After a two-month leave of absence following her violation of an Ebola quarantine, NBC's chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman returned to the network with an appearance on Wednesday's Today and finally took personal responsibility for her actions: "I'm very sorry for not only scaring my community and the country, but adding to the confusion....I stepped outside the boundaries of what I promised to do and what the public expected of me. And for that, I'm sorry."
That apology was in stark contrast to the initial statement Snyderman put out in October, when she completely avoided any blame for breaking quarantine: "While under voluntary quarantine guidelines, which called for our team to avoid public contact for 21 days, members of our group violated those guidelines and understand that our quarantine is now mandatory until 21 days have passed."
At the time, NBC promoted Snyderman's vague quote without actually explaining to viewers that the quarantine violation was her making a run for take-out food.
On Wednesday, co-host Matt Lauer observed: "I think there's a great debate that's been going on about the medical protocol....But I think in your situation it wasn't about what was medically right to do, it was about breaking a promise."
Snyderman replied: "It was about breaking a promise....I wear two hats, I have my doctor hat and I have my journalist hat. And when the science and the messaging sometimes collide and you leave the optics of, in this case, a hot zone, and come back to the United States, good people can make mistakes."
In October, the Associated Press called into question Snyderman's ability to continue as a media medical expert: "NBC must now decide whether Snyderman's credibility is too damaged for her to continue reporting on Ebola or other medical issues and, if so, for how long."
Apparently the answer to that question was eight weeks.
Here is a transcript of Snyderman's December 3 exchange with Lauer:
7:33 AM ET
MATT LAUER: More than two months ago, NBC's chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman traveled to Liberia to cover the Ebola crisis there. While she was there, a photojournalist who was working with her team was diagnosed with the virus. And before coming back to the U.S., Nancy agreed to a voluntary self-quarantine, which she later violated. And Nancy is with us now. Nancy, good morning. It's good to see you.
NANCY SNYDERMAN: Hi, Matt. It's great to be back.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Dr. Nancy Speaks Out; Snyderman on Ebola and Quarantine]
LAUER: Reaction to this was fast and furious. Critics said your behavior was unacceptable. You've had time to digest it and think about it, reflect on it. What's your response?
SNYDERMAN: Yeah, I'm very sorry for not only scaring my community and the country, but adding to the confusion of terms that, I think, came as fast and furious as the news about Ebola did. Suddenly we're talking about quarantine, isolation, controlled monitoring, who should be in hospital rooms, who shouldn't be. And so when I came back from Liberia with my team, we had already been taking our temperatures four, five, six times a day. And we knew our risks in our heads but didn't really appreciate – and, frankly, we were not sensitive to – how absolutely frightened Americans were. So I came back, agreed to a voluntary quarantine in my home and then seventy-two hours later left my home.
LAUER: And I think there's a great debate that's been going on about the medical protocol, the Casey Hickox situation is a good example of that.
SNYDERMAN: Right.
LAUER: But I think in your situation it wasn't about what was medically right to do, it was about breaking a promise.
SNYDERMAN: It was about breaking a promise and it was also about my association with Ashoka Mukpo, who we had hired to be on our team, who now, fortunately, is well, and those early days of messaging about how this is spread and the science.
But, you know, as I – I wear two hats, I have my doctor hat and I have my journalist hat. And when the science and the messaging sometimes collide and you leave the optics of, in this case, a hot zone, and come back to the United States, good people can make mistakes. And I stepped outside the boundaries of what I promised to do and what the public expected of me. And for that, I'm sorry.
LAUER: Let me go a little further-
SNYDERMAN: But I'm also very glad, I should say, that the whole team is healthy and that Ashoka is healthy.
LAUER: And that's what I was going to say. He was here last Wednesday with some other Ebola survivors. The rest of your team is healthy. You are healthy. Have you given consideration – considering the fact that the crisis continues in West Africa – of going back?
SNYDERMAN: The things we saw, Matt, were unlike anything I had seen before, 18-year-old girls being delivered to the hospital in wheelbarrows, women giving birth to babies in the middle of the street, no one helping them, men in puddles reaching for help. I would go back tomorrow and so would my entire team. My concern is that this has been a distraction from the real issue at hand.
LAUER: You mean your situation?
SNYDERMAN: My situation. And we can't afford not to concentrate on West Africa. This epidemic isn't going to go away, the Ebola epidemic. And there will be viruses in the future that will jump from animals to humans. So how we message from the CDC to NBC News to me personally, I've learned a lot through this. But we have to remember that we live in a smaller world, day by day. And this may be a big lesson for all of us in how we treat epidemics in the future and how we message better and keep our promises.
LAUER: I wanted to talk to you about this. Actually, it's not the entire reason you're here this morning.
SNYDERMAN: No. There's real news, too.
LAUER: You've got another story to bring us.
SNYDERMAN: Good to be back as a journalist.
LAUER: Nice to have you back.
SNYDERMAN: Thank you.
