Princeton Police and Health Department Enforcing Quarantine of NBC Crew

Snyderman
Snyderman

The Princeton Police Department, in conjunction with the Princeton Health Department, is enforcing the mandatory quarantine that was issued by the state Friday night for NBC Chief Medical Editor Nancy Snyderman and her crew.

Snyderman and two crew members were quarantined Friday night after the New Jersey Health Department has issued a mandatory quarantine order. The mandatory order was issued after a voluntary 21-day isolation agreement was violated.

Police are regularly patrolling the area where Snyderman and her crew are quarantined. Contrary to rumors, an officer has not been stationed outside Snyderman’s residence to enforce the quarantine. A nurse is visiting to monitor temperatures on a daily basis and other health officials have visited Snyderman and her crew.

“We are acting in conjunction with the health department to insure the quarantine stays in effect and is secure,” Princeton Police Chief Nicholas Sutter said. “We have increased patrols in the area given the attention the area is getting. Basically, if the health department needed any assistance with security issues, we would be responsible for that.”

A spokeswoman for the state health department told the The Associated Press Friday night  that Snyderman and her crew remain symptom-free and that there is no reason for concern of exposure to the deadly virus to the community. Citing privacy concerns, the spokeswoman would not give further details, including who violated the agreement and how the state learned of a violation.

Snyderman and her crew were reporting in Liberia about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa with Ashoka Mukpo, a freelance cameraman who was infected with the disease. He is now being treated in Omaha, Nebraska.  After Mukpo came down with the disease on Oct. 1, the head of NBC announced in a letter that Snyderman and the rest of her crew would voluntarily be isolated for 21 days. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people exposed to the virus develop symptoms two to 21 days after their exposure. The risk of exposure for other members of the NBC crew was considered to be very low.

The isolation deal was made with the CDC, state and local health officials.

“Unfortunately, the NBC crew violated this agreement and so the Department of Health today issued a mandatory quarantine order to ensure that the crew will remain confined until Oct. 22,” the spokeswoman for the New Jersey Health Department told the Associated Press.

NBC has refused to comment on the issue, citing privacy concerns.

Several Planet Princeton readers reported seeing Snyderman in public last week. One reader saw Snyderman sitting in her car outside of the Peasant Grill in Hopewell Boro Thursday afternoon. A reader reported that a man who was with her got out of the car and went inside the restaurant to pick up a take-out order. Another man was in the back seat of her black Mercedes. Snyderman had sunglasses on and had her hair pulled back, the reader said.

55 Comments

  1. This is absurd. The Planet Princeton commentariat flipped out over some guy sitting in a car with Snyderman and then going into Peasant Grill. Now a nurse is visiting Snyderman every day to check temperature, and then circulating in the community right after. “other health officials” are doing the same. There is no difference in her level of quarantine between what was happening before and now.

    1. Doh! Don’t you think the nurse and other health officials are probably following special protocols and possibly even wearing special gear? Get a clue.

      1. doh…what protocols?… why would you presume that ANYONE is prepared for this…. b/c they aren’t…”probably following special protocols”.. don’t be so gullible……

          1. kurt, have you read or listened to the reports of events by those nurses who now find themselves ill w/the disease? i think you enjoy trying to be provocative…. i’m actually a nurse and i knew snyderman when she was an ent resident in pittsburg…

    2. Aren’t you at all concerned by the possibility that Ebola mutates easily and that some mutants have been able to spread through the air? We’ll never know until it’s too late.

      Why are you so quick to condemn the people here for wanting to be safe? Ebola can kill people and we know very little about it.

        1. ….. i think your bravado would be appreciated in dallas.. jump on the next plane out and help w/the clean up khurt………

    3. Did you consider the possibility (quite likely) that the guy who got out of the car was a member of her crew–i.e. a guy potentially exposed as much, or maybe more, than she was while they were in Liberia. We know there are three people under quarantine in Princeton. We know there were reportedly three people in her car, including the guy who went into Peasant Grill. Don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes here. A nurse who takes her temperature is not the equivalent of a crew member who was in Liberia with her. Why you persist in trying to find any meager straw to defend her with is beyond me.

      1. That’s exactly what I’m getting from this. Public Health know that the guy who went into Peasant Grill was a crew member. The current quarantine is therefore different to what was happening before, because there are two persons between the original Ebola victim and the general public (crew member, nurse) whereas before there was only one (crew member).

        The next question you might ask is, why doesn’t Public Health let the public know that an exposed crew member was in Peasant Grill? They are hiding behind the ‘privacy’ line, but their duty is first and foremost to protect public health. I’m going to suggest that they aren’t releasing the information because they know that there is zero risk of transmission from what the crew member did. As such, there is no public health benefit from publicizing what happened, and a risk of causing unnecessary alarm.

        This is all speculation of course, but since Public Health haven’t announced (1) the terms of the original self-quarantine arrangement, (2) how the original agreement was broken (3) what the terms of the new quarantine is, (4) why those terms are considered sufficient, when the authorities in Texas are using much more stringent conditions, (5) what their protocol is for dealing with other individuals who had contact with Ebola patients, (6) how they are planning to deal with cases where the affected individual doesn’t self-report contact with an Ebola patient, (7) whether they even have a policy, or are just making it up as they go along… in short, we aren’t really being properly informed.

        1. Zero risk?? Just being in the “hot zone” in the manner she was….that is a significant risk. Presently any travel history that includes Africa is a risk so your statement is foolish

          1. “Just being in the “hot zone” in the manner she was….that is a significant risk.”

            Please share what risk assessment methodology you used to make the statement that there is significant risk.

            NOTE: Your feelings are not a risk assessment methodology.

            1. Travel history, video clips she broadcast of her activities, and deductive reasoning are enough to establish risk. This is straight forward and widely accepted so your skepticism seems odd

    1. NBC has recently divulged that Ashoka Mukpo was hired on a Tuesday and diagnosed with Ebola Weds, less than 24 hours later…. Snyderman probably knows she is at no risk of Ebola because she had zero contact with him… he was hired both to facilitate his evacuation and give NBC a great “inside scoop”.

      Breaking quarantine is wrong, dangerous and foolhardy, but Snyderman knows that she is not at risk because she had no contact with Ashoka Mukpo.

      1. and the other two guys holed up with her in Princeton? Did they “probably” know they had no exposure to this Mukpo fella, also?

        1. That’s the problem… was she “dining out” with others in the quarantine group or exposing new actors to the outbreak?

          Group quarantine like Patient Zero’s family had in Dallas is even a bad idea… one person converts and 3/4ths of the family die.Individual quarantine is lonely, but far preferable and much easier to “contact-trace” in terms of public safety.

  2. Um, actually I just drove past her house and there is indeed a cop car posted outside. Not sure why they would tell you otherwise.

    1. The police claim it is not 24 hours a day and they are regularly patrolling. Will look into it more though. Thanks.

      1. Well, if sitting in a parked car across the street from her house constitutes “patrolling” (not that I object, by any means, in fact I support it, for her protection and ours)….may not be 24-7, but as of 8:00 a.m. this morning there was an occupied police car there.
        Not sure what point there would be to simply “patrolling” the neighborhood in any event–they think she may slip out the back and rove the area on foot? I doubt it. Sounds, frankly, like a way to try to soften up the reality.
        Thanks for all you’re doing on this important story.

        1. Will look into it more. If it is still there later let us know. We were curious about whether it was 24 hours and if so who is paying for it, the taxpayers? Then we were told it was not 24 hours. Will try to get more info. today.

        2. Soften up the reality…exactly!
          Makes it sound as if they don’t need to be there but if they happen to be, it is just routine patrolling…….outside of a house of media personality who was potentially exposed to Ebola and then proceeded to break quarantine and potentially expose others.

        3. I also saw a report on NBC news on the day the group was returning to the US which showed a clip of one of the female members of the team who appeared to expose herself with a glove on her scalp while attempting to remove her bonnet and gown after apparently seeing ebola patients……bad form

  3. Remember her exact quote when she was on MSNBC regarding the H1N1 flu:

    “This is one time, forget the conspiracies. Listen to our government agencies. These guys are telling the truth. You know there’s no conspiracy here folks, just get your damn vaccine!”

    I’ve amended it accordingly, just in case she’s reading:

    “This is one time, forget the conspiracies. Listen to our government agencies. These guys are telling the truth. You know there’s no conspiracy here Nancy, just obey the damn quarantine order!”

  4. Here’s the dilemma; what if the guy that walked into the restaurant to pick up the food later becomes sick? Have the authorities already quarantined the clientele & workers too?
    My goodness, it’s scary as to how a confined outbreak can easily become an epidemic.

  5. Anyone else think it’s absurd to have a nurse visit twice a day, potentially exposing himself/herself in the unlikely situation that one of them is positive? Isn’t Dr. Nancy Snyderman capable of taking her own temperature and that of her staff?

      1. Nice troll. It isn’t prudent to trust those shown to be untrustworthy. Now there is a court ordered quarantine.

Comments are closed.