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Why Are Potential Ebola Cases Traveling Freely?; Pentagon Holds News Conference On ISIS; Obama To Name Former White House Insider Ebola Czar; Ron Klain To Lead U.S. Ebola Response

Aired October 17, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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


ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, I'm Ana Cabrera in for Carol today. Thanks again for joining me and Happy Friday to you.

We begin this hour in Washington. We have live pictures of the Pentagon where officials are getting ready to discuss the very latest in the fight against ISIS. And we're expecting to hear from someone who's actually been really pretty quiet up until now, Army General Lloyd Austin. He is in charge of U.S. Central Command, which is, of course, spearheading the operations in both Iraq and Syria.

In recent days, we've seen increased air strikes raining down on militant targets. It has helped to push back ISIS fighters especially in that key Syrian border town of Kobani. We'll continue to monitor this news conference. We'll bring you the latest just as soon as we learn more. But we want to let you know we are watching that closely.

We're also following more developments in the nation's fight against Ebola. Nina Pham, one of the two nurses who were infected with Ebola at a Dallas hospital, she is waking up this morning in Maryland.

Overnight, she arrived at the National Institutes of Health where she will be treated by a team of infectious disease experts in one of those special bio-containment units.

For the very first time, we're getting a look at her recovery. It's positive. Listen to this exchange with her doctor that was recorded on video.

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CABRERA: Even see her smile in that video. There are concerns, however, that the second sick nurse, Amber Vinson, could have developed symptoms earlier than originally thought. So this means she could have exposed hundreds of other people aboard her flight to Ohio.

The first flight she took on and then, of course, those who boarded later flights on the same airplane. Just minutes ago, we learned that a U.S. Marine on her flight to Dallas has now placed himself in voluntary quarantine.

And Carnival Cruiselines confirms that a passenger on one of its ships is under watch and in isolation, she is the health care worker who may have handled lab specimens at that hospital in dealing with Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola victim to die on U.S. soil.

Carnival says this passenger is still showing no signs of an infection. So lots to talk about, we begin with Rene Marsh, CNN's aviation and government regulations correspondent joining us from Washington.

Rene, fill us in on the cruise ship situation. Obviously it doesn't sound good when people are that close of quarters and for so long.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. It doesn't come anyone who is on board that cruise ship. But here's what we know so far, a lab worker from the Dallas hospital where the Ebola patient, Thomas Duncan, received treatment is now under quarantine on board that Carnival cruise ship in Belize.

Now she did not have direct contact with Duncan, but she did test his fluid samples. She boarded the ship for vacation on October 12th, that's before she was notified of updated monitoring requirements.

We are hearing from the cruiseline this morning, this is a quote from them in a statement. They're saying "at no point in time has the individual exhibited any symptoms or signs of infection and it has been 19 days since she was in the lab with these testing samples. She's deemed by the CDC to be very low risk."

We do know the incubation period for Ebola, we've been told all along, 21 days so she's been out of that lab for 19 days now. We know a doctor on board the ship checked her out, but in the meantime, the cruise ship, they are taking some steps of their own.

They're putting restrictions in place for future passengers and here's what that includes. They will not be allowed to board if they have been in Sierra Leone or Guinea or Liberia in the last 21 days. Also passengers may have to answer health questions and they could be asked to undergo further medical screening -- Ana.

CABRERA: So we don't want to raise too much of an alarm over this current situation. Again, that person is in isolation, but on the other side of what we've learned this morning is airline risk and the fact there was now perhaps a whole other flight of people who could have been at risk of contracting this virus from Amber Vinson.

What do you know about the search for those people who were exposed and kind of letting them know about the potential risk that's out there?

MARSH: Right. So let's reset. This is all coming or stemming from information that we heard yesterday that she may have had symptoms earlier than first thought. That being said, the airline, Frontier Airline, is now notifying anywhere between 700 to 800 passengers linked to flights Amber Vinson took.

Now that included her trip from Dallas to Cleveland and then back to Dallas, but in addition to that, they're going beyond that. They're also notifying people who may not have been on her flight, but they were on the same plane for five later flights.

You are looking at some of those flights there. There were stops in Fort Lauderdale and Atlanta. Again, airlines saying, this is out of an abundance of caution. They believe the risk to all of these passengers is very low.

But what they're doing is letting these people know "you were on board this plane." If you need numbers they're giving them CDC numbers, they're giving them numbers to the health department as well and answering any questions these passengers may have -- Ana.

CABRERA: All right, Rene Marsh in Washington, thank you.

So how concerned should we be that some workers who had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan are traveling relatively freely? Here with some perspective, Dr. Celine Gounder, she is an infectious diseases and public health specialist. Dr. Gounder, thanks so much. Should staff be traveling?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND PUBLIC HEALTH SPECIALIST: I think if somebody has had exposure to a patient with Ebola especially health care workers who had exposure to a lot of bodily fluids, they really should not be traveling.

CDC should have put these persons on a "do not board" list and, frankly, the local health department, and this is under their jurisdiction, should have quarantined these persons and just like Thomas Eric Duncan's fiance and her family members, enforced that with law enforcement officials.

CABRERA: Why is Ebola just such a mysterious illness that we're seeing kind of a panic reacting to it? We've obviously dealt with other infectious diseases.

GOUNDER: Well, I think Ebola has a particular fear factor so to speak. We've made movies about it and people recall the images from those movies "Outbreak," "Contagion," those kinds of things. It's also scary because it is a highly deadly disease and people don't really understand the details of how Ebola spreads and what it does to the human body.

CABRERA: What would be your advice to the passengers who are on airplanes, specifically those couple of airplanes as well as this new cruise ship that we're learning about?

GOUNDER: Right. The CDC is most concerned about nine passengers who were on the plane with Amber Vinson. Those nine were within 3 feet of her. So the reason they have drawn this radius, essentially, of 3 feet is that Ebola spreads through contact, direct contact as well as contact with bodily fluids that includes droplets.

So droplets can spread up to 3 feet from the person who's emitting them into the air. That said, the most common way somebody with Ebola would be spreading droplets is if they're vomiting and she was not vomiting.

CABRERA: All right, Dr. Celine Gounder, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate your expertise.

GOUNDER: My pleasure.

CABRERA: Still to come now, right here, we're going to go live to the Pentagon updating reporters at this hour. This is Rear Admiral John Kirby speaking to reporters now, let's listen in.

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Sir, I'll turn it over to you. I will be moderating after the general's opening statement so I'll call on you, please identify who you're with before you ask the question. Thanks.

GENERAL LLOYD AUSTIN, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: Good morning, everyone. I'll make brief opening comments and then answer your questions. Three weeks ago, we began conducting offensive precision strikes inside of Syria. Prior to that, the strikes conducted in Iraq were limited to the protection of U.S. personnel and key facilities and the prevention of human suffering.

The intent of the expanded airstrikes is to degrade ISIL's capability and their ability to threaten U.S. interests and the interests of our partners. More specifically, we are enabling the efforts of the Iraqis in their fight against ISIL.

Acknowledging that in addition to halting ISIL's advance, the Iraqis must secure the border, they must regenerate and restructure their forces to ensure that they are able to provide for the sovereignty of their country going forward, and this represents our main focus right now enabling the efforts of the Iraqis.

With respect to the airstrikes and together with our coalition partners we are purposely and necessarily targeting very specific capabilities, again, with the intent to degrade the enemy's ability to command and control, to degrade his ability to project combat power and to degrade his ability to sustain himself.

We've conducted precision strikes, for example, targeting ISIL's communications equipment and hardware, their command centers and their vehicle parks and tanks and Humvees which is were stolen from the Iraqi army as well as oil refineries, which are now under ISIL's control.

ISIL derives significant revenue from oil production and so by striking these types of facilities we reduce their ability to generate the funds and the fuel required to sustain their operations. We are having the desired effects.

We're seeing evidence of this not only in our battle-damage assessment but, more important, we're noting changes in the enemy's behavior and tactics that reflect his diminished capability and restricted freedom of movement. For example, we're no longer seeing them move around the country in large convoys.

Now they're mostly traveling in civilian vehicles and smaller numbers. This is hindering their ability to mass and to shift combat power. We've also seen them alter their methods of communication, which is inhibiting their ability to coordinate and synchronize their efforts.

And so we are having the desired effects, but this will take some time. But also note that we've been very careful in how we've gone about conducting strikes because we want to avoid unnecessary collateral damage.

Had we killed a lot of innocent civilians and specifically in Sunni areas, I think it's fair to say that we would be in a much different place at this point, but because we've done this the right way, we've secured the support of our Sunni Arab partners in the region.

CABRERA: All right, we've been listening in to a press conference at the Pentagon. The man you are looking at there is General Austin. He is the commander of the U.S. Central Command in this battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

Basically the headliner there is he believes that the airstrikes are having an impact and the proof of that is in that ISIS is changing its tactics. Ultimately the goal here in this first at least strategic point here is to give more control to Iraqi forces, more control to the leadership in Iraq so that country can become stable.

We have breaking news right now on the Ebola crisis. President Obama now we know has named an Ebola czar, Ron Plain, we believe. Chief Washington correspondent, host of CNN's "THE LEAD" Jake Tapper is joining me now. Jake, tell us more about it.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Ana, that's right. Sources tell me that President Obama will appoint Ron Klain to be the Ebola czar. That's the one individual coordinating the federal response to Ebola.

Ron Klain, of course, first came to national prominence as the chief of staff for Vice President Al Gore. He headed Mr. Gore's effort in Florida during the recount. He's gone on to be a successful investment banker and also he's very well regarded in the Obama White House for his stint both as Vice President Biden's chief of staff.

And also as the person who supervised the stimulus act, the distribution of funds, which at the time was a massive federal government undertaking that in retrospect people forget there was a lot of fraud, the money would be going to lots of corrupt places.

And in retrospect it is very well regarded in terms of the distribution of funds, the stimulus, even if people disagree with the bill itself. Ron Klain will be named the Ebola czar.

The president had been resisting calls for someone specific individual to head up the response, the White House earlier in the week talking about how they were comfortable with the management structure they had in place.

The president's top Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco and also the CDC head, Dr. Frieden and also the Secretary of Health and Human Services Burwell, all of them had been working on the Ebola response, but last night President Obama signaled an openness to appoint somebody, who would be the one individual just focused on Ebola.

Obviously individuals at the CDC have many issues they talk about including the flu and other viruses in this country so Ron Klain will be appointed by President Obama. We're breaking that news right here on CNN -- Ana.

CABRERA: Any idea when there will be an official announcement, Jake?

TAPPER: My understanding is that it will be either today or tomorrow. The fact that I'm breaking this probably expedites the matter a little bit. They weren't planning on announcing it this morning, but my understanding is it will be within the next day or so.

CABRERA: All right, Jake Tapper staying on top of it. Bring us any updates you get. Thank you so much.

We're covering all angles for you now. We have a whole panel of experts with us. Joining me senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns, and also with us CNN senior political analyst, David Gergen, public health specialist, Dr. Celine Grounder and CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Joe Johns, David Gergen, Sanjay Gupta and, again, Celine Gounder, OK, let's talk about what this means from a medical perspective. Sanjay, we'll start with you and your reaction first of all to this announcement.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, as Jake mentioned, we've been talking about the idea that somebody who could sort of work at the executive level of government, but not always through formal channels to get things done with regard to Ebola.

Maybe a person like that would be necessary as we've brought in this notion of airline travel and other things and, you know, it seems like much more than a local health issue and obviously it's consumed attention of many people within the government.

Ron Klain, interestingly enough, as Jake has mentioned, has done a lot of interesting things. People may also remember him -- I don't know if Jake said this, but he was very involved with the recount back in 2000. In fact was part of that.

His character was portrayed by Kevin Spacey in that movie "Recount." But he's been around for a long time. He was involved with the company that primarily worked on health, Revolution Health, Steve Case's company and he had some interest in the work that Steve Case was doing with regard to consumer health.

So he's still a lawyer, a governmental person, but has had that background as well. And, you know, a czar overall probably a necessary thing given all that we've heard about Ebola, recently.

CABRERA: Right, Sanjay, stay with me and also Dr. Gounder, stay with me. We have some more breaking news and we want to take our viewers out to Secretary Kerry, who is speaking about Ebola right now. Let's listen in.

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: -- that's why we're allocating up to one billion more for our armed forces for this purpose. That's why we're creating 17 Ebola treatment units and providing support right now for the mobile laboratories in the communications infrastructure.

We are using every instrument of American power in order to try to get this job done. As many of you know, I have been making a number of phone calls each day to my counterparts from your countries in order to encourage concrete steps.

And we've been raising this issue in every single bilateral meeting that I have, but we know that nothing that one, two, three countries do together will solve it. We have to all be engaged in this.

There is no country that is exempt from being able to do something to be able to contribute to this effort and help make a difference. And everything we do depends on how we coordinate our efforts as partners and how we contribute together.

Now already we are seeing nations large and small stepping up in impressive ways to making a contribution on the front lines. Timor has donated $2 million. Cuba, a country of just 11 million people has sent 165 health professionals and it plans to send nearly 300 more.

We want to thank France for committing 70 million euro and for their response in Guinea where they've taken on special responsibilities. And we want to thank the United Kingdom for the Ebola treatment units that they are building in Sierra Leone.

And Germany has significantly stepped up its efforts including offering their facilities to treat health care workers. The European Union is organizing medevac capacity and contributing 140 million euro and the World Bank and IMF have committed more than $678 million.

The African Union is moving to send trained emergency responders to West Africa. But no matter what we have already committed, it is clear, every one of us that we have to do more and we have to do it quickly.

So of the one billion in needs, there are estimated by the U.N. I regret to say we are barely a third of the way there. If we don't adequately address this current outbreak now then Ebola the potential to become a scourge like HIV or polio and we will end up fighting all of us for decades.

We shouldn't kid ourselves. Winning this fight is going to be costly. It is going to take all of our efforts and it is not risk free. Nobody knows that better than the health care workers on the front lines right now.

Whatever the differences there are between us in this room on one issue or another, on one attitude or another, the fact is everyone I know respects and admires the courage of any health care worker who is undertaking this challenge.

So let's make sure that those health care workers aren't hanging out there by themselves. Let's make sure that we're pulling together the resources, the equipment, the commitment, the cash, the support their efforts and let's make sure that their courage is motivating us every step of the way.

For these men and women to succeed, they need nothing less than our full commitment, which is why we've asked you to come forward here today. This is a matter of real people, real lives, in countries that were beginning to take off.

Countries that were beginning to see the future and feel it and suddenly they've been hit by this. This engages all of us and it is a real test of global citizenship. So today in this room we have a unique opportunity to try to come together to make important --

CABRERA: We're going to step away from this press conference, but we got the headlines there. This is Secretary of State John Kerry making a public call to action to the international community to do more in the fight against Ebola.

He talked about how a billion dollars is needed. Only a third of that funding has already been put forward so they have a long ways to go on that. He said thanks basically to the U.K., Germany and the handful of other countries who have taken action in sending their people there and helping to build Ebola treatment facilities, in providing medical supplies.

But there's still a long way to go and we spoke with the world health organization spokesman the other day. He said of 193 countries in the U.N., only 12 to 15 of them have come forward with some kind of help and assistance in this.

Of course, Ebola is a huge health crisis and we're seeing today breaking news on that front here in our country with the president now naming an Ebola czar.

Jake Tapper is breaking this news, working his sources. Let's go back to him. Jake, you have more information for us, right?

TAPPER: That's right. I have some direct information from a White House official and pardon me if I just read this. It's coming on my iPhone. The president has asked Ron Klain to take the task of coordinating his administration's whole of government Ebola response.

We're calling it an Ebola czar, but the actual title is Ebola response coordinator. Klain will report directly to the president's Homeland Security advisor, Lisa Monaco, and the president's National Security advisor, Susan Rice.

As he ensures the efforts to protect the American people by detecting, isolating and treating Ebola patients are integrated, but don't distract from the aggressive commitment to stopping Ebola at the source in West Africa. Klain's role is consistent with the view the president

articulated in the oval office last night, that Monaco, Rice and others have done an outstanding work in confronting this challenge so far.

But given their management of national and homeland security priorities, additional bandwidth will further enhance the government's Ebola response. As I mentioned earlier, Ron Klain, who has worked for the administration, well regarded for his work as Vice President Biden's chief of staff overseeing the stimulus funds.

Also he's well regarded in the Obama White House for his relationships within the Obama administration and also on Capitol Hill so he will be the Ebola czar. He does not have any extensive health care background. I asked about that.

I'm told that this is perceived largely as a managerial job not as one requiring a great deal of health care expertise. It's one making sure that the trains run on time, making sure that the CDC has the support it needs. HHS has the support it needs.

But there's a political dimension to this. The administration has been under fire to a degree, Ana, for its response to the Ebola crisis and whether or not CDC has been doing everything. This is an acknowledgment that more help is needed.

The president saying, yes, Lisa Monaco, his Homeland Security advisor has been doing a great job. Yes, Dr. Susan Rice, his national security advisor, doing a great job, but yes, in addition, they need an Ebola response coordinator, an Ebola czar.

There have been calls on Capitol Hill from both Democrats and Republicans for one point person and now we are learning that person will be Ron Klain, former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden.

CABRERA: All right, Jay, that is a very detailed update for us. Again, Ron Klain, the new guy in charge of the Ebola response right here. Let's bring in our panel and expand this conversation.

We have CNN senior political analyst, David Gergen with us. We have CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta with us, also Joe Johns in Washington, standing by to give us some more color and insight and context to this person and this new job of the Ebola czar.

Let's go to David Gergen. I'm curious to get your take in terms of sort of why we're seeing the president make this move now, David. Is it him buckling under the pressure to appoint somebody, do you think?

DAVID GERGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST (via telephone): No, I think he's responding to the public's very strong clamor to see a government that is in charge and in control of the situation. Americans are not panicked about Ebola, but they are very anxious to have the government on top of it.

And this administration given the context of the last few months cannot afford to have a bumbling response in the weeks ahead. They need someone to coordinate. Ron Klain is an excellent candidate. He's strong, he's tough. He's very tough. It's important in this job.

To be a coordinator you have to knock heads together occasionally. He's tough enough to do that. He's very bright. What's also interesting is he has both the foreign policy portfolio and the domestic portfolio because he's reporting both to Susan Rice and to the head of Homeland Security.

What I think is also striking is because he's not a health care specialist, that suggests very strongly he will not be the spokesman of this. The administration does need someone who can be out front. They don't have that right now.

The fellow who runs CDC, Tom Frieden, the doctor who is excellent, but he has stumbled here a couple of times, he's not as a strong as a spokesman as they need. If you think back to 9/11, what was so important about leadership after that?

It was Rudy Giuliani stepping forward and being the spokesman for the country that made such a difference calming people. When we go to war, the Pentagon now has a whole trained cadre of generals appearing on television to calm people and let people know what's going on.

The administration still needs that. I don't see Ron Klain playing that role, I think he'll be the inside guy, but a very, very good choice for that purpose.

CABRERA: All right, David Gergen, a positive assessment of this new development, we appreciate your time. Everybody stay with us. We have to squeeze in a quick break, but on the backside, we'll talk more about this appointment of an Ebola czar. Why somebody who doesn't have necessarily a health care background, we'll discuss this when we come back.

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CABRERA: Welcome back. Our continuing breaking news on the Ebola crisis, the latest development this morning is the White House has now named an Ebola czar, that man is Ron Klain who will be at the helm of this Ebola response coordination now nationally here. He is a man who has a lot of experience in Washington as the first -- the chief of staff that is for our VP, Al Gore, and now VP Joe Biden.