Lawmaker: Punish Those Who Violate Quarantines

A Central Jersey assemblywoman introduced legislation on Thursday that would punish people who violate quarantine orders.

The introduction comes in the aftermath of NBC Chief Medical Correspondent and Princeton resident Dr. Nancy Snyderman violating a quarantine imposed after one of her freelance cameramen was infected with Ebola while reporting on the story in Liberia last year.

Assemblywoman Donna Simon (R - Hunterdon, Somerset, Mercer, Middlesex) has introduced legislation that would establish criminal penalties for violating quarantine orders.

“Individuals who disregard and violate quarantine place the community at risk and negatively affect the restaurants and businesses they visit due to health concerns,” Simon said. “Increasing penalties will hopefully deter this selfish and reckless act.”

Snyderman and her crew were covering the crisis as it unfolded in Liberia. She told NBC’s Matt Lauer that while they were there, they saw sick people being taken to the hospital in wheelbarrows, and women giving birth in the streets.

Freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, 33, was infected with the disease while there.

Snyderman said they were keeping track of their own vitals multiple times a day, but were insensitive to the scare the epidemic was causing in the United States.

The group agreed to voluntary isolation upon returning to America, but state health officials placed them under a mandatory quarantine after residents reported seeing Snyderman and her crew getting takeout.

They were quarantined until late October, at which time NBC announced Snyderman and her crew would take time off to be with their families and restore normalcy to their lives.

There were no reports of Princeton residents contracting Ebola as a result of Snyderman and her crew violating their quarantine.

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