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Growing Demands to Restrict Flights from Africa; Deadline Day in Hong Kong; Fighting Nears Turkish-Syria Border; Ebola Survivor Nancy Writebol Speaks Out

Aired October 02, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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

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CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this half hour, a call to ban. Growing demands this morning for America to restrict flights coming into this country from West Africa. Is that a viable option? And will it really prevent an outbreak here?

Also breaking right now, ISIS advancing in northern Syria, about to close in on a key city. A crucial checkpoint blown away by a truck bomb. Civilians being ordered to evacuate. The U.S.-led coalition watching with laser focus.

And tensions rising in Hong Kong. A massive call for change in the streets driven by China's younger citizens. Protesters targeting the chief executive. Will they occupy their government next?

Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Zero risk of transmission. That's how the CDC is addressing fears that Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, may have infected fellow passengers as he flew into the United States from Liberia. The CDC says Duncan did not show any symptom until several days after his trip and therefore was not contagious.

But some lawmakers are pushing the United States to do more to combat a potential threat. Republican Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas asking the CDC director to, in the congressman's words, "thoughtfully reassess the risk of travel from Liberia" His colleague, Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, tweeting earlier this week that the "the CDC should step up airport screenings." For its part, the Obama administration says current rules are effective and that the risk of a U.S. outbreak are low.

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JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We live in a global world and what we're confident that we can do is to both protect the safety of the traveling public and prevent and protect the broader American public. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Joining me now, CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general for the Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo, Dr. Brian Koll, executive director of infection prevention at Mt. Sinai Health System here in New York City, and Stephane Dujarric, he is the spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General. Dujarric says a ban on flights would not be helpful in controlling Ebola spread. So, actually, I'd like to first welcome to all of you. Thanks for being here. I really appreciate it.

STEPHANE DUJARRIC, SPOKESMAN, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: Thank you.

COSTELLO: OK, so I want to talk about this travel ban that some lawmakers are suggesting that the United States be put into place and I want to address that first question to you, Stefan. Why would that be a bad thing for this crisis?

DUJARRIC: We think isolating these countries, whether it's Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea, is not the right solution. First of all, the U.N., the international community, the CDC, we need to be able to get people in and out of there to assist the governments in addressing the crisis. And second, almost as important, these are very weak countries. They've come out of difficult periods. This would just compound the economic stress and the social stress that we're already seeing in those countries.

COSTELLO: Mary, do you envision a time in the near future, maybe if we see another Ebola case, let's say in Boston or some other city in the United States, that the travel ban, or at least a partial ban, might be implemented?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, absolutely. And it's just a matter of common sense. We see people in moon suits telling us not to worry and fly the world. But what they don't understand is the nature of an aircraft. And let me draw a parallel to the ambulance in Texas. The ambulance in Texas took this gentleman to the hospital who has Ebola. The ambulance is then taken out of service and they are scrubbing the school where these five little children went, in moon suits, to take any precautions. You cannot do that to an aircraft. An aircraft is a $350 million flying computer, and there's no way to disinfect the seats, there's no way to disinfect the bathrooms and you're forgetting about the people who work in the belly of the plane, who load it, who service it. It is a trajectory through which the virus can be transported and you can't clean it. And that's the problem, an aircraft is not an ambulance, and you just can't do that.

COSTELLO: So what are you suggesting, Mary? Should there be some sort of ban or a partial ban be put into place?

SCHIAVO: Yes. Absolutely, and it should be a ban on the aircraft. We should suspend service to those infected areas. Yes, people can still travel to Brussels and travel to the United States, but it's not possible for us to contain it on the aircraft. You're focusing on the people and I think we need to focus on the actual service providing instruments, the aircraft, the services, the things that go on the aircraft. So, yes, I think a ban is in place and it should have been put in place long ago. Like I said, they're standing there in moon suits telling us it's OK to get on the plane. It's not. No common sense.

COSTELLO: OK, Stephane, I'll get back to you in just a second, but I want to address this question to Dr. Koll. Do you agree with Mary?

DR. BRIAN KOLL, EXEC. DIR. OF INFECTION PREVENTION, MOUNT SINAI: I have a difference of opinion. The virus is transmitted by blood and body fluids. It's not airborne. One is not infectious until they are sick. And the more important thing is actually to do some screen so that patients or persons traveling with fever from endemic areas should not be allowed on that plane.

COSTELLO: Well, I think what Mary's saying though is like, what if a passenger throws up on the airplane, and it's happened many times, even when I have flown, people do that. Mary is saying that you can't possibly decontaminate the aircraft to make it safe for passengers to fly and that would be a bodily fluid.

KOLL: So in our -- in our facilities here, if we had something similar, we would be able to decontaminate that. We actually clean with bleach. It's routine cleaning. The virus is not a hearty virus in the environment provided that cleaning is done.

COSTELLO: So it would be possible to decontaminate an airplane and they have to do is lickity split, right?

KOLL: I'm not sure how quickly one can re-service an airplane so that it would be used within a shorter period of time, the way we could a hospital room or a clinic area.

COSTELLO: Mary, how long would it take to effectively decontaminate an aircraft?

SCHIAVO: Well, it actually could take, not hours or days, it could take weeks, because depending on what fluids you have to use to do it, if you get any of those on the wiring, then you have to re-inspect the plane. You know, at this point, the Federal Aviation Administration is leaving it up to the airlines whether they choose to do that or not. But I can tell you, the first time an airline has to do that, and that plane will have to be taken out of service and then most likely re- inspected and recertified, you know, that could be a several-week proposition, particularly if you get that -- like a corrosive chemical, bleach, anything like that on the wiring, you've got a problem.

COSTELLO: OK, Stephane, I want you to weigh in on this because I heard what you said earlier.

DUJARRIC: You know, I think closing the borders or closing air travel is the wrong focus. Our focus should be on helping the countries, helping their public health systems deal with the outbreak, putting in the right screening process at legal border crossings, at airports because, you know, you can shut down borders, you can shut down travel. People will want to move. And then you will see sort of people moving through a legal -- illegal means where we will not be able to screen them.

You have to remember, Sierra Leone and Liberia are countries that have come out of decades long civil wars. The economic impact that we're already seeing is tremendous. Isolating them further will only deepen the crisis and make it harder for us at the United Nations, the CDC, Doctors Without Borders, to treat the disease.

COSTELLO: And in fairness I think we should put out that no -- I mean Mr. Duncan was not contagious when he boarded that airplane and came into the United States, am I correct, Dr. Koll?

KOLL: That is correct and therefore his ability to infect others would have been zero.

COSTELLO: Would have been zero. So no amount of cleaning the plane could have protected us.

KOLL: He was not infectious at that point in time if he had no symptoms.

COSTELLO: And, Mary, isn't it true that if you're very sick and you're exhibiting these signs, like if you're throwing up or you have a high fever, you're not allowed to board an airplane anyway?

SCHIAVO: Well that depends upon the screening process, and that depends upon who's doing the screening and who's examining the passengers. Now, I had to travel internationally during the SARS crisis and they did -- they took temperatures. But if people, you know, didn't have a fever or they didn't get that particular screening, then they still were able to board the plane.

And the other problem is, we're forgetting about the rest of the plane. We're focusing on the passengers, but there's all these other things. Once that plane is on the ground, in a contaminated area or in a country that has an Ebola problem, there are hundreds of people that work on and touch that plane. Screening only the passengers doesn't limit the potential for the plane to have a problem. We're focusing on the sort of just one part of the whole picture. So it's the whole totality of the service in an Ebola-stricken area. It's not only the passengers - and, besides, what do we do with them when we get here? We can't send them back because we can't put them on a plane. We must take them immediately to treatment. And as they're finding out in Dallas, you cannot order people simply to stay home unless they're sick. There's a problem with that. You have some rights.

COSTELLO: Mary Schiavo, Dr. Brian Koll, Stephane Dujarric, thanks to all of you, I appreciate it.

DUJARRIC: Thank you.

COSTELLO: In the next hour, Dr. Sanjay Gupta will answer your Ebola questions. Tweet them to us at CNN using #ebolaqanda. We'll get to as many of your questions as possible.

I'll be right back.

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COSTELLO: It is deadline day in Hong Kong. Protest leaders have given Hong Kong's chief executive until today to resign. They're also threatening to occupy government buildings despite police warnings. Thousands of demonstrators continue to pack Hong Kong's all-important financial district and they're on the move to the gates of the chief executive's office.

I'm expecting -- no Will Ripley? Will Ripley's in the middle of this crowd. We can't get to him right at the moment because we're having a little bit of technical difficulty ,but take a look at these pictures. Thousands and thousands of young people protesting on this last day, and we did get word from China that the chief executive will not step down under any circumstances. So we may well see these students take over government buildings very soon. Of course we'll keep you posted on the things in Hong Kong.

Also, ISIS militants are closing in on a besieged Syrian town right on Turkey's doorstep. Kurdish leaders are telling civilians to get out of that town, the town is called Kobani. They're telling citizens to get out now. The fighting around Kobani is within earshot of the Turkish border where thousands of refugees have fled. Turkey's parliament is meeting behind closed doors right now. Lawmakers are deciding whether to join the U.S.-led coalition and send troops across the border into Syria to take on ISIS.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, advice from an Ebola survivor.

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NANCY WRITEBOL, EBOLA SURVIVOR: Don't think wait, thinking, oh, this is the flu or I'm just not really getting any better. Don't wait to seek out medical help.

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COSTELLO: American missionary Nancy Writebol talks about her recovery and the Ebola patient now being treated in Texas.

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COSTELLO: Nancy Writebol, the second American infected with Ebola says she's not surprised a patient was diagnosed with the virus in the United States. Writebol contracted the disease while working as a missionary in Liberia and was flown to Atlanta where she recovered at Emory University hospital. She talked with CNN's Anderson Cooper.

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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Nancy, you've been free of Ebola for more than a month now, you look great. I understand you're still taking medication. How do you feel?

NANCY WRITEBOL, EBOLA SURVIVOR: I feel good, thank you. I'm getting stronger every day. And just continuing to regain my strength. COOPER: When you heard that a patient had been diagnosed with Ebola

here in the United States, in Texas, what was your reaction? What did you think?

WRITEBOL: Well, Anderson, I was not surprised. You know, we live in such a small world that it is very easy to travel from one country to another. And so it didn't take me by surprise. I'm very thankful that he is here and that he could receive medical care and that our doctors know what they're dealing with.

COOPER: For you, that's -- I mean, as you look back on your treatment it was coming to the United States, you believe that really saved your life. And there was a lot of attention on the ZMapp, on the serum that you got. But you're not clear that that is actually what did it. You think a lot of the follow-on care that you actually got in the United States may have really saved you.

WRITEBOL: Yes, you know, the medical care that we received was amazing at Emory. And also, not only the care, I mean, they were able to check what was happening daily and hourly in our bodies. And so that's just not possible in a third world country where lab work takes sometimes hours to get back.

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COSTELLO: Writebol says she wants people to know that Ebola is not airborne but transmitted through bodily fluids and that people suffering symptoms need to get help immediately.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

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