FORMER firefighter Adam Safer said he and his immediate family have no reason to be at the Kanoa Resort quarantine facility.
“We have had the symptoms associated with Covid-19 and recovered fully already,” he added.
Safer, his wife and children are in the quarantine facility after his mother tested positive for Covid 19 on Nov. 25. The contact tracer, he added, gave them two choices “to quarantine or go to jail.”
“We have been locked up in quarantine against our will since Saturday night,” Safer said.
“The reason we are in here is that my mom tested positive on Thursday last week. We had been treating her at home, but weakness had set in so I called an ambulance. Her O2 saturation was low so I had her transported to CHCC/ER where they tested her for Covid. She tested positive so she is being treated there now.”
According to Safer, CHCC contact tracers called them on Friday, and “asked a bunch of questions and said thank you.”
“On Saturday [morning] they contacted me again and said I would have to quarantine.”
Safer said, “I refused at first and explained…there was no need as we had self-isolated and recovered. The only answer I got was we have to follow protocol. It is a knee-jerk reaction that is fear based and not based in science,” added the former Emergency Medical Technician instructor.
Safer said he emailed CHCC Chief Executive Officer Esther Muna on Wednesday afternoon and requested that they be released from quarantine.
Safer told Muna, “My mom tested positive on Thanksgiving and was admitted to CHCC and is undergoing treatment now. My kids, my wife, and I had symptoms early in the month. My kids had very light symptoms from about the 1st to the 3rd of November. My wife and I had symptoms from about the 4th to the 9th of November. Symptoms for my wife and I included low grade fever, body aches, and some coughing. As per United States Centers for Disease Control regulations this would put us around 28 days out from onset and we would not be required to quarantine.”
According to Safer, “I have observed that at Kanoa there is a central air-conditioning system. Does it have the proper HEPA filtration system to stop viral transmission? I have heard many coughs. I am not worried for my family as we have already recovered from this strain, but what about all the others that have not yet contracted it. What if they get it here?”
“I really do feel imprisoned for doing nothing wrong,” he said. “We did everything right. When we did have the symptoms, we self-isolated and were a burden to no one. We eat right and exercise on a daily basis. There is only so much we can do in a tiny hotel room. I feel as though my constitutional rights have been violated. Where are we really going with all of this? No one has even told me how long we will be here and for what,” Safer added.
In her response, Muna said, “We have you scheduled for testing tomorrow morning [Dec. 2]. Once we get a negative test, you will be released to continue to self-monitor for symptoms. Thank you for your understanding. Praying for your mom to pull through this too.”
But Safer refused to be tested.
“As per the CDC guidelines we should not be tested tomorrow because the possibility of us having a false positive is very high since we likely had [it] early in November. We had all completely recovered by the 9th or 10th,” he said.
For people who are infected but asymptomatic or who never developed symptoms, isolation and precautions can be discontinued 10 days after the first positive test, Safer said.
“Patients who have recovered from Covid-19 can continue to have detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA in upper respiratory specimens for up to three months after illness onset. However, replication-competent virus has not been reliably recovered and infectiousness is unlikely,” he said.
He told Munda that his family had all the symptoms and had self-isolated.
“No test needed. We don’t need any more-false positive to scare the community with. I beg of you. Just let us out. It is the right thing to do. We are a danger to no one,” Safer told Muna in the email.
In response, Muna said she had discussed the situation with a colleague, “and we agreed that without any evidence of testing, we must rely on the quarantine and isolation requirements as prescribed by the CDC. “
“So, without testing, we will follow a 14-day quarantine and isolation from date of exposure, which will be after December 9, 2021. If you have symptoms from hereon, quarantine may be longer, but treatment is available at the quarantine/isolation site,” Muna said.
Safer said, “If I understand it correctly. If I submit and agree to do [Covid-19] testing for my family, provided we test negative, we get out tomorrow [Dec. 2]. Correct? If we decline testing (a medical procedure), then we get out after Dec. 9th. Please confirm this is correct. Even in light of what I explained in the previous e-mails? Even if the CDC states that the 10-day quarantine should be started at onset of symptoms. So, in short, I and my family are being persecuted for standing up for ourselves and not submitting to CHCC. I am really disappointed in this whole system. I am sorry to say it is a one size shoe fits all.”
Safer is one of the nine firefighters who were terminated for insubordination following their refusal to take the Covid-19 vaccine as required by the CNMI Governor’s Directive 2021-002.
They filed a lawsuit and asked the Superior Court to issue an order declaring their terminations invalid and unlawful, and to set their terminations aside.
In September, the court denied their request to be reinstated.
