FSC Addresses Not Calling Production Hold in Light of COVID Risk

CHATSWORTH, Calif.—Following an announcement Tuesday afternoon that cases of COVID-19 infections among performers and crew members had come to its attention, the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) issed the following advisory Wednesday addressing why it has refrained from calling for a halt to adult production: With news of rising infection rates across the US, including the main production hubs for the adult industry, along with learning about at least a dozen cases of COVID-19 among talent and crew who tested outside of PASS, we’ve been asked one question more than any other. - “If the pandemic is so bad, why isn’t there a mandatory production hold?” Every person in the adult industry, including those of us at FSC, has their own opinion about what should be done about the pandemic and how the adult industry should proceed. In order to remove what personal bias we can, we are relying on experts to guide the decisions we make related to the pandemic. When we instated the production hold in March, we did so in alignment with orders in the State of California to shut down all non-essential business, which included film production. California was the first state to do this, so we called for a national hold. When we lifted the production hold in June, we again did so in alignment with orders in the State of California that allowed for the resumption of mainstream film production. We aligned with the reopening of mainstream film production, because a love scene in a mainstream film production has as much potential exposure to COVID-19 as does a sex scene in an adult film production.  We advised against resuming production but provided guidelines for those who chose to do so. We have stated that if we do call for another production hold related to COVID-19, it will be regional and in alignment with the orders of the regulating agencies in that region, or on the advice of our medical advisory board in response to a specific risk to the production pool. As bad as the COVID-19 pandemic is now, no jurisdictions have yet called for a shut down of film production, nor do we know of a specific infection exposure that poses an uncontained risk to the production pool. Therefore, we have not called for a production hold in any region. We cannot state strongly enough or repeat often enough that regardless of governmental orders or the existence of a production hold, we do not believe it is safe to create adult content with anyone outside of your household.