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First Ebola Diagnosis in U.S. Stirs Fear: Inconsistent Ebola Screening; Lawmakers Blast Secret Service Director; Interview with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton; Protesters Threaten to Escalate in Hong Kong; Police Investigating Suspect in Unsolved Murders

Aired October 01, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, four days and fear.

DR. EDWARD GOODMAN, TEXAS HEALTH PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL: Patient admitted to this hospital has tested positive for Ebola virus.

COSTELLO: The first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.

THOMAS FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL: It's a severe disease. We need to be on our guard.

COSTELLO: The CDC this morning searching for anyone who came into contact with the person. And why four days here in this country are so crucial.

REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: The only time you brief the president on perimeter security, the president's personal security, first family security, has been one time in 2014.

JULIE PIERSON, DIRECTOR, U.S. SECRET SERVICE: That's correct.

COSTELLO: Was the director of the Secret Service lying under oath? As a new scandal hits the agency did she know about it and never say anything?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to thank --

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The security guard was inappropriately taking photos of the president inside an elevator and turned out had a gun.

COSTELLO: The big question, will Julia Pierson survive?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If someone opens a window or a window is broken at my house, I have an alarm. Have you ever heard of these guys?

COSTELLO: Let's talk, live in the NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin with breaking news this morning.

U.S. health officials are scrambling to contain the public fear and possible spread of the first Ebola case diagnosed on American soil. Right now the unidentified patient is in an isolation ward at a Dallas hospital. He traveled from the Ebola hot spot of Liberia and West Africa.

Here's what we know right now. He left Liberia on the 19th of September, not showing any symptoms. He arrived in Dallas the next day, September 20th, still not showing any symptoms. It wasn't until four days later, on the 24th, that he started getting sick. Two days later, on the 26th, he went to a medical facility where they sent him home with antibiotics. Two days after that, on the 28th, he was hospitalized and isolated and then just yesterday the CDC confirmed he has Ebola.

A CDC team is in Dallas this morning and the search is on for anyone who came into contact with this man between the 24th and the 28th. Now those four days are extremely important. It's during those four days that he could have infected someone else. Just this morning, though, CDC officials say Americans should not be worried.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRIEDEN: The plain truth is we've stopped this outbreak dozens of times in Africa in much more difficult conditions. In fact, even in Lagos, where there were almost 900 contacts identified, and about 19,000 home visits to monitor for fever, we were able, it appears, to contain the outbreak. So there's no doubt we can contain it here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Many people wonder, our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CDC in Atlanta. You saw him there. And outside the Dallas hospital is Elizabeth Cohen, our senior medical correspondent.

But I want to begin with you, Sanjay. What more is the CDC saying?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are -- you know, they're sort of sticking to that sort of line that they think they are confident, they can control and prevent any sort of outbreak occurring here in the United States. But they also can see that, look, this is historic thing. This has never happened before. You've never had a patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States. Frankly, it's never happened outside of Africa.

And they have a couple of very important priorities. They want to obviously take care of this patient, they say is talking, asking for food but still listed in critical condition. And also figure out all these contacts, as you mentioned, Carol. I mean, there was four days where this patient was sick before they were isolated. Who are these contacts, how do you find this them? Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): This morning the door-to-door investigation begins. Health officials including a crew from the Centers for Disease Control now in Dallas in search of anyone who may have come in contact with the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.

GOODMAN: The patient admitted to this hospital has tested positive for Ebola virus, the cause of Ebola virus disease.

GUPTA: According to the CDC the unidentified patient traveled from Liberia on September 19th, landing in the United States the following day, September 20th. Doctors say he did not feel sick until the 24th.

FRIEDEN: The patient was visiting family members and staying with family members who live in this country.

GUPTA: Ebola is a virus that can affect multiple organ systems. And can sometimes cause internal bleeding. Those symptoms don't appear for two to 21 days after infection. Signs do include sudden fever, weakness, muscle pain, headaches and a sore throat. The disease is also spread by direct contact via bodily fluids, only after symptoms begin.

GOODMAN: This is not transmitted by the air. There's no risk to a person in this hospital who's walking or is a patient. There's simply no reason to be fearful of that.

GUPTA: Paramedics who transported the patient now quarantined. The ambulance used decontaminated, it's cordoned off. There is some concern because Ambulance 37 was used for two days after transporting the patient. Though health officials saying it's OK, the city spokeswoman telling CNN the Dallas County Health Department has confirmed that paramedics did follow proper guidelines to avoid contaminating additional patients.

So far none of the crew members are exhibiting signs of the disease, this as the CDC says fellow passengers on that same flight from Liberia are likely not at risk. Still doctors warn to remain vigilant.

FRIEDEN: I have no doubt that we'll stop this in its tracks in the U.S. but I also have no doubt that as long as the outbreak continues in Africa, we need to be on our guard.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: There is so much clarity regarding a few things I think, Carol. I think they have a good idea of how this virus behaves, how it's transmitted. It doesn't seem to spread until someone is sick. But there are still some confusing things, open questions as well, Carol, you sort of addressed this, brought this up.

But this patient went into the hospital on the 26th and for whatever reason was not admitted certainly and was not tested for Ebola, despite having symptoms, despite having this obviously very pertinent travel history. So what exactly happened there and I think what does it mean going forward and also what is going to happen to these contacts?

You heard those ambulance drivers, for example. They are quarantined. They don't have any symptoms. Would other people be quarantined as well? It's -- I talked to Dr. Frieden about this. I think this is still evolving, Carol. We're seeing real time something brand new, you know, in terms of how -- what the guidelines are going to be, they are still evolving -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And at the very least that's making a lot of people feel uncomfortable this morning.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much.

As Sanjay said we are also learning this morning that doctors may not have screened this patient properly from the start.

Elizabeth Cohen live in Dallas with that side of the story.

Good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, we're learning something that's actually kind of disturbing here this morning. So my friend Sanjay just explained that this patient showed up here at the hospital that I'm in front of on the 26th with symptoms of Ebola, and was sent home, and then came back in an ambulance on the 28th.

That is not supposed to happen, and I was speaking with an official who is familiar with this situation and this official told me, look, this patient did not say that we been travel in Liberia, and even more importantly, the hospital did not ask about his travel history.

This official said hey, this is a big problem, the CDC has been telling hospitals for a long time now you've got to ask for travel histories when people show up with these symptoms, and the fact that a hospital as large as this, according to this official, didn't ask, he says is an issue.

Now we've reached out to the folks at Presbyterian, we are waiting to hear back from them -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, another side of this story, you also found that screening at the airport is not consistent. So what's supposed to happen when you leave a West African country to come home to the United States?

COHEN: Right, so when I left Liberia, actually the screening was intense and rigorous. They took our temperature three times, Carol. They took it once when we were driving in, they checked myself, my producer, my photographer, our driver, and our fixer, and then they checked our temperature twice more inside the airport and there were nurses and could you tell they were looking at to us see if we looked sick.

They asked us about symptoms and they asked us about exposure. They said, did you participate in -- they asked, did you participate in burials, did you get close to an Ebola patient, that kind of things. So that happened exactly how as it was supposed to happen. It was when we arrived back in Atlanta at Hartsfield Airport that things seemed, well, a little strange.

And so let me talk to that -- talk you through that. So when we returned myself and my producer and my photographer all said we're coming back from Liberia, where we were covering Ebola. We were very straightforward about this. They did not take our temperatures. They did not ask us questions about exposure, did you get close to patients, didn't you, et cetera.

They only told me to watch for symptoms. They did not tell my producer and photographer to watch out for symptoms, and when they told me that, they didn't know what symptoms to tell me to watch out for, and they also only told me this after they said oh, I think we got an e-mail about this and had to consult with their colleagues on it.

And this is in sharp contrast to the way it is supposed to work. I want to read to you a statement from Josh Earnest, he's the White House spokesman. Here's what he said on August 4th.

He said, "Because there are Customs and Border Patrol officials who are carefully monitoring passengers who are arriving from these countries, we are in a position to ensure the public health is protected."

Well, I will tell you that as someone who just returned from Liberia four days ago, there was no careful monitoring.

COSTELLO: All disturbing, we're going to be talking a lot more about this throughout the two hours in the NEWSROOM.

Elizabeth Cohen, live in Dallas. Thanks so much.

Actually I know you have a lot of questions about Ebola, so we're going to bring back Dr. Gupta in the 10:00 Eastern hour to help us out.

Go to my Facebook page, Facebook.com/carolCNN or my Twitter page, @carolCNN, and submit any question you may have about Ebola. Dr. Gupta will answer as many of your questions as possible at 10:30 Eastern Time.

Another black eye for the Secret Service after the agency announced it's investigating a new security breach this time from President Obama's trip to the CDC in Atlanta last month. A security contractor who operated an elevator for -- an elevator that the president rode was carrying a gun which is a clear violation of Secret Service protocols. And this lapse occurred three days before that man jumped the White House fence.

Lawmakers taking aim at Secret Services director Julia Pierson for that incident during a fiery Capitol Hill hearing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: How was he able to sprint 70 yards, almost the entire length of a football field, without being intercepted by guards inside the fence?

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: I hate to even imagine what could have happened if Gonzalez had been carrying a gun instead of a knife when he burst inside the White House.

REP. STEPHEN LYNCH (D), MASSACHUSETTS: And I wish to God you protected the White House like you're protecting your reputation here today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Pierson was also questioned about how often she speaks to the president about security threats, but she seemed to omit the CDC breach in Atlanta and her answer to Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHAFFETZ: What percentage of the time do you inform the president if his personal security is in any way, shape or form been breached?

PIERSON: Percentage of the time, 100 percent of the time we would advise the president.

CHAFFETZ: In calendar year 2014, how many times has that happened?

PIERSON: I have not briefed him with the exception of the September 19th incident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Of course now we know there were two breaches, and some call for Pierson to resign, my next -- my guess says the problems at the Secret Service are bigger than just one person.

Joining me now, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington D.C.

Welcome.

DEL. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON (D), WASHINGTON, D.C.: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Do you still think Julia Pierson should remain on the job?

NORTON: Well, Julia Pierson now has, besides a problem with the core mission of protecting the president, a growing credibility problem. The credibility problem, remember the failure to tell us how far the intruder got into the White House, the failure to tell us about -- to tell the public about the gunshots that pierced the living quarters of the president or to investigate it until four months later.

And now why weren't we told at least in the secret session we had at the end of the hearing. That credibility problem is certainly going to hurt her. I have not called for her resignation because I believe the problem goes beyond personnel. She was brought in to correct the problem. That was the problem with agents essentially doing things off duty that they shouldn't have been doing with drinking and carousing.

All right. Maybe she corrected that problem. Now we bring in somebody to correct another aspect of the problem. That's not enough here. We need a total overhaul of that agency. It is not equipped for a 21st century terrorism, domestic and international mandate.

COSTELLO: So shouldn't an outside person come in and change the culture of the Secret Service? Because most experts believe the culture is the problem, and how can an insider -- because Miss Pierson has been with the Secret Service for a very long time. How could an insider change the culture when she's probably part of the problem.

NORTON: The culture is a huge problem but the culture isn't the only problem. I'm not convinced, for example, that if there had been multiple fence jumpers at one time, and that's what we ought to fear now particularly with ISIL having what appear to be Americans who are going over there with American passports. I fear five or six jumping the fence and don't have any confidence after the hearing that we have a Secret Service that is equipped to stop them.

I think we have an old time Secret Service, the culture is one part of it, we've had no outside investigation, that's what we need first, the change of the guard at the top won't change the culture either. We probably do need some cleansing of the agency, but we don't even have an outside investigation to tell us top to bottom what went wrong and what should happen.

COSTELLO: Here's the thing, though, America is at war with is. This is a dangerous time for the president of the United States. Doesn't an immediate change need to happen? Maybe the military should take over the duties of protecting the president. What do you think?

NORTON: Well, you know, that's something we ought to consider, but again we've had no investigation. I'm not convinced that an old- fashioned Secret Service that's been guarding the presidents throughout the 19th and 20th century is the same Secret Service we need in the 21st century.

But that's you and I sitting here speculating. The committee called for an outside investigation yesterday, and most people didn't call for a resignation -- not because some of them don't believe it should happen, but because they know that won't solve the problem.

COSTELLO: Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, thanks for your insight, I appreciate it.

NORTON: Of course.

COSTELLO: Still to come in THE NEWSROOM, protesters packed downtown Hong Kong with a new threat as a national holiday turns into a lesson in civil disobedience. Andrew Stevens is covering the action in Hong Kong.

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A huge lesson in civil disobedience, Carol, tens of thousands of people, they're saying they're going nowhere until they see some political change here, and the stakes could be about to get much, much higher.

I'll be back just after the break.

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COSTELLO: One more day, that's how long protesters in Hong Kong say they'll give the chief executive to step down before they escalate their operation. Huge crowds marks China's national day, not with fireworks but with civil disobedience.

Andrew Stevens joins us now from Hong Kong with the latest.

Good morning.

STEVENS: Good morning, Carol.

Yes, one more day or the protest leaders say they will start occupying buildings in central, a way to put extra pressure on the local government, also by extension Beijing into trying to get the political mechanisms here changed to allow more democracy in this story.

Let's step out of the view so you can see what's going on behind me. Right now, the student protest leaders are speaking, rallying the crowd and we don't yet know what they've been saying.

But it's interesting, Carol, with he spoke to a number of protesters in the last few minutes about what they think about occupying the buildings. About taking what is a peaceful demonstration so far and make it more aggressive by moving into government buildings, and the general consensus they didn't think that was a good idea, they didn't want to antagonize the police, because to be honest, the police are going to have no other option but to confront them if they start moving in on buildings.

We have seen one night of gas and pepper spray attacks which shocked a lot of Hong Kongers and helped bring out a lot more people to support this cause and from that, the students here, the Hong Kongers have been saying this must remain a peaceful demonstration, by escalating it to an actual occupation could mean potentially a very dangerous new situation, Carol.

COSTELLO: It's unbelievable crowds.

Andrew Stevens reporting live from Hong Kong this morning, thank you.

Still to come in THE NEWSROOM: the mother of a murdered college student makes a plea to Jesse Matthew. He's expected in the abduction of another student Hannah Graham and now, police want to know if he's tied to more killings.

CNN's Athena Jones live in Charlottesville.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. Law enforcement authorities in several Virginia cities want to answer the question, could Jesse Matthew be linked to other unsolved cases?

More when we come back.

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COSTELLO: This morning, Virginia authorities are pouring over several unsolved murders, searching for links to Jesse Matthew. He's the suspect in the disappearance of UVA sophomore Hannah Graham due back in court this week and he could be facing more charges in the future.

Police say DNA links him to a 2009 murder of Virginia tech student Morgan Harrington.

CNN's Athena Jones is live in Charlottesville with more.

Good morning.

JONES: Good morning, Carol.

As authorities here continue their search for Hannah Graham, these revelations about that DNA link to the Morgan Harrington case are raising more questions about Jesse Matthew's past.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONES (voice-over): Investigators across Virginia now have their eyes on Jesse Matthew.

CHIEF TIMOTHY LONGO, CHARLOTTESVILLE POLICE: We're certainly poised to be cooperative and helpful in any way that we can with regard to cases in which other departments might have an interest.

JONES: In addition to the disappearance of 18-year-old Hannah Graham, law enforcement sources say DNA evidence also links Matthew to the death of Morgan Harrington. She vanished in October 2009. Her remains found months later on a farm outside Charlottesville.

Authorities are now re-examining other cold cases in the state, to see if Matthew is connected. Like the case of Cassandra Morton found dead near Lynchburg in 2009. She was reported missing the same day as Harrington.

Police also investigating a potential link to the 2009 unsolved murder case of two Virginia tech students. Heidi Childs and David Metzler, who were found shot to death near campus.

And police in Orange, Virginia, looking into any possibility connection to Matthew in the disappearance of Samantha Ann Clark, who vanished after leaving her home in 2010.

No links have been found in those cases yet. But the DNA linking Matthew to Morgan Harrington could also connect him yet another victim. In 2012, the FBI said the suspect in the Harrington case matched the DNA profile from a 2005 sexual assault case in Fairfax, Virginia.

Ever since Hannah Graham went missing more than two weeks ago, Jill and Dan Harrington, have thought about their daughter's, Mothers' disappearance.

GIL HARRINGTON, MOTHER OF MORGAN HARRINGTON: We're not joyful, there's no celebration here, we're kind of stunned. But we also are, you know, devastated that it has come through Hannah Graham being missing. You know, we need to find Hannah Graham. That is front and center on our minds right now.

JONES: As they fight for justice, they tell CNN's Anderson Cooper, they find some comfort Matthew is behind bars.

GIL HARRINGTON: I will be very relieved to know that he will be prevented from ever hurting another girl again. I don't have any desire or need to tear him limb from limb or hurt him or, I just want to prevent him from hurting anybody else, and that, I am vehement to do.

JONES: And voiced strong words to the man they believe killed their daughter.

DAN HARRINGTON, FATHER OF MORGAN HARRINGTON: How could you possibly be so awful to abduct someone and kill them? It's beyond me that that is just beyond a human understanding.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: Jesse Matthew is due to appear before a district court judge tomorrow morning for a bond hearing. He'll do that via video link from the regional jail and I spoke with Matthew's lawyer. He met with his client for two and a half hours, he told me, on Monday and because the court papers are under seal he hasn't been provided with any evidence linking his client, Jesse Matthew to either the Hannah graham case or the Morgan Harrington case -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Athena Jones, reporting live from Charlottesville, Virginia -- thank you.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: All right. A bit of breaking news to pass along to you out of Dallas and it's good news. This is a good thing. All three members of the ambulance team that picked up the patient with Ebola and transported him to the Dallas hospital have not been exposed to the Ebola virus. In fact, all -- and this is according to Reuters. They tested negative for Ebola. And that's according to the city of Dallas and Reuters is reporting this.

That said, they will still be under observation for the next 21 days for safety sake. But as of right now, those ambulance workers did not test positive for Ebola. They tested negative. Good news.

I'm back in a minute.

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