Why The Production Halt Was Extended To Monday

Friday, the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) announced that the production halt it had requested on Wednesday, Oct 15, would be extended until Monday.

The delay is frustrating, to be sure, and many are wondering what the hold up is, considering that PASS-affiliated testing providers offer rapid turnaround on test results. Although TRPWL and its sources are bound by ethical and legal constraints in the reporting of this event, an examination of the complexities of this particular case can help explain the process — and the delay.

The current moratorium or “production hold” differs from previous moratoria in one key respect: it was not initiated by the discovery of a “reactive” or tentatively positive HIV test result at an official adult performer testing center.

In this instance, a Public Health Department outside of Los Angeles County notified Free Speech Coalition of a possible exposure on an out-of-state (i.e., non-California) film set. Thus, the production halt was based on data FSC received from outside of the PASS system.

Whilst there have been past instances of moratoria being related to possible HIV exposures on out-of state film sets (the 2009 case, and the false positive case from 2011, for instance), in each of those cases the reactive (and in the 2009 case, ultimately positive) test results were detected within the adult performer testing system of the day  — AIM or APHSS/PASS.

In the current instance, the genealogy of any possible exposures of adult performers still had to be ascertained, and in this case the process involved the public health department in question, PASS, the producer or producers in question, and doctors from the testing centers at which performers on the first generation exposure list tested and later re-tested.

Moreover, as reported here Friday, at least one performer on the list was out of state or out of the country.

In other words, it was not as simple as having PASS medical experts analyze data already at their disposal or immediately obtainable. Lots of moving parts this time around.

We expect that on Monday, FSC will either announce that the current production hold is altogether lifted, or issue an update and clarification in its stead.

MW