NEW YORK — The New York Times has published an article about the possible usefulness of adult industry STI testing protocols, particularly the PASS system, to help researchers and policymakers attempting to come up with COVID testing protocols.
The article — written by Michele C. Hollow and illustrated with a photo of Maitland Ward, who is also quoted — is entitled “Lessons on Coronavirus Testing From the Adult Film Industry.”
“As more states open up and people return to work, companies are looking for guidance on how to keep workers safe from infection,” Hollow wrote. “Some experts suggest looking to what may seem an unlikely model: the adult film industry. It survived a different pandemic — an outbreak of HIV infections in the late 1990s that almost shuttered the multibillion-dollar industry.”
The New York Times piece quotes Perry N. Halkitis, dean of the School of Public Health at Rutgers University, Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, Dr. Robert Gallo, a co-discoverer of HIV in the 1980s and co-founder and director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Mike Stabile, communications director for the Free Speech Coalition.
“We can actually learn a lot about safety guidelines by listening to producers of porn,” said Halkitis. “Thinking back to the HIV/AIDS crisis, the adult film industry had to learn how to keep their workers safe.”
Halkitis recommended "following its lead by using what he calls the 'Four Ts': Target, Test, Treat and Trace." The New York Times article presents the FSC-regulated PASS system as an example of the Four Ts.
The article, as is unfortunately typical of the mainstream press’ coverage of the adult industry, includes some stigmatizing quotes (e.g., Jha's observation that “we have to get over that this information is coming from the porn industry,” and Halkitis' note, “we need to take any tools we have, even ones from the adult film industry") and it reveals a former performer's personal health information, which is not central to the subject of the article.
The general gist of the piece, though, is more cautious than other mainstream pieces making a false equivalency between STI testing protocols like PASS and the completely different transmission scenarios presented by COVID-19.
Virologist Dr. Robert Gallo told the Times that, although “HIV and the coronavirus are very different viruses... like comparing a rabbit to a squirrel,” following the adult film industry example of testing is smart.
“Health screenings are the norm for us. I think the adult industry is far more prepared than mainstream” film sets or other businesses, Maitland Ward offered. “This is just one more thing we need to be cautious and vigilant about. Honestly, I think mainstream will be looking to how the adult industry handles this because we are the standard-bearer when it comes to health and safety on sets.”
To read the Times article, click here.
