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Nurse in Quarantine in New Jersey to be Released; Suburban Seattle Community in Mourning; 'Controlled Monitoring' for an Army Team

Aired October 27, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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


ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello, thank you so much for joining me. We begin with two big breaking news stories.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

COSTELLO (voice-over): First, in the past 30 minutes, we've learned that the nurse Kaci Hickox, she was under mandatory quarantine at a New Jersey hospital, well, she'll get to go home soon to Maine. She spent the weekend in isolation, despite testing negative for Ebola twice after returning home from West Africa where she was helping fight that deadly disease.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

COSTELLO (on camera): Alexandra Field joins us now from Newark, outside of the hospital Hickox will leave soon. So, this doesn't mean her quarantine is lifted, it just means that she's going to be transported by private ambulance back home to Maine, correct?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, she had been fighting very hard to be released from this hospital. She had been told by hospital officials here that she would be kept here for the 21-day quarantine period, but she had consulted attorneys; they were pushing for her release, and now the New Jersey Department of Health is saying that she will in fact be released from this hospital.

However, while she is in the state of New Jersey, the quarantine order remains in place. That's why she's being taken privately back to Maine. But what this also means that Maine now has to deal with the issue of Ebola and what their policies and procedures would be. This nurse has tested negative twice. They say she's been symptom free since she was tested on Saturday morning, but it will be up to officials in her home state of Maine to determine what their policy is. Whether or not they will enforce any kind of quarantine for her when she arrives back there. But as long as she is in this state, health officials here say she will still be kept quarantined. Carol.

COSTELLO: So the private ambulance that will transport her, is it equipped to deal with Ebola patients?

FIELD: Well, look, the senior state officials in New York and New Jersey have said repeatedly that their states were prepared to deal with any threat or possibility of Ebola, and these patients who are suspected cases are only taken to facilities that are, we're told, prepared to handle these things. So yes, you have to believe at this point that every proper procedure would be followed. This hospital says that they've been working closely with CDC officials to monitor Kaci Hickox.

So, yes, it seems she will be taken, kept quarantined, and then brought back to Maine where decisions will have to be made about her treatment from that point. But this is a woman who has said repeatedly that she felt her rights were being violated based on the fact that she was being kept here. She said she didn't understand it from the very beginning when she returned to Newark, New Jersey, after leaving the hot zone in West Africa, where she had been working with Ebola patients. She was screened at the hospital, which is now the procedure in this state and at four other airports. She was symptom free, we're told, when she had arrived at the airport. But at some point, health officials say, she developed a fever, which is why they bought her here. She had been adamant that she is not sick, and again, she's tested negative twice for the Ebola virus.

COSTELLO: OK. So stay right there, Alexandra. I want to bring Elizabeth Cohen in, because she actually talked to Kaci Hickox over the weekend. And first of all, she'll be transported to Maine. We don't quite know what is going to happen to her once she gets there. You say she lives out in the middle of nowhere in Maine, right?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: She told me she lives near the Canadian border in Fort Kent, Maine. So that's a far cry from -- that is a long drive. It's a good question. Are they extending her an ambulance with guys in the hazmat suits on? She doesn't have Ebola. I want to say it again, she doesn't have Ebola.

COSTELLO: But she's in isolation.

COHEN: I know. At some point, it just stops making a lot of sense.

COSTELLO: So what do you suppose will happen in Maine, and has Maine thought about this? We don't even know -- we've been trying to get a hold of the Maine health department and we cannot.

COHEN: OK. So the CDC starting today said, look, anyone coming back from West Africa, a health care worker, whoever, needs to have daily contact with someone with the state or local health department. So if they're following what the CDC says, one of their workers will call her or maybe he will want to visit her and say, hey, how are you feeling, how are you feeling? Maybe they'll want to take her temperatures. I don't know if they'll make her stay at home. Maine has not issued quarantine orders as far as we know. So my guess is she'll just get those daily phone calls or daily visits and watch her health, all of that.

COSTELLO: So in the meantime, there's a little boy right now in the New York City Hospital, Bellevue, who has being tested for Ebola. What more do you know about that? COHEN: Right. What we know about him is that he's recently come back from Guinea. He's five years old, and he has a fever, and so they were trying to figure out, was he exposed to anyone with Ebola in Guinea? But figuring that out is tough. I don't really know how you would absolutely, positively know that. But at any rate, at first they weren't going to test him for Ebola, now we're hearing that they are going to test him. We'll know results within 12 hours.

COSTELLO: OK. So the family won't have long to wait to know whether or not he tested positive for Ebola. But he has a high fever, right?

COHEN: He does. But you can have a high fever from many, many things.

COSTELLO: Especially if you're 5 years old.

COHEN: Right. You know how many times my 5-year-old -- right.

COSTELLO: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much. I want to bring in now Gavin MacGregor-Skinner, he is an infectious disease specialist. He's led teams working with Ebola patients in West Africa. Welcome, sir.

GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: Good morning.

COSTELLO: I'm glad you're here. In the past you've told members of your team to tell the truth when they return from West Africa, when they come back to the United States. Now you say I can no longer tell my team to tell the truth. That's disturbing to some, why do you say that?

MACGREGOR-SKINNER: Because of what we're focusing on. We're focusing on the disease in West Africa. That's where we have to go to. We have to go to West Africa to prevent that global pandemic.

We need the government of this country and governments of other countries to support the doctors and nurses and everyone else that is involved to get to West Africa and control Ebola there. I'm still talking to my teams on a daily basis. I talk to them on video conferencing, text messaging, cell phones, and they're really, really concerned. They are under a lot of stress at the moment, both physically and mentally. They have nightmares. They're doing the best they can. They want to come back to their families for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and then they want to have a short break and get back to West Africa. They don't want to be locked in their houses for 21 days, and they're now asking me, Gavin, you've always told us to tell the truth, what are you going to tell us to tell now when we come back through those airports in a few weeks time?

COSTELLO: So what are you telling them to say?

MACGREGOR-SKINNER: At the moment -- these people are so valuable to the effort, to protecting not just U.S. citizens, but every citizen in the world. And again, as we're seeing the need is -- the need is to go back to West Africa. I have to ensure they come back here. They get the rest needed. I can't tell them to tell the truth now because we're seeing so much irrational behavior.

COSTELLO: But it's so vital. It's so vital that we tell the truth so that the public knows. They can't come back in and lie.

MACGREGOR-SKINNER: But Elizabeth was correct. Elizabeth said the nurse didn't have symptoms and didn't have Ebola. I know from when I was working directly with Ebola patients, I was being vomited on, I was working with patients that had diarrhea. I was wearing the protective clothing. The personal protective gear. I was protected from Ebola. I never developed Ebola and I've come back now numerous times back and forth between the U.S. and West Africa. If I come back now and say I've been in contact with Ebola patients, I'll be locked in my house for 21 days. When I'm back here in the U.S., I am visiting U.S. hospitals every day helping them get prepared for Ebola. You take me out for three weeks, who is going to replace me and help U.S. hospitals get ready? Those gaps can't be filled.

COSTELLO: New York's governor did come out and he said that he understands the hardship that would be placed on doctors, but he has a responsibility to his citizens. Right? He even said, you know, if you're not being paid by your employer here in the United States, the government will reimburse you. If you're afraid you're going to be fired, we will talk to your employer. Does that make you feel any better?

MACGREGOR-SKINNER: No, not at all. The decisions that politicians are making throughout the country now are not based on scientific evidence, they're completely irrational. Again, we're looking for -- where is the Ebola team? Where is the Ebola team that is representative of all the community, private sector, public sector, corporate, academia, religious leaders? Get the Ebola team together so we can explain to you and educate you about this disease, show you the precautions we take, and show -- I don't want Ebola. And I know that when I bring my team back, we are talking each day on video conferencing, Facetime, Skype, text messaging, supporting each other. As soon as I feel sick, I'm going to go -- stay at home and call for help. But I am not going to go to a Redskins game here in Washington, D.C. That's irresponsible. But I need to get back to these hospitals and help them be prepared and make sure I can do my job.

COSTELLO: But yet some might argue, Dr. Spencer, the doctor being treated for Ebola here in the United States, he went bowling, he went to restaurants, he didn't stay home for those 21 days and limit his contact with people. So some people might argue that there needs to be some sort of quarantine policy put into place.

MACGREGOR-SKINNER: That's a really interesting point, because the CDC on their Ebola web site has been telling us now for many months that if we have direct contact with Ebola patients in West Africa, to control our movement. Stay off commercial travel, planes, trains, buses, ships, stay away from them. And report to the public authorities, public health authorities. That's what my team does. Those CDC guidelines have been there for many months. If you go to CDC Ebola on the CDC web site, you'll see those guidelines. Nothing's changed.

What has to change is that our politicians need to be educated, need to be based on scientific fact. Need us (ph) to get on their (ph) jobs. And we're responsible. We know there is no cure, no vaccine for Ebola. If any of us feel symptomatic, we need to be seen in a hospital very quickly. We also know if we feel symptomatic, we are not going to go out and mix with crowds, mix with the public. And that's the responsibility that doctors and nurses take every day. And again, that dialogue, that communication is not going at the moment, it's not happening, and we're seeing too much irrational behavior not based on scientific evidence.

COSTELLO: So what needs to happen to make things (inaudible)?

MACGREGOR-SKINNER: Right now, there's so many of us that have traveled to West Africa, there are so many of us that are coming home for Thanksgiving and also for Christmas, and other festivities. We have a peer to peer network. Again, we take our temperature every -- twice, maybe three, four times a day, just to be cautious. We then communicate as a peer-to-peer network. We talk to each other. We ask how you are feeling. As soon as we're not feeling well, we do stay at home. But when we are feeling well, I'll go to my kids' soccer game on a Saturday and I'll just live like a normal person, and I'll go to work every day like a normal person, and I'll do the best I can at saving lives. That's what I do.

COSTELLO: Gavin MacGregor-Skinner, thank you so much for being with me this morning. I appreciate it.

MACGREGOR-SKINNER: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the "Newsroom," a community deeply wounded and in mourning as they grapple with the question, why would a popular student kill his friends and then take his own life? I'll talk to a mother who was at last night's meeting.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A community in suburban Seattle is in mourning today for three students killed in a senseless shooting Friday at their high school. Hospital officials announced last night that 14-year-old Gia Soriano did not make it. Another girl, Zoe Galasso, died at the scene. The shooter, freshman Jaylen Fryberg, also died at the scene of an apparent self-inflicted wound as the teacher grabbed his arm. Three other children remain in the hospital. 14-year-old Nate Hatch, 14-year-old Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, and 15-year-old Andrew Fryberg. Both boys are cousins of the shooter.

The grieving community, made up of many Native Americans, gathered in the school gym last night to mourn the victims. One mother, herself a graduate of that same high school, could barely compose herself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH PARKER, MOTHER OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: When I heard the news, I about lost it. Because there's nothing in this world more sacred than our children, and as a parent, that's all we wish, is that our kids come to school and that they're safe and that they're happy and that they're not picked on at school or mistreated by anyone.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: Joining me on the phone this morning is another mother of a sophomore at that high school. Her name is Lori Pietzsch. Thank you so much for being with me this morning. I so appreciate it.

LORI PIETZSCH, MOTHER OF A HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: No problem.

COSTELLO: Lori, what was the meeting like last night?

PIETZSCH: It was very emotional. I think my daughter, she really hasn't shown her emotions a lot to me or others, and then you get there and you see all the families, you see all the children. My daughter is -- now it's all raw, you're inside at your school, at the gym. And, you know, what you just played there, it was very emotional, and seeing everyone there. So it was really hard.

COSTELLO: I understand at some point, the kids were separated into one room and the parents in another. Why did they do that?

PIETZSCH: Yes, they did that, they left -- had the students stay in the gym, and they had all the parents go into the auditorium. And they did that because they, one, wanted to have the students have time to -- you know, they wanted to ask the students what would be the best way for them to come back to school. And how would that be, paying (ph) in the cafeteria or whatever? So they wanted to talk to them separately. And for us, they wanted to -- they had handouts, and they wanted to talk to us on how to -- give us tips on how to deal with our kids and how to talk to them. Because all of our kids are grieving differently, and they saw different things, and so that's why they had us separate.

COSTELLO: So if I may ask -- and you don't have to answer if you don't want to -- what did you tell your daughter?

PIETZSCH: Well, really, I think that -- mainly I listened to my daughter, and if she wanted to talk to me, you know, I was there for her. For pretty much the last few days, we've been together, and she's been with her cousins, and so that made a difference. So I really -- you know, I know the other day we stopped by the memorial at the school, and (inaudible), and that was the first time she really -- just really broke down, and, you know, it's really just, now you're like, wow. You know? And it was just very emotional for her there. And I asked her, you know, talk to me, I said what are you feeling, and she didn't want to at that time. But you know, little bits and pieces each day, she'll talk to me about it.

COSTELLO: Again, how can you explain the unexplainable?

PIETZSCH: You can't. You see it and you go somewhere else and you go I hope it doesn't happen here, and you think what are we doing here to make sure that doesn't happen? But you can't. Wherever you go, that can happen. So you know, my daughter did the right thing, and we just tell her she did the right thing running, and you know, so you just talk, that's what you do. You're just there for your child.

COSTELLO: Lori Pietzsch, thank you so much for being with me and sharing that. I really appreciate it. PIETZSCH: No problem, thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the "Newsroom," we're just getting word that U.S. soldiers and personnel are now in a controlled monitoring situation because of Ebola. That's after they returned from the Ebola hot zone in Liberia. Why is this happening? Barbara Starr has the details just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: This just in to CNN. The commander of U.S. Army in Africa and about ten other personnel are now in controlled monitoring. That's happening in Italy right now. They just returned from West Africa over the weekend. An official tells our Barbara Starr that the plane was met on the ground by authorities in full CDC gear. Barbara joins us now. What's up with this?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Carol, what we are told right now is none of the personnel are symptomatic. Nobody's running a fever right now. Nobody has any symptoms of having contracted Ebola. But here's what we're talking about.

Major General Darryl Williams, U.S. Army Africa, had been in West Africa for -- with his team for the last 30 days, setting up the U.S. assistance mission there. General Williams went everywhere. This is not a guy who sits in his hotel. He was out and about everywhere with his team. Over the weekend, their scheduled return to Italy.

What has happened is the Pentagon, the Defense Department and the Army, essentially decided that even though no one was showing symptoms, they would be placed in this controlled monitoring situation.

I have to tell you, that's a Pentagon word -- controlled monitoring. There are a lot of people right now who are basically calling it quarantine for a U.S. Army two-star general and his team.

They will spend 21 days, we are told, back in Vincenza, Italy, at their home base, but they will be in a separate area, they will not be allowed to go home, they will have their temperatures and any symptoms checked for regularly. What we do not know at this point is whether their family members will even be allowed to come see them in any circumstances, in any controlled circumstances.

It's really interesting for the military, Carol, because the stated policy right now is if you are not showing symptoms, you have your temperature checked for 21 days, but you return to your regular work routine and you can return to regular interaction with your family members.

This team will not. We are in the extraordinary circumstance right now. General Williams, you see him there on the right, having returned to his home base, he and his team will remain in this controlled environment, away from everyone else, for the next 21 days. Again, this is a guy who had the mission to go to Liberia, set up the effort to try and help with Ebola, and he went out and about everywhere, as his team did. As many of the U.S. personnel in Liberia are now doing. We'll see how this works out. Right now they insist no one is systematic. This is an abundance of caution, but it is very different from what the stated policy is. Carol?

COSTELLO: I know you'll keep digging on this story throughout the day. Barbara Starr, many thanks. We appreciate it.

Still to come in the "Newsroom," plans are now in the works on how to get an American nurse from New Jersey to Maine. Kaci Hickox will soon be released from that Newark hospital. We'll talk about that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the "Newsroom," a nurse placed in mandatory quarantine in New Jersey after returning from West Africa will now be discharged. She'll head to her home state of Maine by private transport. We're live at the hospital in Newark.

Plus, is President Obama too cool for crisis management? We'll look at the political fallout from ISIS to Ebola. And a CNN exclusive. Inside the Syrian hot spot of Kobani. Our crews giving you access like no other on the ground, in the fighting. "Newsroom" continues now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

COSTELLO: And good morning. Thank you so much for joining me, I'm Carol Costello. After spending a weekend in isolation, Kaci Hickox, the nurse under mandatory quarantine at that New Jersey hospital, will get to go home to Maine. Just last hour, Governor Chris Christie's office said she could be released. But while she's in New Jersey, she will be kept in quarantine. And Hickox will be taken to Maine privately, not by commercial aircraft or mass transit or public ambulance.

Alexandra Field joins us now from Newark outside the hospital Hickox will soon leave. Tell us more.

FIELD: That's right, Carol. I just got off the phone with her attorney, Steve Hyman, who says they are still making the arrangement, bus they're hoping to get her out of here quickly. Steve Hyman tells me this, that she should be returning to Maine as a quote/unquote, "normal person." This is a woman who is showing no symptoms of the Ebola virus, despite the fact that she has been kept in quarantine and in isolation here at University Hospital in Newark.

What's unclear is what will happen when Kaci Hickox does get back to Maine. We're told that while she's in New Jersey, she is still under quarantine, because that is the protocol this state has established.