The Associated Press is now reporting that the Free Speech Coalition, through their APHSS testing program, has announced via an email that initial test results on the performer whom had been originally found to have tested positive for HIV through a previous test is now completed....and "Patient Alpha" was found to have tested NEGATIVE.
Based on that, FSC has also announced that the voluntary moratorium on porn production that had taken effect when the initial test was revealed last week can now be lifted, and porn production resumed.
FSC did say that just for verification sakes, they would run follow up tests on "Patient Alpha"..but, it does appear that the worst fears of an "outbreak" have been settled.
If I was Michael Weinstein or Brian Chase of AHF or Shelley Lubben, I'd probably want to make plans for a long vacation. And, stock up on some lawyers. The checks they cashed with their big mouths just bounced. Let's hear the coverup conspiracies now, Mr. Weinstein.
And perhaps now, we may finally get everyone together and hash out a real plan for worker protection that actually respects the will and competence or performer choice??
If I find that AP article, I will repost it here. (Found. Scroll down.)
UPDATE: The FSC just released this statement on Patient Alpha's HIV- test over at their blog:
Free Speech Coalition (FSC) announced today some important news for the industry. An HIV test for “Patient Alpha,” administered by an APHSS.org testing facility, has been returned with negative results.
Recognizing the importance of accurate information being presented to the industry and media, FSC stresses that while test results indicate a negative result for the patient, follow-up testing is appropriate in this case.
“This is good news for the primary patient, the industry will continue to be abundantly cautious as we try to nail down the reasons for what now appears to have been a false positive result on a previous test,” FSC Executive Director Diane Duke said. “After discussion with our medical expert, he has advised that it would be appropriate for production to resume and the focus of attention brought to those who had worked with the performer. That group is already receiving care.
“FSC/APHSS.org will narrow the circle of caution to focus our concern on the group of people who had worked with the performer,” Duke continued. “Our prayers and utmost empathy go out to the performer in what has been a very difficult period.”
FSC called for an industry-wide precautionary moratorium on production last Sunday, after reports of a preliminary HIV positive test result for an adult performer in Florida. The performer in question and the adult industry were demonized as rumors and misinformation spread like wildfire. But recent developments imply that industry standards are working.
Duke continued, “Industry self-regulation and best practices are alive and well in the adult entertainment industry – and they work. We fully understand that it is vitally important for the adult performers have a place to go that is safe, trusted and transparent.”
UPDATE #2: Here is the AP story:
APNewsBreak: Porn performer retests HIV-negative
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An adult film performer who tested positive for HIV and caused the porn industry to shut down production as a precaution has been retested and the actor does not have the virus, a porn industry trade group said Saturday.
Production can now resume, said Free Speech Coalition executive director Diane Duke."The industry will be abundantly cautious as we try to nail down the reasons for what now appears to have been a false positive result on a previous test," Duke said.The actor, who was in Florida, had been slated to work on a shoot for Mofos.com, but production was halted last week when the test came back positive for HIV.Duke declined to release the performer's name, age or gender, citing the person's right to medical privacy. She also declined to say how her group learned of the case.Production has been shut down since Monday in the San Fernando Valley's multi-billion dollar adult entertainment industry, which includes Hustler and Evil Angel's productions. The case was found at an out-of-state clinic that does not report to California health officials, Duke said. The porn industry was similarly shuttered in late 2010, after porn actor Derrick Burts was diagnosed as HIV-positive. His case was confirmed, and he has since left the industry to become an advocate for the use of condoms in pornography.
The Free Speech Coalition is working on a database to track sexually transmitted disease testing among porn actors, a task formerly handled by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation before it closed in December 2010.
Known as AIM, the San Fernando Valley clinic had catered to porn stars since it opened in 1998. It was forced to close because of inadequate licensing.
Update #3: Michael Whiteacre just made this comment over at LukeIsBack.com that deserves reprinting here, because it addresses concerns about following up on the testing of "Patient Alpha" as well as the other 13 performers that he had been assumed to have infected.
The Associated Press reports that Patient Alpha has now tested negative in the latest round of confirmatory testing. However, the question remains whether it is legally and medically sound to DEFINITIVELY declare the patient HIV negative as of yet.The only question left that would close this out is this: Where did the false positive (or false "reactive") test come from? Was it simply a screw up from the testing facility? Or...could it have been a deliberate plant used by AHF and its associates to cook the books and plants the seeds of panic just to grease the wheels for an HIV porn panic and the condom mandate??
According to what I’ve been reading, most experts (including those at the CDC) recognize that it can take 30 to 90 days before one can make a definitive determination.
That’s why this quote from Weinstein’s latest self-serving press release is so frustrating:
“Why is any ‘investigation’ needed, when two rapid tests that would take 40 minutes, are sufficient to determine if someone is positive?”
This jackass — the president of the largest global AIDS organization, with clinics and testing sites in Florida (where this case reportedly occurred) — is obviously ignorant of the fact that in the state of Florida, NO ONE is deemed POSITIVE until the results of the confirmatory test come back. In fact, clinics are not permitted by the state to tell any one they are positive until the tests come back from the State. What people are told is that they are “reactive” even in AHF’s own clinics and testing sites, not positive.
Not only doesn’t Michael Weinstein understand testing, he doesn’t even know his own protocols. What a douche.
However, the FSC’s update makes it clear that the first and second generation people have been identified and contacted, and that testing has commenced, so it is appropriate to recommence production.
I guess that we will never find the answer to that.
