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One Dallas Ebola Patient to Be Flown to Atlanta; CDC Phone Conference with Dr. Frieden; Interview wiith Rep. Michael Burgerss; CDC Ebola Update; Ebola Patient Flown to Atlanta; Dow Drops

Aired October 15, 2014 - 13:00   ET

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

DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: I will just say that the second patient, as well as the first, had extensive contact with the patient when they were having substantial amounts of both vomiting and diarrhea. The assessment of the team is that in those first several days in the hospital, a variety of forms of personal protective equipment were used. There are several ways to do -- to use personal protective equipment safely. It's critical that that be done consistently and correctly. And that's one of the areas of the active investigation.

HOLLY: Our next question is from David Lefkowitz (ph) with Fox News. Your line is open.

DAVID LICOWITZ, FOX NEWS: Thanks for taking the call. I'm curious if you can go into some more detail how this nurse was able to get on an aircraft and not being monitored or quarantined if she had been in contact with the patient, the index patient, Thomas Duncan, in Texas?

HOLLY: Director Frieden, do you want to speak to that?

FRIEDEN: The patient traveled to Ohio before it was known that the first health care worker was ill. At that point, that patient, as well as the rest of the health care team, were undergoing self- monitoring, as the first health care worker did, resulting in her rapid isolation. The health care work -- the second health care worker reported no symptoms and no fever. However, because at that point she was in a group of individuals known to have exposure to Ebola, she should not have traveled on a commercial airline. The CDC guidance, in this setting, outlines the need for what is called controlled movement. That can include a charter plane. That can include a car. But it does not include public transport. We will, from this moment forward, ensure that no other individual who's being monitored for exposure undergoes travel in any way other than controlled movement.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next question, Holly.

HOLLY: Thank you. It comes from Arthur Delaney with "Huffington Post." Your line is open.

ARTHUR DELANEY, "HUFFINGTON POST": Hi, thanks for doing the call. National Nurses United said yesterday they talked to nurses at the hospital and that they don't think any protocols are really in place or are being followed there or anywhere. And I wondered if CDC would respond to that more directly than it has.

FRIEDMAN: We are working closely with the hospital. We have staff there around the clock. There are intensive efforts underway to train, retrain and supervise staff. The single most effective -- the single most important way to get consistency is a site manager. And we have now ensured that 24-7, there will be a site manager who will monitor how personal protective equipment is put on, taken off and what's done when people are in it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would just add two things. One is that we have two nurses from Emory who have gone to Dallas who are experts in the treatment, and they are doing peer-to-peer training to help that issue with regard to the nurses. I think the second thing, that I think is an important thing, is we hear and understand what the nurses' (INAUDIBLE) concerns and want to make sure and we are doing a lot of communication. The call that I mentioned at the beginning with clinicians, we'll be doing another call from our assistant secretary for preparedness and Dr. Mary Wakefield who is a nurse herself, a senior leadership member here at HHS call with nurses.

In addition, I would say one of the things that's just so important is front-line health care workers, whether it's those health care workers that are in the emergency room or those that are doing intake. What is so important at that first line is for everyone to know at the point at which they see a fever, ask a travel history. And I'm mentioning it here and in this call and in this conversation, because we want to use every means we can by which we communicate to help address some of the educational issues that have been raised.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next question, Holly.

HOLLY: Thank you. That comes from Julie Steenhuysen with Reuters. Your line is open.

JULIE STEENHUYSEN, REUTERS: Yes, thanks for this call. I'm trying to understand what kinds of -- it sounds like the PPE that was worn by these two health care workers was not necessarily the same kind. But what were they actually wearing? Were they -- you know, there has -- there have been some reports that their necks were exposed, for example. Were they wearing, you know, full bodysuits or were they just wearing gowns and gloves? Single gloves or double gloves? I mean, it's an -- you know, these questions are being looked at by a lot of other hospitals who are trying to decide how to protect their own staff, so it's really important to know exactly what they were wearing and, you know, what people can do.

FRIEDEN: So, when we've reviewed the records for the first several days of the patient's stay before he was diagnosed, there -- we see a lot of variability in the use of personal protective equipment. And when our team arrived the same day the patient was diagnosed, we noted, for example, that some health care workers were putting on three or four layers of protective equipment in the belief that this would be more protective. But other things were done, such as taping parts of their protective gear, again, in the belief that this would be more protective. And we certainly understand the fear and the anxiety that's normal and understanded -- and understandable. These are good, dedicated people who worried about themselves and their families, and they were trying to protect themselves better. But, in fact, by putting on more layers of gloves or other protective clothing, it becomes much harder to put them on. It becomes much harder to take them off. And the risk of contamination during the process of taking these gloves off gets much higher. That's true for several different areas of the body.

I think, you know, more broadly, if I could comment, I know the issue of PPE has gotten a lot of focus. There are several right ways to do it. What we have always emphasized is that health care workers who are using familiar PPE in familiar ways are more likely to do it right. So, we're looking at this. We're working with the hospital, and we will absolutely look at what are the ways to provide the maximum possible support to health care workers and allow them to do their jobs by minimizing their risk of contamination? I don't know if Secretary Burwell would like to add anything?

BURWELL: No, no. Thank you, Tom.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Question, Holly.

HOLLY: Thank you. That comes from Kelly Gilblom (ph) with "The Bloomberg News." Your line is open.

KELLY GILBLOM, "THE BLOOMBERG NEWS": Hi, thank you for taking my question. First of all, I was wondering which patient was going to be transferred from Emory and whether it was just one? I just want to clarify it. And also, are there any other people who are health care workers who are among these that are currently being tested or are currently being isolated or at the hospital with Ebola symptoms?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dr. Frieden, do you want to answer that or would you like --

FRIEDEN: So, the second health care worker is the individual who is being transferred from Dallas to Emory. And we continue to assess anyone who has symptoms. We encourage people to come forward at the slightest concern. We are not currently -- we have not currently identified anyone who we feel merits a blood test to see if they have Ebola. We are continuing to monitor closely. And as with many parts of this investigation and this response, this can change from minute to minute and hour to hour.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next question, Holly.

HOLLY: Thank you, that comes from Betsy McKay with "The Wall Street Journal." Your line is open.

BETSY MCKAY, "THE WALL STREET JOURNAL": Hi, yes, thanks very much. Just a couple of quick questions. Did you say the first patient will be transferred elsewhere? And if so, could you give us a little more detail on that? And secondly, I wanted to go back to the movement of the health care workers. Dr. Frieden, you said you'll ensure that no -- none of the others who are being monitored will be -- will be able to travel. What powers are in place for that to happen and what exactly are the rules and the legal authority right now to prevent them from going anywhere or leaving home or whatever the level of quarantine is?

FRIEDEN: Well, with regard to the first patient, the report from the hospital is that she is in improved condition today. We will assess each hour each day whether that's the best place for her or somewhere else might be. In terms of controlled movement, that's something that we work out with the state and local public health authorities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Next question, Holly.

HOLLY: That comes from Janet St. James with WFAA T.V. Dallas. Your line is open. Janet, please check your mute button. Your line is open.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, Holly, let's go to the next question, please.

HOLLY: Thank you, one moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holly, next question.

HOLLY: Yes, thank you, I apologize. One moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holly, do we have questions coming?

HOLLY: Yes, we do, sir. Just one moment. I apologize.

BLITZER: All right. So, we're going to continue to monitor what's going on at this news conference, only -- audio-only with Dr. Thomas Frieden, the director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Sylvia Burwell, the secretary of Health and Human Resources. I want to quickly bring in our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our Chief Medical Correspondent. Sanjay, for our viewers who are just tuning in here in the United States and around the world, update us on what we've just learned because it's pretty dramatic stuff.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is. It is fairly dramatic stuff. We know that a second, first of all, patient has been diagnosed with Ebola, another health care worker, at that same hospital. And it's a person who had extensive contact, as it was described, with Mr. Duncan. If you remember, he was the first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola. So, this is a nurse, sounds like, that was infected and it sounds like is ill. Doing OK but pretty ill. And remember, she was just diagnosed over the last several hours. So, it sounds like she has progressed a bit over the last several hours.

I think what is most salient here, Wolf, is that she is going to be transferred, it sounds like, to the Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Now, this is something that has come up back and forth. You remember what Dr. Frieden said, hospitals anywhere in the country should be able to take care of these patients. This patient, the second patient now diagnosed, is going to go to Emory University Hospital. The first nurse is still in the hospital over there in Dallas is going to stay there for the time being. They say she's doing better and she's going to stay there. But the second patient, again, just diagnosed over the last several hours, apparently is ill and they have made that decision to transfer her.

So, that's a pretty big decision, Wolf. Again, they sort of intimated a week ago that this sort of thing would not be happening. But it is changing now. The protocols and the procedures and the plan -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Is it a vote of no confidence? Should we see this as a vote of no confidence in the Dallas Hospital that they might not necessarily be up to the task?

GUPTA: You know, what's striking to me is, again, keep in mind, there is no specific treatment for a patient with Ebola. There's not some sort of magic wand that Emory is going to have to say, oh, we got this potion over here that we can help, with regard to Ebola. So, I don't sense that it's a treatment issue as much. You can give blood transfusions. You can even give the experimental medications, if they're available.

What is so striking to me is the no confidence seems to be that if a patient is ill with Ebola, we're not entirely sure we can protect other health care workers in that hospital. And that is striking to me, Wolf. They have done such a good job, for example, the Doctors Without Borders, in very remote areas in Africa. Yet at Texas Presbyterian Hospital, a very good hospital, a hospital with a long track record of success in so many areas, what you seem to hear from this press conference is that they're saying, we're not sure that they can keep their health care workers safe if they have a patient with Ebola. And that is -- that is highly disappointing, I think, for a lot of people -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And now these two nurses contracted Ebola from Mr. Duncan who passed away last week. And what is very frightful -- Sanjay, give us some perspective. You heard Dr. Frieden, head of the CDC, suggest, you know what? There may be more on the way.

GUPTA: Well, you know, the fact that the -- these two health care workers were sort of a passive surveillance. They had exposures but were sort of told to monitor their temperature. And then, it was only after the first nurse got sick that they went back and said, well, wait a second now. Maybe we should be a little bit more vigilant about these other people. You know, it sort of speaks to that point. Are these other people more at risk? What exactly caused the infection? And if we don't know the answer to what exactly caused the infection, how do we know that these other health care workers aren't at risk?

They also -- he also talked about the fact, Wolf, that the second health care worker, her name's Amber Vinson, got on this plane, flew to Cleveland. Three days later, flew back to Dallas. And that very act seemed to violate CDC protocol. CDC recommends only what is known as controlled movement after someone has had an exposure to Ebola. They can get in a car, they can be on a charter plane but no commercial flights. This was a violation. And that, again, is a huge problem. There's just misstep after misstep after misstep, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: It certainly sounds like that. Sanjay, I want you to stand by. I want to go back to Dr. Frieden, the news conference. I want to pick up the Q&A.

All right, unfortunately, I think we've got a problem listening to that news conference. We'll monitor it.

Elizabeth Cohen, our senior medical correspondent, is with us.

Elizabeth, walk us through this second nurse, Amber Vinson. We know Nina Pham, the first nurse, she seems to be doing better. The second nurse now that contracted Ebola from the first patient who died, the man from Liberia, she's going to be transferred, airlifted to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. Walk us through, did -- was she endangered as a result of the same kind of treatment she provided Mr. Duncan that the first nurse, Nina Pham, provided?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It certainly sounds that way, Wolf. What we heard is that both of these nurses, Nina Pham and Amber Vinson, gave care around the September 28th to 30th time period. And to not be too graphic, we were told by Dr. Frieden that this was a time when Mr. Duncan was putting out copious amounts of bodily fluid. That is the danger. Remember, Ebola patients have lots of bodily fluids coming out of them. It splatters on those garments. You know, Sanjay has shown us so explicitly, taking off soiled garments is really hard without contaminating yourself.

As far as her being moved to Emory, Wolf, I think it's an interesting question, who instigated that move? Did Amber Vinson or her family say, hey, we would really like her to go to Emory? Or perhaps did a state or local or federal official say to this hospital, enough is enough, we really think you ought to move her? Or did the hospital itself say, you know what, we think she'd be better off elsewhere? I'd be really curious to know who instigated this move.

BLITZER: Well, all the patients, I think there have been five that have been treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta and the University of Nebraska Hospital in Omaha, all of them have recovered. They have recovered. And, unfortunately, we've got a problem that we're seeing at the hospital in Dallas, right, Elizabeth?

COHEN: That's right. So there were five patients who were seen between Nebraska and Emory. Together those two hospitals treated five patients. They had no deaths and significantly no health care workers got sick. One patient is treated here. Two health care workers sick. Doctors Without Borders, Sanjay was saying what an incredible job they've done. They have treated more than 2,000 Ebola patients and two of their health care workers got sick. So more than 2,000 patients, two health care workers got sick. This hospital treats one patient and two health care workers get sick.

BLITZER: Stand by, Elizabeth, I'm going to bring you back. Sanjay is standing by. Gloria Borger, our chief political analyst, is with me as well.

Gloria, the president of the United States, President Obama, now taking dramatic action to underscore that he appreciates how significant this crisis is in the United States. GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, he's not going on a

campaign trip that he was going to go to in New England, Wolf. And instead, at 3:00 this afternoon, he's going to have a cabinet meeting to coordinate the government response among agencies. I mean, obviously, this is a president who is concerned that he needs to look like he is in charge and doing something about this. If you look at the polling that we've seen just today in "The Washington Post" by a two-to-one margin, people believe the government should do more. What's interesting to me is, they actually believe the government would be competent and good at controlling this if it could do more. And I think people at the White House are looking at the optics of whether they should go on a campaign event when there is an anxious public about this new diagnosis. And, obviously, this has become, unfortunately, an issue in the midterm elections.

BLITZER: When you say campaign event, you really mean fund-raising for candidates who are up for election.

BORGER: Fund-raising, exactly, in Connecticut and New Jersey. You know, this has really moved into the realm of the midterm elections. I say unfortunately. Democrats are saying they want to blame the Republicans on this because the problem here is a result of across- the-board budget cuts, which by the way people in both parties allowed to occur. And Republicans are using this as a measure of the president's competency. They're saying, you need to stop these flights in from these three countries in Africa. And they're trying to sort of broaden this as an issue of, is the president competent, is he really in charge? And so, unfortunately, it's playing out in the midterms and the president will -- you'll be seeing pictures of the president today with his cabinet to talk about emergency preparedness.

BLITZER: Cabinet agencies coordinating this Ebola crisis.

BORGER: Exactly. Exactly.

BLITZER: Gloria, stand by. Sanjay, Elizabeth Cohen, I want everyone to stand by. We're going to continue the breaking news coverage. A second patient, another nurse in Dallas, now contracting Ebola. She's about to be airlifted to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Much more of the breaking news right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A second nurse at the Dallas hospital where the Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, passed away last week from Ebola, a second nurse now has contracted the disease. Her name is Amber Vinson. Nina Pham, the first nurse, she's being treated at that hospital. But Amber Vinson will be airlifted to the Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.

We're following the breaking news. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting from Washington. Once again, we want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world.

Let's get some analysis now. Joining us from Capitol Hill, Republican Congressman Michael Burgess of Texas. Congressman, your district just a few miles from the Texas Health

Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas there where this second health care worker has now tested positive for Ebola. We know you're a physician yourself. You actually worked at that hospital at one point. What do you make of this development that they're going to airlift the second nurse to Emory? Because it sounds to me like maybe they don't have confidence that she could get the proper treatment in Dallas, a hospital you're very familiar with.

REP. MICHAEL BURGESS (R), TEXAS: Well, I think we actually talked about this yesterday. And I am in favor of hospitals that have particular expertise, and there are four of them in the country, I am in favor of those being the sites where the care for both patients with Ebola, where that care is delivered. To be sure, every hospital needs to be able to provide the diagnosis and the protection for staff and personnel and the patient. But once that diagnosis is returned, I think serious consideration should be given, apparently just as it was today, to moving that patient to a center.

Now, look, if someone is involved in scientific research and they want to study Ebola, they can't do that at Southern Methodist University. They have to go to one of the intense bio level four labs, like they have down in Galveston. There are certain places in the country where you can work with the Ebola virus, but other labs are off limits. And what is the reason for that? Because if this thing gets away from you, it is so extremely dangerous.

Now, the protective equipment they have in those bio level four labs, it is extremely intense. And some of the graphics I've seen of the personal protective equipment that was being utilized by the personnel and nursing staff at Presbyterian, yes, in retrospect, it's not a surprise that there's been a problem. But in reality, Wolf, I mean, the president went to Emory - or, I'm sorry, went to CDC and said, Ebola's not in the United States, but if it comes, we will be ready. But the fact of the matter is, they weren't. I will tell you, I was very disappointed yesterday afternoon to hear the CDC say, we've got our first team, our first Ebola team going to Dallas. Where were they a week ago? Where were they two weeks ago? This is serious stuff and you can't be dismissive. You can't treat it as business as usual.

BLITZER: What worries me, congressman, is that this hospital in Dallas is an excellent hospital. Has got a world-class reputation.

BURGESS: Yes.

BLITZER: And if they can have blunders like these at this hospital, you can only imagine, God forbid, what could happen at a whole bunch of other hospitals all over the United States if someone walks into the emergency room and they have Ebola. That's a pretty frightful thought.

BURGESS: It is. And would any community hospital be any better prepared than what Presbyterian was on the 26th of September? And I suspect the answer to that is, there are many that would even fall short of where Presbyterian was. But here's the thing. The CDC told us from September 5th on that they had done the notification, they had done the -- they had provided the materials to hospitals around the country so people would be ready. But clearly that was not operational. And just as we talked about yesterday, OK, we are having a real problem with this now in Dallas, Texas. But what we just put the pause on allowing people to come into this country from western Africa, even for a few weeks, to allow the systems here to catch up. I think that would be a wise use of time.

BLITZER: All right, congressman, thank you very much. Congressman Michael Burgess, Republican of Texas, joining us.

BURGESS: Thank you.

BLITZER: We'll continue our conversations.

I want to get back to this story. Obviously a huge crisis involving Ebola. But there's breaking news involving the stock market. The Dow Jones, take a look at this, it's down 453 points right now. Alison Kosik is joining us from New York.

Alison, it's down about 1,000 points in the last week alone. What's going on?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, one analyst puts it to me this way, Wolf. He says, there is this nervous cloud that really is hanging over Wall Street at this point. And another trader telling me, look, this is a rebooting of stocks, responding to what they're seeing and what they're seeing right now is not great. And there are a few things going on here. For one, the data that comes out that describes how the health of the U.S. economy is, that data is mediocre.

Here's the example. Retail sales coming out today down for September. This happening on the cusp of the holiday shopping season, showing consumers are already pulling back. This coupled with the slowdown in economies in the Eurozone, with countries, especially Germany, which is really the driver of growth supposedly in the Eurozone, Germany fighting off a third recession in six years. I'm talking about the Eurozone fighting off a third recession in six years. And then the third prong of this, deflationary worries. And I'm not just talking about in Europe. There are worries about deflation in this country in the U.S. after we got an inflation report that disappointed.