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Quarantined Woman Speaks, U.S. Leading World; Turkey Joins ISIS War

Aired October 02, 2014 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN. Thank you so much for being with me.

A lot to get to this hour. The details, the news keeps coming in on this first Ebola case diagnosed here in the United States. The quarantined partner of Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, has spoken to CNN. And when you hear details, it's a shocker. You hear about the sheets that this man slept in while he was sick, they have still been on this woman's bed. You'll hear what else she told Anderson Cooper in just a moment.

But, first, just a quick update on the other developments on this one. We have some news from the director of the CDC moving to assure people they have the situation under control. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL (voice- over): The bottom line here is that we remain confident that we can contain any spread of Ebola within the United States. There could be additional cases who are already exposed. If that occurs, systems are in place so that they will not further spread Ebola.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Now, the number of people who could be at risk here of contracting Ebola from Duncan could now be as many as 100, at the hospital, at that apartment complex where he was staying, and in the surrounding community. So far, about a dozen people confirmed to have had direct contact with Duncan are being monitored for Ebola. Five of them are children. Today, their schools are being disinfected, cleaned top to bottom by janitors dressed in these hazmat suits.

And then at the apartment where Duncan was staying, these four people are under quarantine. First, as we mentioned a moment ago, this woman described as this partner of his, her name is Louise, a 13-year-old child of hers and two nephews in their 20s. And Louise talked to Anderson Cooper. I caught up with Anderson about their conversation earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: So we're talking to Anderson. You just talked this morning to Louise, we're not giving her whole name, who is the partner of Thomas Duncan -

ANDERSON COOPER, ANCHOR, CNN'S "AC 360": Right.

BALDWIN: Who is the patient, the Ebola patient, in Dallas. And so she -- begin at the beginning with -- it was her apartment in which he was staying, correct?

COOPER: Right. Louise has an apartment in Dallas. She's lived here many, many years. She says she's a caretaker. Thomas Duncan was visiting her. She's had a relationship with him. They're not legally married. It's not clear to me what the current status is. But he was visiting her and her family, started to feel sick. She took his temperature. It was about 101. She brought him to the hospital. She says as they were checking in at the emergency room, he was asked for a Social Security Number. She said he doesn't have one because he's from -- he just came here from Liberia. The person said, OK, that's no problem.

They saw a healthcare worker. She -- Louise says she also told that person he had just come from Liberia. Louise didn't mention Ebola. Louise says she wasn't thinking about Ebola at all. Thomas Duncan apparently didn't mention it at all either. And none of the healthcare workers, the nurses or anyone else they had interaction with, asked Thomas Duncan about Ebola.

BANFIELD: No bells were going off?

COOPER: Apparently no red flags were raised.

BALDWIN: OK.

COOPER: Other than the fact that she mentioned Liberia twice to the hospital.

BALDWIN: OK.

COOPER: He was sent home with medication for - with antibiotics. She went and got it for him. When he started taking them, he started to get severe diarrhea, again, in her apartment. Her -- one of her children was there and two -

BALDWIN: Thirteen years of age.

COOPER: Yes, and two nephews who are in their 20s were there. And over the course of the next several days, Thomas Duncan got sicker. Louise would go back and forth. She had worked during the day. She'd come back. She does not believe he left the apartment, though she's not - you know, she can't say 100 percent because she wasn't there the full time. She says he never actually (INAUDIBLE) sharing a bed. He was sweating (INAUDIBLE).

BALDWIN: (INAUDIBLE) my question, how close?

COOPER: Right.

BALDWIN: Do we even know the details of how close their contact was? COOPER: Right. I mean they were -- they were in -- sharing a bed. They

-- he was sweating and having a lot of diarrhea, running to the bathroom, spending a lot of time in the bathroom. She was at work the day he really became sick. Louise's daughter, who lives separately, came to bring him some tea, found him shivering, called an ambulance, followed him -- went to the hospital with him. That's when they started to check for Ebola.

The thing though that's surprising to me right now is, Louise is at home. She's been told by the CDC, who came to visit her, that she has to stay there for 21 days with these three other members of her family who were there when Thomas Duncan was there, but the towels that Thomas Duncan used are still in the apartment. Louise put them in a plastic bag, but she's not sure what to do with them. And the sheets that he used and the pillowcases that he used are sweated on, they are still on the bed. Louise is not sleeping on the bed. She says she's sleeping in the living room. But she's not sure what to do with those sheets.

BALDWIN: Just to back up for a second, just to remind people, the 21 days, that's what doctors are saying you may not show symptoms of Ebola for up to 21 days.

COOPER: Right. It's the incubation period.

BALDWIN: The incubation period. And so, right, so you're talking to her on the phone. She's stuck in her place -

COOPER: Right.

BALDWIN: For those 21 days, along with a 13 year old, along with the two nephews. How is she doing?

COOPER: She's, you know, clearly upset. She's scared. You know, she's a woman of very strong faith. She's praying a lot, she says. She's taking her temperature every hour. She is, you know, she's very well aware of what she needs to be on the lookout for. But she, you know, she is concerned about, how is she going to get food over the next 21 days? Some health officials brought some sandwiches, she said, for her last night. She's waiting for somebody to bring some food today. She was told the CDC will be visiting her every day. But she --

BALDWIN: Have they? Have they been knocking on her door?

COOPER: They haven't been there today when I talked to her, which was about, you know, right before noon.

BALDWIN: OK.

COOPER: But she expects them to come. She's hoping the Red Cross will bring some food. She's - you know, obviously, she can't go out shopping. She's not allowed to leave the apartment.

BALDWIN: Unbelievable. We'll be watching much more of your interview tonight, "AC 360," 8:00 Eastern here on CNN.

Thank you, sir.

COOPER: Thanks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: All right, so that was Anderson. We'll watch for his interview tonight at 8:00.

Meantime, Duncan brought Ebola to the United States from Liberia, one of three nations in West Africa hit the hardest by this deadly virus. And so Dr. Oliver Johnson, he is over there. He treats Ebola patients in another of the countries really in what's being called the hot zone. He joins me live from Freetown (ph), Sierra Leone.

Dr. Johnson, welcome back.

DR. OLIVER JOHNSON, TREATED EBOLA PATIENTS IN SIERRA LEONE: Good afternoon.

BALDWIN: So let me just begin with this case here in the United States and Dallas. We now know - we have confirmation that the sheets, the towels upon which this Ebola patient, partner, you know, used are being -- will be removed from this apartment. The health officials are en route. But can you just tell me the process of doing so and how will -- will they be burned, destroyed?

JOHNSON: Well, I imagine the process in somewhere like Texas will be very different to Freetown here in Sierra Leone where we have very little resourcing. What we would do here would be to burn them. So we've got a pit at the back of the hospital and porters who have been specially trained wearing the full suits and the goggles and the masks would take materials, they would wrap them up, they would spray the bags in chlorine, they would safely transport them and they would fully burn all waste that had come into contact with someone with Ebola. I imagine a similar process would happen in Texas, but probably with a great deal more resourcing and a great deal more equipment and other things to make sure it's completely safe.

BALDWIN: We wait -- we'll wait to see if they're burned and what the process is here in the states.

Also this, this was in "The New York Times." They're reporting that this Dallas patient, he left Liberia after he had been in contact with this woman, this pregnant woman, who died, who had Ebola. My question to you is, how was he, having had that contact, allowed to leave?

JOHNSON: Well, I think it's very difficult to, when someone's leaving the country, you've got to hear their story about what happened and you can't read their minds. And, of course, people have so much contact now. Ebola is everywhere across West Africa at the moment. All of us are having contact with people who may have Ebola every day. And I think what it is is, it's a wake-up call for us. We can't control this and we can't protect ourselves in the west just by closing our borders. What we've got to learn from this is that our hospitals in the U.S. and in Europe need to be on the alert. Most importantly, if we want to stay safe, we have got to commit in

the west in solving this outbreak in West Africa. We need to be sending teams of clinicians and supplies and logistics and funding out here to end the outbreak in West Africa as soon as possible because that's going to be the only way really to protect all of us in the west. And that's going to be the take-home message to the American public today.

BALDWIN: Let me ask you, Dr. Johnson, there in the thick of it, in Sierra Leone. Listen, it's very easy for a lot of people to become alarmists and fearful for all these possible nightmare scenarios. You are dealing with and treating these people, you know, person to person. Can you just - I don't know if assure is the right word because a lot of people are worried here in the states, but how do you keep your calm?

JOHNSON: So the (INAUDIBLE), which I lead, has been here for a couple years. So we weren't Ebola experts. We were here when this started and we've just been alongside colleagues at a main government hospital trying to make sure this is brought under control. And we thought maybe we'd see 10 or 20 cases. We've now seen over 300 suspected cases of - more than 150 have been positive. So Ebola's become normal. And what we've learned is that if you take basic precautions, if you're wearing the right gear, if you're cleaning things properly, there's nothing to worry about.

The reason the outbreak has been so big in West Africa is because in West Africa when people are sick, often they don't go to hospital. And when someone dies, they may not go to funeral homes or (INAUDIBLE). Hospitals themselves, they don't have great infection control supplies, the gloves, the chlorine, but also training. And, finally, we don't have here the kind of surveillance system that you would have in the west to track down these contacts, track down these cases and quarantine people effectively. These are sorts of reasons why the outbreak has got out of control in West Africa, but it's a completely different story if you're in the United States where, as you can see already, you know, the houses have been quarantined, the patient is being safely managed, people are presenting to hospital when they get sick.

And so I would completely agree with the director of the CDC that maybe there would be one or two additional cases from the immediate contact, but I have no doubt the CDC has traced down all the contacts that are there, quarantined them, that there will be no risk of transmission in a hospital setting right now and that really this isn't going to become an outbreak in the United States or an ongoing threat. You may see one or two more cases, but there will be cases that are already under control.

So I think that that's not, you know, that the public in the United States shouldn't be concerned right now about this outbreak. What they should be concerned about is the cases in West Africa, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, continue to increase every day more and more cases. And that's a real worry because if the disease continues to be out of control here, there may be more cases that travel directly to the United States or they'll travel by Europe or by China or by somewhere else and this disease will continue to spread. It will start to affect our economies, our trade, our air travel. So really, you know, again, I'd come back to this idea that, you don't need to worry about -- too much about this individual case. What you do need to worry about is making sure that we're tackling the heart of the problem.

BALDWIN: Absolutely. And it's incredible the work you and teams around you have been in the thick of for months, years, there in West Africa and beyond. Dr. Oliver Johnson, thank you so much for speaking with me this afternoon and putting all this in perspective for all of us here in the U.S. We appreciate it.

And to you watching, once again today, we want your questions on Ebola. They're wonderful, those that have come in. Send us tweets either to me @brookebcnn or tweet CNN but make sure you use the hashtag #ebolaqanda and so then we'll bring on our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, he has been all over this. He's been to West Africa, and he'll answer some of your questions in about half an hour here on CNN.

Meantime, we do have some breaking news in the war against ISIS. Turkey now joining the U.S. as terrorists have been surrounding this key border city and civilians are being told to get out right now. We will take you there live.

Plus, we're also now hearing which incident was the, quote/unquote "final straw" for President Obama in this whole mess that the Secret Service made. Let's take a listen.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: David, Robin Kelly (ph), Mike Quigley (ph), Brad Schneider (ph), you got your mayor, Elizabeth Tisdale (ph). Where's Elizabeth? There she is. One of my great friends, former chief of staff, the mild mannered mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel, is here.

It is great to be back home. It's great to be back at Northwestern. Back when I was a senator, I had the honor of delivering the commencement address for the class of 2006. And as it turns out, I've got a bunch of staff who graduated from here and so they're constantly lobbying me about stuff. And so earlier this year I popped in via video to help kick off the dance marathon. I figured this time I'd come in person. Not only because it's nice to be so close to home, but it's also just nice to see old friends. You know, people who helped to form how I think about public service. People who helped me along the way. You know, Tony Kregwinkle (ph) was my alderwoman before - and was a great supporter. Lisa Maddigan (ph), your attorney general, was my seat mate. State Senator Terry Link (ph) was my golf buddy. You know, so you've got people here who I've just known for years and really not only helped me be where I am today, but helped develop how I think about public service.

And I'm also happy to be here because this is a university that is brimming with the possibilities of a new economy. Your research and technology and the ideas and the innovation, the trainers of doctors and educators and scientists and entrepreneurs. You can't help but visit a campus like this and feel the promise of the future. And that's why I'm here because it's going to be young people like you, and universities like this, that will shape the American economy and set the conditions for middle class growth well into the 21st century.

And, obviously, recent months have seen their fair share of turmoil around the globe. But one thing should be crystal clear, American leadership is the one constant in an uncertain world. It's America, our troops, our diplomats, that lead the fight to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL. It's America, our doctors, our scientists, our know-how that leads the fight to contain and combat the Ebola epidemic in West Africa. It's America, our colleges, our graduate schools, our unrivalled private sector that attracts so many people to our shores to study and start businesses and tackle some of the most challenging problems in the world.

When alarms go off somewhere in the world, whether it's a disaster that is natural or man-made, when there's an idea or an invention that can make a difference, this is where things start. This is who the world calls, America. They don't call Moscow. They don't call Beijing. They call us.

And we welcome that responsibility of leadership because that's who we are. That's what we expect of ourselves. But what supports our leadership role in the world is ultimately the strength of our economy here at home. And today I want to step back from the rush of global events to take a clear-eyed look at our economy, its successes and its shortcomings, and determine what we still need to build for your generation. What you can help us build.

As Americans, we can and should be proud of the progress that our country has made over these past six years. And here are the facts because sometimes the noise clutters and I think confuses the nature of the reality out there. Here are facts. When I took office, businesses were laying off 800,000 Americans a month. Today our businesses are hiring 200,000 Americans a month.

The unemployment rate has come down from a high of 10 percent in 2009 to 6.1 percent today. Over the past four and a half years, our businesses have created 10 million new jobs. This is the longest uninterrupted stretch of private sector job creation in our history. Think about that. And you don't have to applaud - because I'm going to be giving you a lot of good statistics. Right now there are more job openings than at any time since 2001. All told, the United States has put more people back to work than Europe, Japan, and every other advanced economy combined.

I want you to think about that. We have put more people back to work here in America than Europe, Japan and every other advanced economy combined.

BALDWIN: President Obama, home field advantage, speaking to young people at Northwestern University in Chicago, talking, of course, to young people. Keep in mind, a great demographic when these coming midterms swing around next month and also saying young people will be shaping the American economy, of course, in the future. Let's talk about the timing of this and really the picture of the economy as it is in October now of 2014 with chief Washington correspondent, host of "The Lead," Jake Tapper, and also Rick Newman, columnist for Yahoo! Finance. So, Tapper, to you first. And, I mean, the president alluded to the

crisis, you know, with what's happening with Ebola. But I'm just curious to you, with everything in the world crisis, what's happening in Iraq, Syria, Ebola, why now is he talking about the economy?

JAKE TAPPER, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's very eager to talk about the economy. There's a lot of good economic news that he wants to talk about, not just the stock market, but also in terms of job growth. In fact, you may have noticed in the last couple of weeks, when President Obama came out to the White House, the Brady Briefing Room, to talk about ISIS, the very first thing he did was talk about the economy, even though that wasn't purportedly the reason he was coming out. He was chomping at the bit to talk about it because, remember, this was the central catastrophe as he took office with those huge job losses and the stimulus package and all of the economic recovery and times that the economy wasn't recovering that he took heat for. So he really much rather have the focus be on that, especially as people go to the voting booths in November.

BALDWIN: A reminder, refocus, telling everyone, hold that applause because you'll have many more places to applaud. You know, what his administration has accomplished in the last couple of years.

Rick Newman, what about you because, of course, the president mentioning the unemployment rate. You know, rates have been going down. But let me just share with our viewers this CNN/ORC poll. Fifty- seven percent say economic conditions are poor and then a smaller number, 42 percent, say economic conditions are good. You have the rich getting richer, 27 new billionaires on the "Forbes" richest list this year. Can you just be real with me, how is the economy?

RICK NEWMAN, COLUMNIST, YAHOO! FINANCE: Well, the whole question is compared to what? So all those -- there are a lot of trends going in the right direction, but there are millions of Americans that are just still in a huge hole. And I'll give you one number that captures this. The household income for the typical family is still about 5 percent lower than it was before the recession started in 2007. And it's probably not going to get back to pre-recession levels until 2019. So that's a - that is a 12-year hole a lot of families are climbing out of. And they feel this in real terms, in their real lives, through declining living standards, their purchasing power is less than it used to be. And that's what the president is up against. That's not going to change by the midterms. That's not even going to change by the 2016 presidential elections. So this is a political issue for a long time.

TAPPER: And, Brooke, if I could just interject.

BALDWIN: Yes. Go ahead.

TAPPER: I mean that's one of the reasons why President Obama still finds himself having to explain to the American people that there is net positive GDP growth and all of the trends are moving in the right direction. The vast majority of the American people still do not feel like the economy is on the right track. They still do not feel confident and so those are the headwinds, the psychological headwinds in some cases, but also the very - you know, when you deal with the real economic numbers as opposed to some of the other numbers that are thrown our way, what he's up against.

BALDWIN: Jake Tapper -

NEWMAN: You know the recession officially -

BALDWIN: Go ahead, Rick, just quickly.

NEWMAN: The recession officially ended five years - yes, the recession ended five years ago. I mean it's extraordinary we're even still talking about it. During normal times, I mean you would not have a president saying, hey, everybody, the recession is over. Just letting you know, five years after it officially ended. I mean that's how big a problem it is.

BALDWIN: But to Jake's point, I mean, it was rough when he took over, right? And so - oh, went black. I don't know where you guys went, but it was rough when he took over and he's basically -- he's trying to remind everyone, to Jake's point, as we are, you know, a month away from those, you know, midterms, hey, listen, it's improving and hopefully, you know, getting better and you young people, you young people at Northwestern University can help shape that.

Jake Tapper, we'll see you at 4:00 Eastern on "The Lead."

TAPPER: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Rick Newman, thank you very much.

Coming up next here on CNN, breaking news in the war against ISIS. Turkey, as we mentioned a moment ago, joining the United States as terrorists have been surrounding this key border city and the people who live there, they're getting out, being told to flee. We will take you there live.

Plus, we are getting word about a news conference from Dallas on the Ebola patient there. We know we'll be hearing from city and county and state leaders. They'll be holding this news conference scheduled to start in about seven minutes from now. We'll take you to Dallas for that live. Stay with us.

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BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Breaking news into us at CNN after this notable absence in the U.S. led war on ISIS, Turkey has just voted overwhelmingly to join the fight authorizing the use of military force as the fall of the Syrian city on Turkey's border becomes more and more likely. You see sort of in the middle of the map there along that borderline, the takeover of Kobani could be the start of something huge for these insurgents and something frightening for the rest of the world. The infiltration of now what would be a third country in ISIS' ambition of creating this Islamic state, this caliphate. As the U.S. military launches more air strikes, ISIS militants are

watching very closely. This eerie video of what appears to be a U.S. drone, flying over Kobani, was filmed and upload to YouTube by the ISIS terrorists, OK, on the ground. Kurdish forces are now batting ISIS militants to the east, to the west and to the south of Kobani.

Let's go straight to Arwa Damon. She's there for us live.

But first, to this vote with regard to Turkey, Arwa, how involved are they about to become?

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're going to have to wait and see. Turkey, as you were mentioning, they're not part of the coalition. This resolution authorizing the government effectively to join the coalition should it choose to do so. And we did hear from the president over the weekend saying Turkey cannot stand by. Now, this resolution is based on two previous resolutions. One passed in 2007 authorizing the Turkish military to launch incursions into northern Iraq to go after the PKK, the Kurdish separatists group it deemed to be a terrorist organization, and second in place since 2012 and this has to do with military action in Syria. Since then, the Turkish government has had the authority to go after terror targets inside Syria. What this current resolution does though is morph those two previous resolutions into one and gives the government even greater powers for further military action to include the placement of foreign boots on Turkish soil for that same goal of going after terror targets. So opening the door, Brooke, at this stage for a lot of potential for future military action.

BALDWIN: And that's the part that would be so significant, but as you say, we just have to wait and see. As far as Kobani goes, Arwa, if ISIS takes the city, I know that it would control this unbroken tract of land all the way from its self-declared capital in Raqqa in Syria, to this border town. Bring me up to speed on where this battle sits right now.

DAMON: You know, we spent most of the day down at the border watching the ISIS fighters shelling the hilltop just on the outskirts of Kobani to the east. Fighters that we were speaking to inside saying it's not a matter of how many miles away ISIS fighters are, it's just a matter of when they're actually going to breach and enter into the city. The YPG, that is the Kurdish fighting force, has been battling ISIS, forcing civilians to evacuate. There were only a few thousand that were left inside. Many of them crammed up against the border between Syria and Turkey waiting to be allowed inside. A handful of them staying in Kobani, refusing to leave.