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American Journalist Contracts Ebola; JPMorgan Chase Hacked; Hazmat Crew Not Able to Clean Ebola Apartment; Crowds Clash with Pro- Democracy Protesters

Aired October 03, 2014 - 09:00   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Have a great weekend.

NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, looking for work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought it would take a few months. I have good skills. I have good education and I just -- you know, just people aren't hiring.

COSTELLO: Breaking this morning a new snapshot of our economy. As Chase comes clean about this summer's cyber breach, 76 million households affected, your name, e-mail, phone number, street address, all compromised.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody who lives here, this, this place should be blocked. Everybody inside should be screened.

COSTELLO: Fear of Ebola in Dallas. Breaking new detail this is morning, cleaning crews turned away from the patient's apartment. The quarantined woman speaking to CNN.

LOUISE, EBOLA PATIENT'S QUARANTINED FRIEND: If we step outside they're going to take us to court, that we have commit a crime.

COSTELLO: And the big question, did Eric Duncan lie to get out of Liberia and if he did, should he be prosecuted?

PRES. ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF, LIBERIA: The fact that he knew and he left the country is unpardonable, quite frankly.

COSTELLO: And tragedy on the field. A third high schooler dies while playing football. As America goes to the game tonight, we're asking, what's being done to keep our kids safe?

Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Happy Friday. Thank you for joining me.

We begin this hour with breaking news on your money. We have two big stories for you, first the best jobless rate we have seen in more than six years. Minutes ago we learned that rate dropped unexpectedly to 5.9 percent, that's -- that's compared to 6.1. That's because 248,000 jobs were created. That's more than expected and a strong rebound from a disappointing and somewhat worrisome drop in August.

The other big story not so good. Chase comes clean about a huge security breach, the nation's largest bank, saying the August breach hit 76 million households.

CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans and Alison Kosik both here to talk about these stories. But first let's talk about the good news.

Let's head to you, Christine.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: 5.9 percent just sounds good.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It is good. We haven't been able to say a five in front of that number in more than six years now. 5.9 percent, the unemployment rate continuing to trend lower. You want to see that, 5.9 percent the best we've seen since July 2008.

When you look at jobs created, Carol, 248,000 jobs added, stronger than economists have been expecting. And it brings now for the year the average to something like 246,000 a month. You want to see that continue.

That jobless rate really important but when I look at the sectors, Carol, I see lots of different people getting jobs that are paying better than the jobs that we've been adding more recently. 81,000 in something called professional business services. Those are architects, those are lawyers, those are sales managers, those are people who are running offices. 22,600 jobs created net new jobs in health care. Some of those are low paid home health aide jobs, Carol, but some of those are physical therapists, doctors, jobs that pay a lot more money.

Retail, again 35,300, it shows you retailers, people are going out, they're spending money. Many of those retail jobs are at auto dealers because auto sales, as we've been saying, are growing very strongly.

So where is the fly in the ointment? Wages aren't really increasing that much. You have 1.9 million fewer unemployed people this year but you still have underemployment rate that's double digits. It's getting better but still double digits. You're still going to have, I think, the income inequality argument that people talk about for raising the minimum wage. That doesn't go away but the trend here, the trend here is that for the recently unemployed and people who already have a job, this job market is getting much better. COSTELLO: So the economy appears brighter, right. It's growing,

there's no doubt about that. So when you talk about the wage gap and raising the minimum wage, does this prove it doesn't really matter whether we have a -- whether we have -- whether the minimum wage raises across the country?

ROMANS: It's interesting to me because the minimum wage increases are now going local. Right? The federal -- you know, on the national level it's just stalled basically but locally even this week Mayor de Blasio in New York raising wages for some workers to $13.13. Across the country, 26 different states raising the minimum wage.

So even as you're seeing the strengthening economy maybe it gives a little bit of a tailwind for companies to be able to afford raising the minimum wage if we can see the economy starting to improve. But when you look within the income inequality debate it is still there, Carol, for people who are out of work six months or longer it is the same old story that it's been for the past few years.

COSTELLO: All right. Christine Romans, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

All right. Now let's turn to the JPMorgan security breach. Tens of millions of customers have been hacked but this morning the nation's largest bank is scrambling to tamp down concerns.

Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange to tell us more about that.

So what kind of information was stolen?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK. Carol, so what did they get? They got names, they got addresses, they got phone numbers and e-mail addresses and what JPMorgan Chase calls internal JPMorgan Chase information relating to such users. Kind of vague, not sure what that exactly means. One thing is for sure, this was a massive attack that happened over the summer in August.

We're learning more about the details of this hack in an SEC filing that JPMorgan put these details in, saying 83 million account holders in all were hacked. Here's the breakdown, 76 million households, seven million small businesses.

Want some good news in this? Here's the good news. They didn't get any account information like account numbers, user IDs, dates of birth or Social Security numbers. JPMorgan also is saying that it hasn't seen any unusual customer fraud related to this.

Now keep in mind in August JPMorgan wasn't the only bank that was hacked at the same time. There were seven other big banks that were victims of these cyber crooks getting that malware into these computer systems.

Now at that time in August, JPMorgan came out and said look, companies of our size unfortunately experience cyber attacks nearly every day. Well, now the bank is saying as we -- as always we monitor our accounts closely for fraudulent activity saying our customers' money is safe, but I'll say this, if there is something suspicious, you are not liable for those transactions but the thing to do, Carol, is to call the bank as soon as you see the strange movement on your account -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, here's the thing. This is the first time a big bank has been hacked into. Big banks usually have massive security people like protecting against such things. So what happened at JPMorgan Chase?

KOSIK: You'd think. Well, you know, it turns out that maybe cyber security wasn't up to snuff in this case and many other huge companies are finding out similar. You know, we heard about the Target attack, of course, 40 million credit card users hacked there. The Home Depot hack, 56 million people affected with that.

I mean, keep in mind, these hackers have huge incentive to do this. Many times they want to make money and they can still -- in this case JPMorgan's case -- still make money by selling these e-mail addresses and other personal information to spammers which basically means you can get spammed with these phishing campaigns trying to get more information out of you.

And what they do is really insidious. In fact I got one of these e- mails just a couple of days ago purportedly from my bank. I'm not going to say which bank but it looks real. I was ready to click on the link because these e-mails they really do look like they're from your bank but they aren't because what they're trying to do is get you to click on a link that you shouldn't which could give away more of your information or infect your PC with the virus, so my advice is if you get any e-mail from your bank, really look at it, I wouldn't click anything.

You want to call your bank first, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good advice. Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange, thanks so much.

In other news this morning an American freelance journalist working to cover the crisis for NBC in Liberia has tested positive for Ebola. Ashoka Mukpo was in Liberia for a while and was only recently hired by NBC. He started getting sick on Wednesday and quarantined himself. The positive test came back yesterday.

His parents say Mukpo will travel back to the United States Sunday by private charter for treatment. He tells the "Today" show his spirits are good.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MITCHELL LEVY, ASHOKA MUKPO'S FATHER: I think obviously he is scared and worried. He's been filming what's happening in Liberia for two weeks and seeing the death and tragedy, and now it's really hit home for him but his spirits are better today. He knows he's going to come home. He knows he has a couple more days and also his symptoms still are fairly mild, just a mild fever. So I was really happy to hear how he's doing. He's walking around and definitely a little more cheerful. Tender but cheerful today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me now.

Good morning, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

COSTELLO: So we keep hearing that you can't get this virus because it's not airborne, you can't get it through the air, yet this photographer contracted Ebola somehow in West Africa.

GUPTA: Yes, and -- you know, I was e-mailing with Dr. Nancy Snyderman, who is the correspondent for NBC News. He was working with her. She says I'm not sure how he got it exactly. Keep in mind he just started working with NBC on Tuesday and then started to feel unwell the next day, and had that fever. That's what prompted the examination, but he had been in Liberia for some time already before that so it's just a little unclear at some point what the exposure was.

Dr. Snyderman, Nancy, talked a little bit more about what's going to happen now over the next few days for him but also for the team because there was a whole team of people that were working with him. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. NANCY SNYDERMAN, NBC NEWS MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Once he became symptomatic we'd only spent a few hours together. He and I were working in work space when he told me that he wasn't feeling well. He joined us 72 hours earlier as an independent journalist and had been in the hospital -- in the country two weeks prior to that, so my suspicion is that he was infected before we met him and then he became symptomatic once we met him.

We shared the work space, we shared vehicles, we shared equipment, but everyone here is hyper alert. We have not been in close proximity, no one shakes hands. There's no hugging, so I do believe that our team, while we are being hyper vigilant, we are at very, very, very low risk for becoming ill.

MATT LAUER, CO-HOST, "TODAY" SHOW: And yet you're going to fly out today. You're monitoring your temperature quite a few times during the day and from my understanding once you get back to the United States you're going to self-quarantine for up to 21 days.

SNYDERMAN: Yes, we're taking this very, very, very cautious. We're approaching this very cautiously and probably more judiciously than other people because we want to send the right message that (INAUDIBLE) but we'll self-quarantine on our own, take our temperature twice a day. If we have a fever we will then obviously get tested.

But the norm is, because you must come into contact with bodily fluids, vomit, diarrhea, blood, urine or sweat directly, that because we have not had that kind of exposure, even though I was in an Ebola isolation unit, I was wearing protective gear, I disrobed according to protocol, we have recognized and observed universal precautions here and we're going to extend that for 21 days out of courtesy and respect to our colleagues and to the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So she's going to get on a plane and then she's going to self-quarantine herself once she gets back into the United States. Well, I mean, Mr. Duncan didn't self-quarantine himself but he came back to the United States, too, so what's the difference between the two?

GUPTA: Well, look, you know, she's -- it's interesting because now we know that he probably knew he had an exposure, but you know, Carol, he did not disclose that he had an exposure to someone with Ebola.

What Dr. Nancy Snyderman was describing is she's known that she's had an exposure now as well, a much more limited exposure but because of that, the standard protocol is you -- you monitor your temperature for 21 days.

I want to be clear, quarantine, they're not worried about her infecting other people because she's not sick. If you become sick, you can infect other people. This is more to sort of find an illness maybe before it really starts to develop and checking her temperature is the best way to do that.

She's going to check her temperature for 21 days. If she doesn't develop a fever she's -- they say she's free and clear.

COSTELLO: Well, he wasn't sick either before he left West Africa. He didn't have a temperature, Mr. Duncan, I'm talking about, when he got on board that plane to come to the United States.

GUPTA: Right, but then he developed one and he developed one within whatever it would have been eight or 10 days after his exposure, which is exactly the point, Carol. If he had been in some sort of quarantine and was monitoring his temperature regularly, they would have found that. Now he should have been doing that in Liberia as opposed to having gotten on a plane to the United States.

But you're making the exact point, if you're going to develop an illness from that, you usually develop it within that time. He having not disclosed that he had been in contact with someone with Ebola was able to get on that plane and fly here before those symptoms developed.

COSTELLO: I guess what I'm really asking you is I know that Dr. Snyderman is being very responsible. She's going to self-quarantine and she's going to monitor her own symptoms. Can we trust everyone who thinks they've been exposed to Ebola in West Africa that comes to the United States to be as responsible?

GUPTA: Well, you know, there is some sort of component of the honor system so to speak. I mean, keep in mind now, the people in the United States who do this, who are concerned about this, they want to, you know, obviously get treatment. There's no secondary sort of issue here. They want to be able to find if they're going to get sick. They want to find that illness as quickly as possible which is why you're vigilant about even following my temperature is starting to go up, maybe this is the beginning of the illness. And possibly go ahead and get treated or go to the doctor and get isolated.

So It depends, I guess, what your motives are. If your motives are to beat the system, not get detected you can do that. But if your motives are I want to know my body and know that I'm actually developing an illness, that's what this is sort of designed to do.

COSTELLO: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, stick around. I got to take a break but we'll be back with more questions for you right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Thomas Eric Duncan remains in that Dallas hospital in serious condition fighting for his life. If he recovers, though, he could find himself fighting for his freedom. The president of Liberia now considering charging Duncan if he lied on a health screening questionnaire.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf says that move would be unpardonable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF, LIBERIA: With the U.S. doing so much to help us fight Ebola and one of our compatriots didn't take care, so he's gone there and in a way put some Americans in a state of fear, and put them at some risk. So I feel very saddened by that and very angry with him, to tell you the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: In the meantime, four days after Duncan tested positive for Ebola, his family still lives surrounded by the virus, in their tiny Dallas apartment. Hazmat cleaning crews have not been allowed to decontaminate the apartment where he stayed when he arrived in the United States several days earlier. Inside, four family members remain quarantined and according to affiliate WFAA five members of the Dallas County sheriff's department who briefly went inside that apartment have now been placed on medical leave.

So, I'd like to bring back Dr. Sanjay Gupta, as well as CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, she's in Dallas, and Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious expert from Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Good morning to all of you and welcome.

GUPTA: Good morning.

COSTELLO: I hope health officials are getting it together, although when you look at this picture, it does make you wonder. Let's take a look at the picture --this is a man dressed in a t-shirt in khakis. He's hosing down the sidewalk after Duncan got sick outside.

I think this picture says everything that is wrong about how that man is taking care of medical waste.

That's a hazmat truck driving away from Duncan's girlfriend's apartment. She, the girlfriend, Louise, remains under court order, as I said, to stay inside that apartment, along with everything Duncan touched.

So, Elizabeth, I want to start with you. Hazmat teams need a special permit before they can go inside Louise's apartment. What's taking so long?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I think perhaps health authorities just weren't prepared for this. I was speaking with someone who said, look, you know, there's a lot of steps to think through and they thought it would be easier to just tell a medical contractor, hey, just go in there and clean the place up. The apartment thing was a surprise to them and these experts said, look, this is a lesson learned. If this happens, God forbid but if this happens again we will have thought through those steps a lot better.

COSTELLO: So, Dr. Schaffner, Louise, her child and her nephews are inside with towels that Duncan used and sheets that he slept on, glasses that he drank from. How dangerous is this for them?

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: Well, Carol, it is as Elizabeth said, we're learning lessons. Those details are now coming to the fore and the local people have to deal with them. Obviously, we'd like to get them new towels and wash cloths, make sure their laundry is done, have food brought in, make sure there's some entertainment so their confinement for this period is as comfortable as we can make it.

COSTELLO: But still -- I mean, how likely is it that the people inside that apartment could contract Ebola, Sanjay?

GUPTA: There is -- I mean, there is a risk of Ebola virus can live outside the body. We know that, so it can live on surfaces and there is a theoretical risk, a high risk but theoretical risk, not a high risk but if someone touched some bodily fluids on the towel and subsequently touched their eyes, or nose or mouth that they could contract it.

But it's not likely. It's much more remote as compared to what we've been talking about direct exposure to bodily fluids.

But, Carol, bottom line, this is inexcusable. This is something that should have been taken care of. I can't believe it hasn't been taken care of. The bed sheets, apparently, where he was lying after he was sick are still on the bed. It does sort of underscore some of the ill preparation here with regard to this historic event, this first patient. COSTELLO: And, Elizabeth, we saw that man hosing down the sidewalk,

you know, outside of the apartment where Duncan got sick. I'm sure neighbors are worried, right?

COHEN: Oh, right, I'm absolutely sure they're worried. What they should be the most worried about is did they come in contact with Duncan directly, did they shake his hand, were they near him if he vomited outside, if that happened.

It's really as Sanjay said the contact with the person or the person's fluids that are the concern not so much the contact with the surfaces.

COSTELLO: So, Dr. Schaffner, you're a doctor, you know about these things just like Sanjay does, so calm these neighbors' fears.

SCHAFFNER: So, I'd like to do that. It's exactly as Elizabeth and Sanjay and I and Dr. Frieden have been saying. It's close contact with a sick person and most importantly the body fluids. If you haven't had that close contact, your risk goes way, way down.

So, I think everybody needs to take a deep breath and just help the public health people make their adjustments and provide the best services that they can at the moment. But the risk here except to people who have had very close contact is quite low fortunately.

COSTELLO: All right. Dr. William Schaffner, Elizabeth Cohen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks to all of you. I appreciate it.

Also, next hour, Dr. Gupta will answer your questions about Ebola. So, tweet them using #EbolaQandA. Send them to us at CNN. I'm back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to take you out live to Hong Kong right now where pro-democracy protesters are facing off against police all week long. Today, police are protecting those protesters.

Police formed a human chain around a protest site holding back angry crowds. That group says the occupy protesters are ruining their businesses and making the city a mess. The protest leaders are blaming the government for today's clashes.

Joining me now, one of the protesters. His name is Edward Tsoi. He joins me live from Hong Kong.

Thank you for being with me, Edward.

EDWARD TSOI, PROTESTER: Hey, how are you?

COSTELLO: I'm good.

So what happened today? Why did police have to form this human chain in your mind?

TSOI: Today, because there's a group of anti-occupy movement protesters, and going through the street and start harassing the occupying students, and they beat up students. Some even molested female students. But the police just stand there and did nothing.

So, some of our students have to retreat right now. So, today, we lost hope on our government and the police, because they launched tear gas on peaceful demonstrators like us, our students groups, but they did nothing when the anti-occupy protesters beat up our students and tried to molest female students.

COSTELLO: Who do you think is behind this anti-occupy movement?

TSOI: It's quite complicated. There's lots of rumors saying that those people who went on the street and tried to end the tide (ph) of Occupy movement, they got paid for that. And they'll get paid even more if they successfully beaten up some students.

So I don't know who's the organizer behind, but seemingly the police are colluding with these anti-occupy protester because they did nothing to stop these anti-occupy protesters from beating up our students, even though the police are just standing next to them.