Pop Spotlight

On Wednesday, the pornography industry, which was lauded in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic as a model of testing practices, released new health and safety guidelines for Monkeypox. The instructions offer advice for maintaining a safe workspace on sets and advise adult performers to get vaccinated as soon as possible.

“We’re an industry that is very familiar with testing, we’re very familiar with health and safety protocols, and we are a community that has extended contact,” says Mike Stabile, public affairs director of Free Speech Coalition, the industry’s trade association. “So I think among the members of our community, this was something that was more urgent to address than it might be perceived in the general population.”

In a statement, executive director of the national PASS program (for Performer Availability Screening Services) Ian O’Brien said he organization was not aware of any infections related to adult film production, but the guidance released by PASS is meant to prevent the spread of illness. “While we are not aware of Monkeypox incidents related to adult production, we are a community that has historically taken our health, and public health, very seriously,” O’Brien said. The group also released an initial alert about the virus in May.

Long before mainstream office workers were uploading their vaccine statuses to company web portals or taking work surveys about recent Covid exposures, the adult film industry had a similar system in place to ensure the health and safety of its workers. Since 2011, PASS has partnered with testing organizations to clear people to work for two weeks at a time, based on testing for seven sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Headlines at the start of the pandemic hailed the industry as leaders in testing to ensure workplace safety. Likewise, by June 2020, PASS had issued 30 pages of guidelines for dealing with Covid, including social distancing and PPE protocols.

Now the organization is confronting Monkeypox, a virus that spreads through body fluids, skin contact and respiratory droplets, causing flu-like symptoms and at times a painful rash. There are more than 3,500 cases across 46 states, and cases worldwide are rising sharply. Last month, the U.S. began a vaccination campaign, but supplies are limited.

PASS’ suggestions include instituting Monkeypox-specific health screenings before a person can enter a set, involving temperature checks and questions about symptoms including swollen lymph nodes and unexplained bumps or rashes. If someone contracts Monkeypox, PASS has instructions regarding contact tracing and isolation, saying the person should stay home until any rash or lesions completely heal. The guidelines also include instructions for cleaning and sanitizing workspaces and best hand-washing practices.

More than any other measure, Stabile says, the organization wants to get as many adult industry workers vaccinated as possible. “This is something where we actually have a tool to be able to stop the spread very effectively,” he says, adding that a vaccine clinic is opening Friday in L.A. for sex workers; it’s one that PASS has been pushing for. “PASS has been active in trying to secure greater access for sex workers and those working in adult film production,” he says. “I know that different cities have different protocols and different definitions of who is at risk and who can secure vaccines, but as far as I know, this is the first time that resources are really being specifically deployed for sex workers.”