said.

An official at the Department of Health and Human Services suggested the 120 million dose figure was higher than the government threshold but did not dispute that the Jynneos stockpile level was below what it should have been, and declined to provide what the SNS requirements actually say.

The senior officials who spoke to POLITICO said the requirements for the stockpile — levels set in part by HHS — often shift and are, at times, outdated. For example, one former senior official said the department kept two numbers on hand — the number of doses the stockpile could afford to purchase and the number of doses that were actually needed to distribute to a certain population. The number of Jynneos doses the government could afford as of 2019, that official said, was around 40 million. But money for Jynneos shots competed with funding for more pressing priorities and threats the administration perceived as more likely.

“That’s not preparedness,” said the former senior health official. “It’s like telling the military … you have a requirement for 100 airplanes, but we’re only gonna give you 10 because that’s all we can afford. And then we have to fight. Good luck.”

Since the Biden administration assumed office, there have been ongoing discussions within the ASPR about adjusting the requirement levels and about how to get additional funding to help ramp up supply of critical medicines and shots.

In November 2021, senior officials from HHS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held a meeting to discuss responses to a potential smallpox outbreak. Officials there spoke about the Jynneos shot and noted many doses had previously expired. They planned to ask Congress for additional funding to shore up supply, according to one of the former officials who attended the meeting.

“There was a push after that to get hard, concrete numbers and budget numbers because they didn’t want to report … this huge gap [in supply] back to the White House,” one of the officials said.

In May of 2021, POLITICO reported that the Biden administration rerouted $2 billion from the SNS to help handle the surge of unaccompanied migrants at the border. In its most recent budget request, ASPR asked for $975 million in funds for the stockpile, about $130 million more than was enacted in 2022.

“We all saw what happened in 2020 when the PPE we expected to be there wasn’t there. I think Congress felt that acutely as well when their constituents were searching for things,” O’Connell said. “So it is really important for me to use that as a critical example of why we need to move forward and make sure the SNS is well funded against the current material threats.”

The re-emergence of an orthopoxvirus has in fact been contemplated and planned for by the US federal government for over a decade, which is why there is/was a stockpile of Jynneos and ACAM. At one point we had 20 million doses of Jynneos in the stockpile, which the government let expire without replacing them. That is indeed a failure and we would have been much better prepared for this outbreak if the stockpile had been maintained at those levels.

I just noticed this interesting thread.
Let me offer a few ideas on the subject.

It seems to me that our impressions of gay promiscuity are (unavoidably since we don't have a census) quite imprecise and tilted heavily toward the places "our crowd" are familiar with and have developed a reputation.  I lived in a country in SE Asia that never gets our attention but where there was a massive amount of public cruising as well as sex saunas, bars, and "massage parlors." It was just not on our radar.
The original question was:
My multi-causal hypothesis:
You need a critical mass of (1) a huge urban population;
(2) enough potential GPs (who are not too poor and can afford cell phones but not so middle class that they would never consider becoming rentboys); and
(3) yet enough local clients who are sufficiently affluent to sustain the sauna in the low season
No other country on the continent comes close to Brazil in terms of the size of its urban population.
Brazil = 187 million! Argentina = 42 million Colombia = 41 million Peru = 26 million Others far fewer Yet, the 22 million people of the São Paulo metro area can only support one strong GP sauna (occasionally two).  The 14 million living in metro Rio, along with tourists, can only support two or three GP saunas. And of course even big Brazilian cities like Porto Alegre (4.5 million metro) struggle to support one GP sauna these days. 
Thus, the actual number of sufficiently needy, attractive, willing GPs — and sufficiently affluent, horny clients — seems to be so few as a percentage (while they loom large in our selective vision) that an enormous population base of millions seems required to make the magic work.
So my suggestion is that Brazil's alchemy is its dozen cities that hit the sweet spot of a huge population base that is neither too poor nor too wealthy. (Of course, along with that sweet spot comes the likelihood of local authorities who can be persuaded to look the other way.)

So why not Argentina? Maybe only Buenos Aires has the critical mass of population, and it does have some GP bordellos, although, as far as I know, nothing as good as Brazil.
Colombia does have the GP scene in establishments in populous Bogota.
I can more or less rule out other countries using my rough theory but this post is too long already.

Not claiming to have all the answers, but I just wanted to kick around some ideas prompted by this interesting thread.