COVID is over in Hollywood

The animation industry (which I work in) has been tanking the past 18 months, despite the fact we probably kept the entertainment industry operating during the first part of the pandemic. Every single production worldwide switched to working from home. In that time, unions and guilds for live-action productions came up with a way to get back to work on-set and keep people safe. However like all other COVID safety measures that worked, these are starting to disappear too.

Called “The Safe Way Forward,” it defined The Zone Syatem, breaking production into Zones A, B, C, and D.

Per a July 2021 amendment that reduced The Zone System’s covid rules, employees in all Zones are required to complete and clear a lab PCR test 48 hours prior to the start of employment (the original rule was 24 hours)

Zone A is all performers and background actors and all employees who are present; there is no distancing or masking, and the zone is described as “a bubble encasing closely vetted vulnerable people.” Vaccinated Zone A workers must test three times a week, including a required PCR test, with additional testing if scenes require intimate contact or “exertion.

Zone B are crew who work on set but don’t get close to unmasked members of Zone A; masking is required and specific to N95’s and above, and Zone B must also test three times a week with one being a lab PCR. Zones C and D are not allowed contact with Zone A. The C and D Zones must PCR test every two weeks. However, Zone C must mask at all times while working, only work with other employees who mask at all times, don’t come into contact with A or B (and if so they all must be masking and stay distanced), and are not allowed in A or B Zones unless they PCR test negative 48 hours before doing so. Zone D, ranging from publicists and post-production to set designers and writers’ room, only require a pre-employment test. D is not allowed neat A or B unless they clear a PCR test 48 hours prior

Requirements for masks, distance, sanitizing, screenings and tests, and vaccination, are why entertainment’s infection rates remained low. Importantly, these rules and on-set Covid safety supervisors ensure actors and directors are safe, as most insurance policies don’t cover Covid-related production halts or the expense of shutdowns.

It’s clear who suffers when the rules are reduced — or not followed altogether: Zones C and D.

— https://www.pestemag.com/featured-posts/hollywoodpretendsnopandemic-5phhj

Well Tilda Swinton gives zero fucks about COVID: "I was told to wear a mask at all times, and I’m not.” You go girl! She claims she's “very healthy” after having COVID several times. She neglects to mention in this article (or seems to have forgotten?) that she said last year she has trouble remembering lines since her illnesses, and admits she is “still forgetting things. I have to work my brain.” Hey that doesn't sound like Long Covid does it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My father was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's after several years of ongoing dementia. If you've been through this with a loved one, you know it's terribly painful to watch someone forgetting things and having to constantly "work their brain" as they slowly dissolve into a pale shadow of who they used to be. But hey knock yourself out Tilda.