Remember how we were told all about the myriad of precautions in place for narcissist-in-chief Barack Obama’s massive star-studded 60th birthday party at his $12 million estate on Martha’s Vineyard this past weekend? Remember how the New York Times reporter assured us that COVID-spread concerns were much ado about nothing because the “sophisticated” crowd was “following all the safety precautions”?

Guess what?

As reported by The Vineyard Gazette, it seems that a new spike in Island Covid cases has closed a bevy of businesses at the peak of summer and left two patients hospitalized with the virus for the first time since early spring. Coincidence? Perhaps. Via The Gazette:

TestMV — the Island’s free testing site — has also received approval to move from the West Tisbury School to the Agricultural Hall, with the facility seeing a rise in test recipients in recent weeks.

Health agents have reported 54 new Covid-19 cases since Sunday, August 8, with 10 reported on Tuesday, 13 on Wednesday and now 18 new cases reported Thursday. The 54 cases reported over the past five days come after case levels reached near-zero totals at the beginning of the summer.

Two patients were hospitalized with Covid-19 at Martha’s Vineyard Hospital as of Thursday afternoon, according to hospital spokesman Marissa Lefebvre. A patient who was hospitalized over the weekend in serious condition remains hospitalized in the same condition. The patient had received only one vaccine dose.

The second patient was hospitalized Wednesday morning in fair condition, Ms. Lefebvre said. She said in an email Thursday that she could not share the patient’s vaccination status.

The announced scope of the Obamapalooza raised eyebrows from the outset, ultimately leading organizers to announce (solely for the purpose of political expediency, of course) they would be “scaling back the party to only family and close friends.”

But “shockingly,” as reported by my RedState colleague Nick Arama, Obama’s “only family and close friends” apparently has a whole different meaning than to us little people.

As we now know, celebrities descended on the Island en masse, including George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Don Cheadle, John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Dwyane [sic] Wade, and Gabrielle Union. And of course, there were the requisite “only family and friends” “yuuge” tents, a dance floor, and a large raised stage. And, man, did they party all night — packed dance floor, hugs and kisses, up-close selfies, the whole “scaled-back” bit.

Small “only family and close friends” birthday party — Barack Obama style.

EXCLUSIVE: Obama’s 60th birthday bash looks anything but intimate as huge tents are erected on his $12M Martha’s Vineyard estate https://t.co/naqVNmBl4v pic.twitter.com/sqnLvtqRGq

— Daily Mail US (@DailyMail) August 7, 2021

Anyway, concerns about the rising incidence of Covid cases, about half of which have occurred in fully vaccinated people, has boosted traffic at Test MV, which offers free testing for people without symptoms, said Mary Breslauer, a spokesman for the test site, according to The Gazette.

Just me, or does anyone else remember being told — pre-Obamapalooza — that we need not worry about COVID-spread, because every guest and staff member had been vaccinated?

Breslauer told The Gazette that the turnaround time for test results is now 2-4 days because of increased volume at Quest Diagnostics labs, which processes the tests. She also said organizers of the site thought at one time they might discontinue testing after Labor Day, but rising cases have only increased need. “It’s clear we need to stay open,” she said. “There needs to be an operational test site.”

The bottom line.

Did the narcissist-in-chief’s self-adulation bash turn out to be a so-called “super spreader” event, after all — which we were assured would not happen? I don’t know. But I do know it’s at least a hell of a coincidence that Island COVID cases have kicked up throughout the week — after Obama’s “family and close friends” have boarded their carbon-spewing private jets and jetted home.

At the very least, the post-Obamapalooza spike in Martha’s Vineyard COVID cases optics look terrible.