Will Dr. Nancy Snyderman be allowed to return to NBC? The network’s chief medical editor traveled to Liberia where she was exposed to Ebola, and then she violated the terms of her quarantine once she returned to the United States. Snyderman incited much anger and concern when she agreed to a 21-day quarantine, but was spotted getting takeout at a New Jersey restaurant just a few days later.
According to a report in the New York Post, NBC must now decide if she damaged her credibility beyond repair by violating the quarantine. Will viewers still trust her take on medical issues?
“Nancy’s quarantine was up two weeks ago, but there is still a debate going on at NBC News among senior managers, some who feel she should be fired for not following advice to quarantine herself. But others feel that NBC News should stand by Snyderman, since she was sent by them to Liberia to report,” an NBC source says.
NBC News President Deborah Turness issued a memo to staff back in late October saying Nancy Snyderman and those who traveled with her to Liberia would take “some time with their families” and would return “next month.”
Both this week and last, NBC brought in Dr. Natalie Azar as a medical contributor on the Today Show. Dr. Azar is a rheumatologist and clinical instructor at NYU Langone Medical Center. She has been a contributor to WNYW and was most recently on the FOX New York station in late October. Do you suppose they are grooming her to be Nancy Snyderman’s replacement?
With @DrNancyNBCNEWS sidelined, @NBCNews brings in new medical contributor http://t.co/cLmkSDZhHj pic.twitter.com/bkSKM0mKo0
— TVNewser (@tvnewser) November 12, 2014
Princeton, New Jersey Municipal Health Officer Jeffrey C. Grosser said Thursday that he and the public health nurse had performed an exit interview Wednesday evening with the NBC crew. There are no restrictions on their movement.
“They pose zero public health risk to the community,” Grosser said by phone.
NBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman out of Ebola quarantine — but not back on the air http://t.co/585aP3hz7Y
— People magazine (@peoplemag) October 23, 2014
How do you feel about Dr. Nancy Snyderman violating her 21-day Ebola quarantine last month? If she returns to NBC, will you find it difficult to regard her as a top medical authority on topics of importance to you and your family? Will that violation–and even the slight possibility that it could have caused someone harm–forever linger in your mind whenever you see the NBC chief medical editor?
That’s likely what the bigwigs at NBC are wrestling with right now.
