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At This Hour

U.S. General Killed in Afghanistan; Second Ebola Patient Arrives in Georgia; Cease-fire in Gaza Appears to be Holding

Aired August 05, 2014 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Bobby Ghosh put it very well. I mean, he cut right to the chase. There's no way on both sides, this kind of statement does not help. If anything, it just brings more visceral reaction.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This is just pure racism and bigotry and anti-Semitism.

PEREIRA: Yes.

BERMAN: And there is plenty of people within Israel and throughout the world for whom this is no abstraction, this type of statement --

PEREIRA: Is very -- yes.

BERMAN: -- has led to something very, very deeply painful and again it's a very difficult place to begin negotiating.

PEREIRA: CNN is obviously going to carry on watching that situation and the comments. Wolf in fact will have much more on this coming up in our 1:00 p.m. show with Wolf here.

BERMAN: Ahead for us @THIS HOUR, a deadly attack in Afghanistan. There is a U.S. general dead, killed today in an attack in Afghanistan. We'll have the very latest.

PEREIRA: Also, we have learned that the second Ebola patient's plane has just arrived in Atlanta. We'll have more on Nancy Writebol's return to America. Still certainly a whole lot of questions about the virus and about her condition.

We want you to send your questions, tweet us or Facebook back at @thishour, with the #ebola. Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Fauci will join us live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

PEREIRA: All right. We want to turn back to our breaking news out of Afghanistan. An attacker wearing an Afghan military uniform opened fire on coalition forces. U.S. officials are telling us that an American general was killed. An American general was killed and at least 15 coalition troops were wounded, among them a German brigadier general.

BERMAN: This happened at a training facility in Kabul. Afghan Defense official say the shooter was killed.

I want to bring in CNN's chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto who is now at the Pentagon. Also here with us our national security analyst Peter Bergen joins us by phone from Los Angeles.

Jim Sciutto, I want to go first to you at the Pentagon. A U.S. general killed. What are you learning?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Well, this is a major attack. Difficult day for the folks here at the Pentagon but also certainly for U.S. and coalition service members posted to Afghanistan. A very significant toll after a relative period of calm. As you've said, I've confirmed that a U.S. general was killed. The Pentagon and we're not reporting his exact rank because there are so few officers of that rank in Afghanistan and won't do that pending notification of the family until there's a public announcement here. And as you said, 15 coalition service members injured, among them many Americans.

You know, this is the kind of attack and they are still confirming whether this was an Afghan soldier who turned his weapon on coalition forces or if this was a terrorist who acquired a uniform, snuck into the camp and carried out this attack. But this so-called green-on- blue attacks where you have Afghan forces, allied forces attacking Americans and coalition service members has been an ongoing problem there for a number of years.

The numbers is down somewhat last year, but this would be a major one in that you have so many senior officers affected by it. One U.S. soldier killed and one German -- one U.S. general, rather, killed and one German general injured.

PEREIRA: Thanks so much for that, Jim. You stick with us.

We want to bring in our CNN national security analyst, Peter Bergen. He joins us on the phone from Los Angeles.

You know, it's interesting. John and I were both sitting here, thinking about the significance of this. It's always a terrible case when our troops, our coalition forces are killed especially on base or on post but to think that senior officers involved here, this is going to take a toll and obviously is going to cause a lot of people to relook at the situation as this draw down continues.

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST (via phone): That of course all correct, Michaela. I mean, I can't think of a general rank U.S. officer who's been killed during a war. The last case that I can think of was General Casey who was killed in Vietnam who was the father of General George Casey who later went on to command U.S. troops in Iraq.

So I mean, this is a very unprecedented or extremely unusual event where you have an officer at that level who has been killed, and, you know, as you say, people will take another perhaps skeptical look at the whole question of, if we do leave U.S. soldiers behind after the combat troops have pulled in December 2014, clearly there's going to be a discussion of how we do that and the best way to protect U.S. forces.

And I would also add that if indeed the United States and Afghanistan do sign some kind of agreement and there is a presence of U.S. troops that would number in the many thousands, many of them will be advisers and my understanding from what we know so far is that this was kind of a training facility where U.S. -- you know, by definition, a training facility you are going to be in contact with Afghan soldiers, so it raises all the questions about how best to protect coalition troops in that circumstance. BERMAN: If we've learned nothing else, this is something of a

propaganda coup for the forces there fighting against the Afghan government and the coalition right now.

Our thanks to Peter Bergen in Los Angeles, also Jim Sciutto who was at the Pentagon reporting.

When we get more information, we'll get back to all of you on that as well.

PEREIRA: Ahead @THISHOUR, the second Ebola patient has now arrived in Atlanta. The flight just landed. We're going to continue to follow this throughout the hour. And also we're going to take and answer your questions about Ebola. Tweet us or get on to Facebook, send us a question @THISHOUR with the #ebola.

Dr. Gupta and Dr. Fauci will join us live to answer those questions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: So a few moments ago, a second American with Ebola touched down in a specially equipped ambulance in Georgia for treatment. She arrived from Bangor, Maine, where the plane refueled after picking her up in Liberia. Nancy Writebol is an American missionary who was working in Liberia when she contracted the disease while working there.

BERMAN: Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is outside of the hospital, at Emory University in Atlanta. We're also joined by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Health. He joins us from Maryland.

Sanjay, I want to start with you. Nancy Writebol, the flight carrying her just landed. What is next for her? And do we have any sense of exactly how she's doing?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What's next for her is bringing her from Dobbins Air Force Base where she landed here to the hospital. I imagine it's going to be just like it was with Dr. Kent Brantly. He came by ambulance. It took about 20 to 30 minutes. It's an ambulance again where you have people with Miss Writebol here who will be in these space suits, so to speak, these bio-protective suits. And then, you know, I don't know what kind of condition she's in. She was obviously stable enough for flight.

We were quite surprised when Dr. Brantly was able to walk in. I'm not sure that will be the case for Miss Writebol but we'll see in just a little bit. But that's going to happen. And the hospital is right over here behind me. It's going to happen in just a little bit -- John.

PEREIRA: Yes. We're anticipating her arrival there and I can imagine the medical professionals are as well as are her family. Her husband is still in Liberia. He's expected to travel back to the States soon but her son is said to be at that hospital and is anxious to see his mom. We don't know how close he'll be able to get to her obviously.

So, Dr. Fauci, I want to ask you. We know so little about Ebola. We sort of are all getting a crash course together. I'm sure you know. You and Dr. Gupta know much more than we do.

I have so many questions about this. We know so little about the treatment. We don't even know much about the people, the rare people who are able to survive this. Do they have quality of life after? Do they have symptoms later on in life? Do they have compromised immune systems?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: No. You certainly don't have a compromised immune system. People who recover completely generally do very well and can live a normal life from the experience of the multiple outbreaks that have occurred since 1976, when the first recognition was of what Ebola was. However, if someone really gets terribly ill and has organ system dysfunction, such as, for example, one of the things that happen is people lose fluid, they go into shock. That's what kills many of the people.

If you in fact go into shock and you have compromise of your kidney function or your liver function that could be something that could last and linger on as a medical condition for you for a considerable period of time. But many people recover completely who do recover.

BERMAN: Sanjay, as we wait for Nancy Writebol who has landed in the United States, at an airport just outside of Atlanta. She will be heading to where you are in a little it. As we await her arrival, I want to ask you this. I've been struck by the level of fear and concern here in the United States. You do not have to dig deep to find people who say that it's a bad idea to bring Ebola to the Western hemisphere for the first time.

Is there a basis to these fears or is this just panic?

(CROSSTALK)

PEREIRA: Dr. Gupta, go ahead.

FAUCI: No, the fears are understandable, but what you're seeing in front of you right now, the ability of a place like Emory to safely take care of people who have Ebola in a way in which they have the right capability of isolating them and the people who were taking care of them have the right personal protective equipment, I think you're seeing proof-positive in front of your audience right now how there is really no risk of doing what they are doing right there in Emory is namely taking a appropriate and proper care of people.

PEREIRA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, let me ask you one of the questions before we get --

GUPTA: Let me just add one thing if I can.

PEREIRA: OK. Go ahead, go ahead.

GUPTA: Quick anecdote. Just the -- you know, there are nurses that are assigned to this isolation unit where Dr. Brantly is being cared for. They were scheduled to be on vacation this week and they decided to forego their vacation and stay here to help take care of Dr. Brantly.

I share that with you because I think if the notion is that people are, you know, running and screaming from the hospital because they don't want to be involved with this, that's not the case. Again, I'm right outside the hospital. It's right behind me. Business as usual here. We're also hearing just a quick bit of color that the families, the Brantly family and Writebol family, actually got together last night. Got together, the Brantly family wanted to share with the Writebol family what to expect. They got together and prayed for her safe return but they were actually together last night and they will be here shortly as well.

PEREIRA: Well, I imagine there's a lot of other prayers. We know that's there's families in North Carolina and church communities in North Carolina, in Indiana that are praying for their safe recovery.

A big thank you to Dr. Fauci and Dr. Gupta. We have the good doctors with us today and we're going to ask you to stick around because we know that you at home, you have questions for our doctors. We're going to take a quick break. We'll come back into those questions in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Not too long ago, a second American with Ebola touched down in an specially equipped air ambulance in Georgia. She will receive treatment at Emory University Hospital. Christian missionary -- pardon me -- Nancy Writebol just arrived. That plane left Bangor, Maine, where the plane refueled after picking her and a team up from Liberia.

BERMAN: Want to bring back in Dr. Sanjay Gupta who's outside of that hospital at Emory University in Atlanta. Also with us, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Health, joins us from Maryland.

PEREIRA: Why don't we take some viewer questions. We have all sorts of one coming in from the Twitter-sphere and from Facebook, and we have one here from Avian, who tweeted, "Dr. Gupta, as a virus, this obviously has a lot of people scared. How fast does this serum work?" GUPTA: Well, it's a good question, and I'll point out again that Dr.

Brantly was the first patient in the world to receive this. What was described by health care professionals on the ground was at the time that he received this, he was quite sick, having difficulty breathing. His vital signs started to fluctuate. He had a profound rash that was over the trunk of his body, sort of the abdomen and chest of his body. And they say within 20 minutes, he started to have some effect of that. Within an hour, his breathing started to improve. His vital signs improved.

And keep in mind, this was on Thursday that he was this sick. Described as being in grave condition. By the next morning, he was able to get up on his own, shower and get on a prearranged flight. This med-evacuation out of Africa to Atlanta. So, you know, this is -- this is one patient so far, you know, that we really know about in more detail. So you obviously want to see how much that's going to play out with other patients. But seemed to have a dramatic impact for him.

BERMAN: Here's something of a follow-up for Dr. Fauci here. Marita tweeted, "If it does save lives, will the company that makes this serum figure out a way to give it to those in need in Africa?"

FAUCI: Well, that's a good question. The only difficulty is that it is not easy to make this serum. And the number of doses that are available right now today, the number of treatment courses, is less than a handful. And it will take several months to get even a modest amount. So it really is going to be a supply problem.

And first of all, you'd have to, when you get enough, try and make sure you do more people to prove that, in fact, it does work. It's suggestive, as Sanjay said, that it does. But the real issue is the supply problem.

PEREIRA: And some critics even questioning why these two missionaries got the dosage ahead of the sick people in Africa. But we'll leave that for the critics to debate among themselves.

Sanjay, I understand you have a question for Dr. Fauci. Why don't you -- why don't you pose it to him?

GUPTA: I am curious, though, in the process of this. How do these types of decisions get made, Dr. Fauci? I was curious if these two American missionary workers would receive this type of medication under the compassionate care sort of provisions or -- peek behind the curtain in terms of how these discussions take place to make this happen, Dr. Fauci.

FAUCI: Yes, in general -- I can't speak specifically here because I don't know exactly the details. But under the usual circumstances, when you have an intervention like this that's in the experimental stage, and you want to use it, you can get an emergency use permission from the FDA, which would -- who are generally quite flexible under these types of circumstances.

But, Sanjay, the correct approach would be to contact the FDA and ask for the permission to do an emergency use administration of an intervention such as this.

BERMAN: Unprecedented what we're seeing right now --

GUPTA: So with the FDA or the NIH, the -- I'm sorry. So would the FDA or NIH have known about this then if that's the usual process by which this occurs?

FAUCI: Well, the NIH does not grant permission nor do they -- do they administer drugs like this. So -- but the FDA right now certainly the fact that if the -- if Dr. Brantly and Miss Writebol are going to get additional administration of the serum, you know, certainly will go through an emergency use permission from the FDA.

PEREIRA: Our thanks to both Dr. Fauci and Dr. Gupta for joining us, for an interesting conversation and thanks to all you who sent your questions in via social media. We appreciate you engaging in the conversation.

BERMAN: Ahead for us @THIS HOUR, well, the 72-hour cease-fire between Israel and Hamas does continue to hold. The question is, what comes next?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Well, right now a 72-hour cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appears to be holding at least for now.

BERMAN: Israel began withdrawing ground troops from Gaza earlier today. Egypt helped broker this deal.

We want to bring in our Reza Sayah. He joins us on the phone from Cairo now where these talks will take place where both sides appear to be sending delegations.

Reza, what happens next?

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think what we're waiting for now is the Israeli delegation to arrive. They have yet to get to Cairo but I don't think anyone's alarmed because Israel has made it clear that they are on board with the cease-fire plan that they've signed on, but they're waiting to see if the cease-fire holds and once they've established that they're going to send a team.

The Palestinian delegation is already here. This is a cross faction delegation representing Hamas, Fatah, the Islamic Jihad. They came over the weekend. This was the group that crafted the cease-fire plan along with the Egyptian government officials. Egypt, in turn, sent the proposal to Israel last night. Eventually, Israel said yes, they're on board.

Once they sit down, like all negotiations, both sides have to make compromises. We haven't seen that happen in the span of this conflict. But a lot of people cautiously optimistic that this time, this time, there's a real chance at a lasting cease-fire and maybe, just maybe, a lasting truce.

PEREIRA: Our Reza Sayah, joining us on the phone, thank you so much for that.

The big question is, both sides coming with a laundry list of demands.

BERMAN: They are.

PEREIRA: Will there indeed be compromise? That's the big question.

BERMAN: Right now Israeli troops out of Gaza and all the parties in Gaza, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, want to get to disable, they're holding their fire as well.

Thanks so much for joining us @THIS HOUR. I'm John Berman.

PEREIRA: And I'm Michaela Pereira. "LEGAL VIEW" with Ashleigh Banfield starts now.