Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

U.S. Ebola Patient's Condition Worsens; Newark Flight Quarantined Lifted; Protecting U.S. Troops From Ebola; Answering Ebola Questions; Parents Send Message to ISIS, Don't Kill Son; Interview with Passenger on Plane with Sick Man

Aired October 04, 2014 - 17:00   ET

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

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, thanks for joining us, you're in CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow. Two developing stories at this hour highlighting the growing concerns about the potential threat of the spread of Ebola and the efforts under way to fight it. A New Jersey Newark's airport, a passenger was just removed upon arrival from Brussels today and the more than 250 people on his flight were briefly quarantined. There's no indication at this time that the man is infected with Ebola. But the incident made for a very frightening end to the flight for many passengers. It is another sign of the heightened awareness of Ebola and its potential dangers. The man was eventually transported to the hospital and passengers were allowed to leave and to go through customs.

Meantime in Dallas, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital says that Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, his condition has worsened, he's now listed in critical condition.

Let's go straight to our Martin Savidge who is outside the hospital and has been following this. I think there's two important things to talk about here first, Martin, his condition and then also the good news that we've gotten about people who they have been monitoring that could potentially been infected. Let's begin with Mr. Duncan's condition.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Correct. And that was updated to us just a short time ago and it was stated that he had been in serious but now he's listed as critical condition. Medical authorities did not give us an explanation for that change. They didn't characterize what kind of treatment or what had brought about this decline other than, of course, the obvious fact that he is fighting a very deadly virus, so he's gone from serious now down to critical. Focusing on the positive aspect and that is the fact that no one else, no one else, out over 100 people who have been apparently in some way may have had contact with Thomas Duncan have shown any symptoms whatsoever of Ebola, in other words, Ebola is contained in Dallas to one individual.

We should point out that the CDC spends a lot of time, they spend a lot of time on the ground tracking down anybody who may have possibly even by the remotest means have had contact. That pool was put at 114 people. They say they have I.D.'d anyone and everyone who may have possibly had contact. They've reduced those now as far as serious contact or any kind of real contact to 50. Of which ten, nine or ten are said to be the ones that had the real direct contact. All are in good health. No sign of Ebola. You have at least four people under quarantine and those were the ones who actually living with him at the time he got sick so that's the important thing to focus on for the positive. And, of course, thoughts and prayers are with the patient now.

HARLOW: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. When it comes to treating Mr. Duncan and potentially, Martin, treating anyone else in the area if -- if -- they fall ill with Ebola, do we know if the hospital there has that experimental drug z-map that has been used on Ebola patients before or any other experimental drug? Because I know there was an issue about a shortage of availability.

SAVIDGE: Correct. In fact, after the last people who had received it and it appeared to work very successfully for them, there were reports that was the last of it or that there was a very, very small supply because many have said, why aren't we using this in Africa. And apparently the CDC at a news conference today they did say if were requested, in other words if the physicians attending to Mr. Duncan right now or his family were to request for the experimental treatment, and they didn't define it beyond that, it would be made available. So, apparently there is an experimental process that can be applied to him. We do not know if it's been asked for. The CDC implied it had not as yet.

HARLOW: Martin, thank you very much for the update throughout. We'll see you a little bit later this evening.

Well, as you know Ebola has triggered fear across the nation. Our expert panel is here to tell you what you need to worry about and what you don't need to worry about. Let's bring in Thomas Geisbert, he is a Microbiology and Immunology professor at the University of Texas Medical branch in Galveston. Also, Dr. Seema Yasmin joins us once again, he's a staff writer with "The Dallas Morning News," also a former disease detective at the CDC. Thank you, both, for being here.

Let's talk about the plane scare today in Newark involving some passengers. We know that some passengers on the plane were from Liberia. Some of course were from elsewhere because this is a plane that a lot of people made connections to in Brussels and then came here to Newark, New Jersey. Here is some sound just in to CNN from some of the passengers on that flight. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Well, they didn't give us very much information. It was quite scary but it would have been nice to get better information. We were just told nothing.

(INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Yes. When he was escorted from the plane. Yes.

(INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

It was a couple of people in that clean suits and masks and just escorted off. He walked off under his own power.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: And what was going through your mind when you --

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Wow. It's really real, you know, that's what came to mind, yes. And, you know, what's interesting is they kept holding us and holding us and holding us without much information. It just seems as if it would be wonderful if the organizations would talk to one another or at least be able to share information because we had to fill out CDC forms and customs already has all of our information it was, like, why? You know, I just don't get why that happens.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Did anybody say Ebola?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Yes. Mostly the passengers. Almost in a jokingly kind of fashion in the beginning.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Was anyone panicked?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: No, I don't think there was any panic. No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. Thomas, let me go to you. How can authorities in a situation like this decide relatively quickly, I mean, in a matters of hours that everyone else on the plane is finally even to go home?

THOMAS GEISBERT, PROFESSOR, MICROBIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY: Well, I think one of the things is that Ebola is not transmitted from one person to another person by airborne transmission. It's not like influenza. The odds of you catching Ebola just by sitting next to someone who has Ebola is very, very low. So it's really only transmitted by close contact to bodily fluids. So it would really need to be a situation where somebody would have to be vomiting or, you know, there be some sort of blood loss or something like that that you would have to be in contact with to catch it. So, my guess is that's why the authorities handled this the way that they have.

HARLOW: And just to be clear for our viewers, again, we at CNN cannot confirm, we do not know, authorities haven't told us whether or not there's any reason to believe that this sick patient who was, I should note, vomiting has any other symptoms tied to Ebola. We just don't know yet. But obviously all precautions are being taken. Dr. Yasmin to you, when you look at this, you were a detective with the CDC. We know the CDC responded here. And that the patient was vomiting. What would they be doing?

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, STAFF WRITER, DALLAS MORNING NEWS: What they'd be doing is a risk assessment, Poppy. They'd be trying to get some more information from the patient, what are the symptoms they've had, how long have they been feeling sick for, for example, had they been vomiting before they even got on the plane. They'd want to know where that patient had been. If they'd been in a region where there was an Ebola epidemic and if they'd had any kind of contact with an Ebola patient. So, that's a risk assessment path. And what they also want to do is take information from passengers and the flight crew who are on that plane to make sure that they can get in touch with them in the future, should they need to do any kind of contact tracing.

HARLOW: Looking at the schools, some of the schools there in the Dallas area where you are, Dr. Yasmin, I know some of these electronic scanners are going to be deployed where students may have been exposed to Thomas Duncan or to children who were exposed to him. Tell us about what those scanners do, and is that enough?

YASMIN: So, these scanners take someone's temperature without having to come into contact with the person or with their skin, for example, and we know with Ebola one of the early signs is a fever. And when we do quarantine someone, if we are monitoring them for any signs of Ebola, one of the things that we do is take that temperature twice a day and so, we can use these electronic scanners, for example, to make sure the patient is not developing a fever and if you take their temperature and they have developed a fever, you can quickly isolate them as soon as possible.

HARLOW: And to you, Thomas, tell us a little bit about the drug testing in your school's laboratory that's going on right now to try to help -- help create some weapons, some successful tools to fight Ebola.

GEISBERT: We actually are working on three maybe treatments right now. One is a vaccine that's actually starting phase one trial soon that we actually use as a preventive treatment. Kind of like the rabies virus vaccine is used here in the United States. The other is a small interfering RNA called TKM-Ebola, this is actually the drug that was used to treat Dr. Sacra in Nebraska. That drug has also been used on several other people. And then we are working with map at Vanderbilt University on some -- antibodies. So, we're kind of looking at three different strategies here. And our goal is, you are familiar with how HIV has been successfully treated, it's when they started combining different treatments and you kind of come up with a cocktail approach so that's kind of what we're looking at in our lab.

HARLOW: I'm glad you guys are doing that work because something is needed to fight this and we don't have it yet. Thank you very much to you both. You're going to stick around with us, because in just a few minutes we're going to have you back to answer some of your questions, our viewers' questions, about Ebola. We've been getting a lot here at CNN, so we'll do that later this hour.

Up next, though, the way the government has handled the Ebola threat right here in the United States. The right and the wrong steps that have been taken.

Also later this hour another medical condition has already proven more deadly in the U.S. than Ebola. The big reason for worry, it is a common virus that infects millions in this country every year. Children are dying from it. We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. Let's talk more about Ebola, the first U.S. case and the U.S. government's response to the disease. CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill joins me now along with Tara Setmayer, she is co-host of Real News on Blaze TV.

All right. I want to play you guys a remark from the director of the CDC. He said today that calls to shut down travel in and out of the affected countries in West Africa is the way he tried to prevent the spread of this could actually backfire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. TOM FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: We really need to be clear that we don't inadvertently increase the risk to people in this country by making it harder for us to respond to the needs in those countries by making it harder for us to get assistance in and therefore those outbreaks would become worse and go on longer and paradoxically something that we did to try to protect ourselves would actually increase our risk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Marc, let me go to you first on that. I mean, we have heard increasingly these calls and why are we flying in and out of these countries? You also have to help the people there. Thousands of people in West Africa have died. Do you agree with what the CDC director is saying?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I defer to their expertise. You know, my first instinct of course is to close the border, shut everything down, I don't want anything to come in, I don't want anything to go out. But the truth is as they say, there's actually greater epidemic logically speaking is a greater risk by not doing that, you know, or rather by doing that so it's important for us to open the borders but also to go there and offer help for the 4,000 troops to go there to make sure they are protected and they set up triage units but they don't get infected.

HARLOW: Tara, you are shaking your head.

TARA SETMAYER, CO-HOST, REAL NEWS ON THE BLAZE TV: Yes. Because to me, they're just seems to defy common sense. Ebola never had to touch American soil if we had taken the proper protocols and steps from the very beginning. The gentleman in Dallas now was actually issued a tourist visa. Why was he allowed to even travel? They should stop that --

HARLOW: Just because he came from Liberia?

SETMAYER: Well, yes, if Liberia is ground zero for Ebola and the other countries in the immediate area but Liberia is the ground zero, then you need to stop, I'm sorry --

HARLOW: No one?

SETMAYER: No one needs to come into the country unless they are obviously properly screened if you are talking about humanitarian efforts or whatever, but no, you shut it down.

HARLOW: Yes. We were told by the officials in Liberia, the efforts that this passenger along with all their passengers go through numerous screenings. Now, they said they had to check a box saying that he wasn't in contact with anyone, you know, with Ebola or he wouldn't have been able to go on a plane. I mean, how far do we --

SETMAYER: Do you trust someone coming from Liberia to be honest and say if they know they have it?

(TALKING OVER EACH OTHER)

HILL: Someone from Liberia --

SETMAYER: No, let's be honest, Liberia is ground zero for Ebola.

HILL: Yes. But the question is, do you have the public health mechanisms in place to stop it? That's the big issue.

SETMAYER: Not in Liberia. Contain it there.

HILL: So, there are things you can do. You make sure that no one is symptomatic when they get on the plane. You question --

SETMAYER: They have a 21-day incubation period possibly.

HILL: Let me finish. You make sure that no is symptomatic. You inquire. You investigate. You make sure that they haven't been in contact with anybody. The same thing we do here in the United States. There are times when something could happen, absolutely. But the worst-case scenario of all those mechanisms that followed is that you have one person who gets quarantined and gets treated and that's what happened here. Where we dropped the ball I think was in Dallas where the hospital didn't have the right mechanisms in place.

HARLOW: Can you weigh in on Dallas, because you have said that you think that what happened in Dallas, the missteps by the hospital there, the missteps in terms of the hazmat teams getting all those soiled linens out of the apartment, moving the family members potentially affected that, that that is representative of a bigger U.S. problem of unpreparedness?

SETMAYER: Yes. Again, I think it started from Liberia on through the steps going all the way to Dallas and then once he came to the United States, yes, I think my fear is not necessarily of Ebola, but my fear is of the United States government's ability to handle what's going on. Clearly they were ill prepared. The fact that they didn't have -- well, that they have the protocols, they didn't follow them. So, there was human error there. The fact that they didn't have contractors in place in case of disposing these bio hazardous materials, what to do then, that's in the reassuring and you have the President of the United States two weeks ago come out and say, don't worry, Ebola is not going to come here and if it does, we have the protocols in place. Well, that is broken down severely since then.

HARLOW: All right. So, this has happened, right?

SETMAYER: Yes.

HARLOW: This has happened. And we can complain about it as much as we want. But it's happened. What do we do now?

HILL: Well, we make sure that we follow the protocols that actually have been in place. And I think you are right to the extent that we didn't follow the all the protocols, what happened in the hospital was a problem. But it doesn't mean we're ill prepared, it simply means that we made a mistake. And as experts have said the last week --

SETMAYER: Perhaps.

HILL: No, I think there's a difference. I think the mechanisms are in place. I think they dropped the ball at the hospital. I think we all agree, that is unacceptable. Again, I don't think anyone is defending that. But I think the question now is what do we do. Are we prepared to stop this? I think we are. We stop STDs in this way, we've stopped all sorts of communicable diseases in this way. This is standard fare for our disease control units. We can stop this. I don't think anyone disputes that. We just need to make sure to follow the protocol.

SETMAYER: Yes. But my problem here with this, though, is that we continue to look at this and say that by allowing flights to come into the United States, from these places, is an okay way to move forward. I just don't see how that makes any sense. I understand that we need to be compassionate and we already sent troops over there at a cost of a billion dollars of American taxpayer money. We spent a lot of money --

HILL: Which is necessary.

SETMAYER: I understand that as long as they make sure that our troops are not in direct contact. That they'll set things up and get out of there. I think the U.N. needs to chip in. What about the African Union, they have troops there. I don't know why the U.S. always has to come, be at the forefront of it but we are and that's fine.

HILL: I was going to ask, but all the nonpartisan disease control experts in the country say that we're at a greater risk if we shut down the borders. On what basis do you disagree with that?

SETMAYER: Not all the non-partisans -- we don't say that we're not a greater risk. From the National Security perspective, it just does not, I don't understand how, if you want to keep something contained in an area you continue to open the borders.

HARLOW: We're out of time. We're going to have to wrap up. Marks is saying, look at the director of the CDC saying, we can't do that, we won't do it. The administration is saying we won't do that. We will see if it changes but for now these flights are coming in and out of the United States. I appreciate you coming on the show, Tara and Marc, good to be with you. Thanks so much.

More U.S. troops are being send to ground zero of the Ebola epidemic as we were just talking about, 4,000 of them, in fact. What is being done to protect them there and how does the fight against Ebola relate to the fight against ISIS? A former army Delta Force officer tells us next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Welcome back. Nearly 7,500 cases are now reported in Ebola affected countries in West Africa. Of that number nearly 3,500 people have died. Those new numbers released by the World Health Organization on the same day that the Pentagon announced more U.S. troops are being sent to West Africa in support of the fight against Ebola.

Joining me now from Raleigh, North Carolina, retired army Lieutenant Colonel James Reese, he served as an officer in the Delta Force, he's now a CNN global affairs analyst. Thank you for being here, sir, we appreciate it.

LT. COL. JAMES REESE (RET.), ARMY DELTA FORCE OFFICER: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: The Pentagon now says that as many as 4,000 U.S. troops could be sent to be on the ground in West Africa to help and a lot of people want to know what exactly is their role there. What can you tell us?

REESE: Poppy, this is the role of the U.S. military will be a core task which they call stability operations or capacity building. You know, the U.S. military has the ability to move quickly. They have the transportation. They have these time of cities that they can put up very quickly. They have engineers, communications specialists that can come in, they can put it in the middle of the desert, they can put it in the middle of the jungle. And really, it's a supporting operations for USAID. So, it's a stability operation.

HARLOW: And in terms of them they need to be incredibly, incredibly careful that none of them contract Ebola. What kind of precautions are being taken to ensure that that happens?

REESE: Well, you know, the U.S. military again has some of the greatest equipment in the world. They'll have hazmat equipment and uniforms. You know, soldiers are used to working in biologically contaminated environments but that's not what they're to do and I don't believe the military commanders will be there. What they're going to be doing is setting up the base camps. Making sure the powers there, the communication is there and then it let USAID then to mundane what they have to do with the medical people and they'll step back and be able to supporting effort.

HARLOW: You know, we had a question come in to us from twitter. It came from Natalie Yarbrough, here's what she wrote. I thought it was interesting. She wanted to know what happens when these 4,000 troops come home? Are they quarantined? Are they isolated for 21 days? Just out of precaution.

REESE: Well, you know, one of the things we got to keep in mind is every unit in the military has medical personnel to travel with them. They'll be monitoring them all the times and I'm sure the Pentagon and the division headquarters in these other brigade headquarters that are deploying in support of this will have a plan. If there's an isolation piece. My gut goes out and tells me that my bet is there's not going to be any type of chances where the soldiers will be interacting with any Ebola people and they'll be a distance between them.

HARLOW: And in terms of if, these were a unit that you were leaving, what would you say -- leading, rather, not leaving. What would you say to them? Because this is different than probably any fight that they have taken on before.

REESE: Actually, I disagree, Poppy. I think it's things -- I mean, when we were in Iraq in 2003, you know, all the conventional forces, even the Special Operations Forces, we crossed the borders in our protective hazmat NBC suits waiting for Saddam to, you know, to throw chemical warfare on us. These soldiers are trained. They know how to do this. They know how to protect themselves. This is what they live for. They'll get in very quickly. They'll be very professional. And we're the best in the world at doing it.

HARLOW: Yes, we've heard the President say this is what America does. America leads, and that is why we are sending those up to 4,000 troops. Final question for you, you have said that you believe this mission is in some ways tied to the fight against ISIS. How so?

REESE: Well, Poppy, you know, in today's world, in the information world, all of this is intertwined and intermingled. We know after years and years in this global war on terrorism against, you know, what we're doing here with the jihad extremists, that there's transnational terrorism that's coming through Africa, they are doing recruiting and all these type of bases. What we have to do, you'll hear the term a lot of time, win the hearts and minds, what we have to is really, is when the trust and confidence of people. So the U.S. going into West Africa, setting these things up and helping the West Africans, it shows a trust and confidence in them and what this could do, it could break away some of the recruiting base for ISIS in other places, of al-Qaeda, in West Africa that we've seen before in transnational terrorism.

HARLOW: Now, it's a really important point. We appreciate you and your time. Thank you so much. Lieutenant Colonel James Reese, thanks for joining us.

Straight ahead here in the newsroom, we told you at the top of the hour about a very sick passenger who was removed from a plane at Newark Airport in New Jersey and the CDC was called in to investigate. We will talk live to another passenger who was on that plane. That is straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: We've heard so much about the Ebola virus in the past couple of months, certainly there's been a lot of focus on it, and a lot of uncertainty surrounding the disease, how it is contracted and just how concerned the public should be.

I want to bring in our experts to discuss this and frankly answer some of your questions. Dr. Seema Yasmin is here and Dr. Thomas Geisberg is here to answer your questions.

Thank you for being here. I want to ask you, Dr. Yasmin, Mel wrote in saying, why isn't this

being treated the same way that SARS was in Vietnam and China?

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, FORMER CDC DISEASE DETECTIVE: It's really because of the way that Ebola is transmitted. And although we are actually scared of this virus, it's not as hardy as other more common viruses and it's less contagious, so that's why this response feels so different to the public even though the virus sounds so scary. So, again, just to go over that, Ebola is transmitted through direct contact with infected bodily fluids, things like blood and saliva and urine. It's not airborne.

HARLOW: Very important point to continue making to people because it is really scary and they get concerned if they are near someone what's going to happen.

I want to go to you, Tom. Joanne wrote in this question, is this outbreak all the same strain, she wrote, or if not, can different strains create a new superstrain?

DR. THOMAS GEISBERG, EXPERT OF HEMORRHAGIC FEVERS: There are actually five different species of Ebola virus. Three of these cause significant morbidity and mortality in man. The particular species that is causing this outbreak in West Africa is the Zaire species. That is the most pathogenic. So, in other words, it has the highest case of fatality rates in humans. There are different strains within a species. So, it gets a little complicated.

So this strain is slightly different than some of the other strains that we've seen, for example, in Central Africa, but basically, very similar. And we would expect that our vaccines that have been developed in laboratories would protect against this particular strain. Well, you can never say never in science. I don't think that we would expect, you know, any significant problems or so far we haven't seen any substantial mutations with this particular virus.

HARLOW: OK. To you, Dr. Yasmin, Tom was talking about what has developed to help treat this, but we don't have any FDA-approved treatment or vaccine for Ebola. So when it comes to the medical plan of caring for an Ebola patient, what can doctors really do?

YASMIN: Poppy, what we do is called supportive treatment. Doing things like giving people intravenous fluids and keeping them very well hydrated because Ebola can cause organ failure, say, somebody goes into kidney failure, then we put it on dialysis. The name of the game here is to keep the patient alive, support them for as long as possible so that the immune system can kick in and fight off this virus for itself.

HARLOW: And, you know, we were just talking about this, Tom, in the last -- in the last segment, should flights in and out of West Africa be restricted? The CDC is saying no. Obviously, the Obama administration has -- has not mandated that whatsoever. But this question did come in. Why not ban flights from the hot zone for 21 days to see how many other cases arise from patient zero? What's your take? GEISBERG: I mean, certainly, I'm not a politician or a government

official. And so, you know, clearly if you stop flights, you would keep the virus from getting in the country. I don't think there's a question about that. But, you know, again, I'm a scientist. That's really a political question that probably a politician should answer.

HARLOW: And then finally, before I let you go, I know that your lab has been working on treatments for this, a number of different treatments. Any success yet?

GEISBERG: Yeah. We have several different vaccines and several different treatments that can completely protect monkeys against Ebola and, of course, nonhuman primates are the gold standard animal model for Ebola. They get the same type of disease that humans get. We have several of these treatments. Again, one is -- one called TKM- Ebola. This was used to treat Dr. Sacra, who went to Nebraska. We are working with the company that developed Zmapp. And as your viewers may recall, Zmapp was used to treat several different patients, including the ones in Atlanta. And then we've worked on a number of different preventive vaccines. So in other words, giving someone a vaccine leak you would give, for example, childhood vaccination for measles or something like that. The NIH is fast tracking or moving two different vaccines forward now. Hopefully, they will be in human trials soon. And, you know, hopefully, in the near future these vaccines should be available to combat future outbreaks.

HARLOW: Let's certainly hope so.

Thank you both for your expertise. We appreciate it.

YASMIN: Thank you.

HARLOW: And for our viewers, for more information on how you can help fight Ebola, go to CNN.com/impact.

A mother and a father in Indiana sent a direct message to the violent militants of ISIS today. That message, "Please do not kill our son." They are talking about Peter Kassig. He's an aid worker who went to the Middle East to help people displaced by Syria's horrific civil war. He's been held hostage there now by ISIS for a year. And yesterday, he appeared in an ISIS video with a masked fighter who said that he was the next to die.

Our Alexandra Field is live for us in Indianapolis right now and she's been following this story since the moment it broke last night, talking to the people that know Peter.

What are they saying about him?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, their stomachs are in knots, and that's putting it mildly. People across this city, across this country, frankly, they are hoping and praying for Peter Kassig's safe return. But as we speak to the people that really know him, we're trying to understand what this young man from Indiana, who grew up in Indianapolis, was doing in Syria, why he felt so compelled to do the humanitarian aid work that he was over there to carry out. And they tell us that Peter has always been someone who is deeply committed to serving. He's always wanted to help people and those most in need.

Listen to what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORA BASHA, SYRIAN AMERICAN COUNCIL: Well, I just remember him saying, like, he felt like had a bigger calling. He went to school at butler and he felt like he wanted to go out and do more for, you know, humanity just as a whole which was so inspiring for me, as a Syrian, as an American with Syrian roots, to see someone who cared so much about a people he technically didn't have any relation to.

SHELBY MURDOCH, PETER KASSIG'S CLASSMATE: He talked a lot about his plans. He always wanted to do something that was bigger than his life as he said it, being parent of a bigger picture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: Peter Kassig also served in the military. He deployed to Iraq with the Army Rangers in 2007. After that, Poppy, he came home to Indiana. He spent some time in school and then he decided to pursue a completely different path. He trained to become an EMT. And after that he went overseas to provide medical relief and other humanitarian aid. And, Poppy, as you heard his friends say, this is just something that he felt compelled to do even though these are people that he truly had no immediate connection to.

HARLOW: And do you know what, he told our Arwa Damon, Alex, in 2012 when she interviewed him, "We get one life and that's it. We get one shot at this and we don't get any do-overs." He was livings to the fullest. And he is still to this day. And his parents are clearly completely, completely distraught. I know they released a statement today directly to ISIS.

FIELD: Yeah. They are desperate to do anything they can to bring their son home safely. Just yesterday, put out a statement mourning the loss of Allen Henning, the British aid worker who was brutally killed. And now they are speaking on camera to ISIS. And here's what these two parents are saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED KASSIG, FATHER OF PETER KASSIG: We know that the Syrians are suffering. We also believe violence is not the solution to the problems that trouble us all. There is so much that is beyond our control. We've asked our government to change its actions, but like our son, we have no more control over the U.S. government than you have over the breaking of dawn.

PAULA KASSIG, MOTHER OF PETER KASSIG: Most of all, know that we love you. And our hearts ache for you to be granted your freedom so we can hug you again and then set you free to continue the life you have chosen, the life of service to those in greatest need. We implore those who are holding you to show mercy and use their power to let you go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FIELD: You can hear the pain, the heartbreak in their voices. Their son has been missing for a year now. They have stayed away from the spotlight but, Poppy, we do know they've been working with a large team quietly to secure the release of their son, Peter.

HARLOW: Our thoughts and our prayers are with them as they try to -- try. You can't make what it's like for them to go through.

Alexandra Field, thank you. Appreciate it.

Well, another medical condition has so far proven more deadly in the United States than Ebola. The big reason for worry, this is a common virus that infects millions in this country every year and some children are dying from it. We'll bring you their story from Rosa Flores next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: This just in to CNN. I am joined on the phone by a man who is sitting right next to the sick passenger on that flight from Brussels to Newark that was quarantined for a short period of time.

Joining me on the phone, Rich Burchett.

Thank you for being here.

First, tell me, when did you first notice that this man was not feeling well, and what did he tell authorities?

RICH BURCHETT, AIRLINE PASSENGER SITTING NEXT TO SICK MAN (voice- over): We had about an hour left in the flight and he nudged me and said something, and kind of incoherently. I didn't really under him, so I asked him to repeat it and he asked for help, asked me to call for a flight attendant. So I paged a flight attendant. At this time, he had his head between his hands and kind of bent over in the seat and had his face covered with, like, a towel.

When the flight attendant came, he said that his eyes felt like they were floating and they were hurting really bad and he'd never felt that before. The flight attendant asked what would you like me to do, you know, is there something I can get for you or would you like me to see if there's medical personnel on board, and he immediately said, yes, yes, do that.

HARLOW: And can you tell me --

(CROSSTALK)

BURCHETT: So it was about an hour and a half left in the flight. Oh, I'm sorry?

HARLOW: Can you tell me, Rich, I know at some point he did talk to authorities. They took his passport, et cetera. What did he tell the authorities in terms of where he was originally traveling from?

BURCHETT: So, once they came back to question him, another flight attendant came back, two came together, and he described his symptoms again. And the second flight attendant, said, where are you originating from, and he said Liberia.

HARLOW: He did say he was from Liberia. Tell me a bit about what happened when you landed. Because we know that the CDC did get involved immediately. We saw these photos of officials coming on the plane. What were they wearing? What kind of protective gear were they wearing? And what did they tell you and all the other passengers to do?

BURCHETT: So, originally, while we were waiting for the CDC to come on board, the flight attendants had come back and said that -- we were in row 27 and the flight attendant said rows 25 through 28 would need to stay on the plane, on that side of the plane anyway, and everyone else would be able to deplane. And then she came on, they were wearing, like, a protective suit, face shield and a mask and rubber gloves, of course. And then they escorted him off the plane, him and his daughter. He had a young daughter with him. And it wasn't very long -- I'm going to give you a guess because I'm not for sure. But it felt like maybe 15 or 20 minutes later, they announced over the P.A. that everyone would be able to deplane, including the people in rows 25 through 28 --

HARLOW: And that --

BURCHETT: - and that he was not contagious.

HARLOW: OK. So they told you, you could all deplane and go home. Did authorities tell you anything? Obviously, there's heightened awareness about the concern about Ebola in this country. Did they tell you anything about monitoring your symptoms? Anything like that? Any indication that he may be infected?

BURCHETT: They did not at that time. Several hours later, after we got into the airport -- I actually have global entry, so I go right through Customs, I was already in baggage, maybe 10 minutes after we deplaned and they came across the loudspeaker and told all officers, do not allow anyone from United Airlines flight 998 to obtain their baggage or to leave. And then we were all -- about 35 of us had made it through Customs. We were corralled in one area. From what I was told, the remaining passengers were corralled upstairs in Newark airport and then we waited for hours and hours.

HARLOW: So, that's interesting. You waited in the airport not on the plane. Ultimately, when authorities did let you leave with your baggage, did they say why?

BURCHETT: So, they did. We did get an announcement from a representative of the CDC that we were held as an abundance of caution. And then previously we were asked to fill out information sheets to give our full contact information and e-mail addresses, permanent addresses, et cetera, required us to turn those in, and then gave us an information sheet on the signs and symptoms for Ebola. HARLOW: OK. This -- CNN was told earlier today that this sick

passenger, this man, was vomiting on the flight. I know it's not a pleasant thing to talk about, but because of the way that this disease is transferred, did you see him vomit or do you believe that that happened in the bathroom where he was alone?

BURCHETT: I did not see it, nor have any reason to know that he did.

HARLOW: OK.

BURCHETT: Once -- once they found out he was from Liberia, they actually put a mask on him and his daughter and they escorted him behind -- somewhere behind me. They got him up out of the seat and took him somewhere towards the back of the plane but I have no idea where. It was actually behind me.

HARLOW: And then what did you do right after that? How were you feeling?

BURCHETT: Very nervous, obviously. They did open up the resting area for the flight attendants. They opened it up and allowed me to move across the aisle-way to move away from him, in the meantime, before they got him moved.

HARLOW: And it's important to remind our viewers, again, we do not know if Ebola has anything to do with this. We are asking all of our sources, all the authorities. When we know, we will let our viewers know. And it's also important to know that Ebola is not transmitted through the air. It's not transmitted just by touching someone. This is something that is transmitted by bodily fluids.

Are you concerned at all for your safety, or do you feel like, at this point in time, you are fine?

BURCHETT: I feel fine. My concern is if this were something that were highly contagious, we did not seem to have a very good reaction plan. I hope that we fully investigate this and find out how we respond to things like this as a government, because we seemed very uncoordinated in the airport. Many, many people giving directions and sometimes they were conflicting. It really didn't feel like anyone knew exactly how to handle it or how to proceed. So I hope we learn from it.

HARLOW: Rich, tell me a little bit about what other passengers on the plane were doing during all of this. And how they were reacting? I'm assuming you had, you know, young kids up to elderly people.

BURCHETT: The passengers, in the hour and a half, we sit in the plane -- I'm guessing hour and a half -- were actually very patient until right towards the end. The captain was trying to calm people and let them know he could see medical personnel, et cetera. But nothing had been mentioned about why, other than there was a medical emergency. So people were -- they knew that there was more to the story. They were very patient, like I said, until right towards the end, and then people started kind of getting upset. And then finally, one of the flight attendants, or I think it was the first officer maybe, announced that they were waiting on the CDC to board the plane. And then there was kind of a quiet hush that fell across the plane.

HARLOW: Now, sir, I know that you are flying to another state. And, you know, obviously, some of the other passengers are connecting. Were you told anything by authorities about, you know, air travel or any other precautions that you should take? I know they took your contact information down. But told anything else since you are traveling elsewhere?

BURCHETT: No, was not.

HARLOW: OK. We appreciate you joining us, sir, very, very much. I know that we've taken your time. Thank you for telling us all of this. We very much appreciate it.

BURCHETT: You're quite welcome.

HARLOW: You take care.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Well, CNN is proud to announce the top-10 "CNN Heroes" of 2014. Each one gets $25,000 and a shot at the top honor, CNN Hero of the Year. That winner will get an additional $100,000 for their cause, and you help choose CNN's Hero of the Year.

Here is Anderson Cooper to show you how.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, A.C. 360: Now that we've announced the top-10 "CNN Heroes" of 2014, I want to show how you can choose who should be CNN Hero of the Year and receive $100,000 for their cause. Take a look. This is the main page of CNN Heroes.com where you'll see all of the top-10, and you can learn more about each one of them.

Here's how you can vote for your favorite. Once you have decided who inspires you the most, click down here on vote. And then a new page comes up. It shows you all of the top-10 heroes. Choose the person to vote for. I'm going to randomly select, say, Ned Norton over here, just an example. His photo will show up under your selection. And then enter your e-mail address, type in the security code and click on the vote button down there. It's even easier to vote on Facebook. Just make your selection and click over here. You can vote once a day every day through Sunday, November 16th, with your e-mail address and through Facebook. Just go to CNNheroes.com. And rally your friends by sharing your choice on Facebook or Twitter. We'll reveal your 2014 CNN Hero of the Year on the tribute, a CNN tradition that promises to inspire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Anderson, thank you. You can meet this year's top-10 heroes. Vote for them at

CNNheroes.com. All 10 will be honored at "CNN Heroes an All-Star Tribute," hosted by Anderson Cooper. That airs December 7th. And only one will be named CNN Hero of the Year.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, a story we're watching closely. An ultimatum from the government to protesters: Clear out by Monday, or else.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: At least 20 demonstrators were arrested today in the city's central district. Protest leaders called off talks to the government after demonstrations turned violate Friday and more than 50 people were injured. Pro-democracy student activists are calling for the resignation of Hong Kong's leader, their chief executive, and the right to choose their own candidates for office. Right now, candidates are chosen by Beijing.

And a rare sighting today on the diplomatic front. Top North Korean officials, including the country's military leader, paying a surprise visit to South Korea. And a message from the North that it is willing to hold more high-level talks in a few weeks.

An even more rare sighting lately, Kim Jong-Un. The North Korean leader has not been seen in public for a month. Officials say he is suffering from discomfort. The last time he was seen, he had gained weight and was walking with a limp.

I'm Poppy Harlow, in New York. Thanks for joining me this evening. I'll see you back here one hour from now.

But "SMERCONISH" starts in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)