FSC Hosts Virtual Town Hall to Respond to COVID-19 Questions

LOS ANGELES—Organizers of the Free Speech Coalition’s virtual town hall today on COVID-19 restrictions and the industry’s response to the health crisis say the event helped clarify the growing restrictions and mandates impacting the industry. “We were updating folks on what’s happening in California and clarify all the confusion out there about restrictions and having multiple jurisdictions making claims and regulations that are confusing and raising a lot of questions on the crisis,” said Ian O’Brien, FSC deputy executive director. The meeting, held via the Zoom app this morning, gathered industry members from around the country as they asked questions about safety restrictions and industry guidelines for film and content shoots as well as how to practice proper protocols to stay safe. Since the industry slowly returned to production in late summer, changing restrictions and mandates from counties, cities and state have impacted shoots in California in particular, leading to some confusion and uncertainty among industry members, O’Brien said. “A tremendous amount of new information about COVID-19 has been released in the last few weeks, along with a number of new orders from Cal/OSHA, state local governments, and public health agencies,” O’Brien said. “At today’s town hall we touched on the key points of each of those orders, as well as the most recent CDC guidelines. We’ve received a lot of questions from individuals and companies in the industry, so we wanted to make ourselves available for questions in this forum as well.” Just last month, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Cal/OSHA) unanimously approved a proposal for emergency temporary standards related to COVID-19 prevention which apply to all businesses, including those in the adult industry. The new regulations include: • All employees are required to wear face coverings (defined as a cloth mask) while at work, except for specific tasks that can not feasibly be performed with a face covering. • Every workplace in California is required to have a COVID Prevention Plan that can be shared with Cal/OSHA and employees upon request. • Any COVID-19 exposure in a California workplace needs to be investigated and documented by the employer. If there are three positive tests within a two-week period, it needs to be reported to the local health department. • If an employee is exposed at work, and needs to quarantine, the employer must continue to provide salary and other benefits while the person is quarantined, regardless of whether they are able to work from home. But O’Brien said he is particularly aware of the impact misinformation has had among many who don’t believe in the seriousness of the pandemic. “There are people that believe that this virus is not that dangerous, but it is clear that there are some populations that have greatly increased mortality. The virus doesn’t care if you believe in it or not, it just is,” O’Brien said. “But if we care about other people, we need to take actions to care about each other and protect our communities.” Meanwhile, the FSC may host another virtual townhall as news develops on the current health crisis. For more information about COVID-19 guidelines and health and safety protocols, visit www.FreeSpeechCoalition.com.