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Maine Nurse Back Home after Defying Quarantine; Apple C.E.O.: "I'm Proud to be Gay"; NCAA Fails Athletes with Concussions; Interview with Rep. Michael Burgess

Aired October 30, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

A Maine nurse is now back home after defying a quarantine by leaving her house just a short time ago. Kaci Hickox and her boyfriend returned from a bike ride with two police officers following them. As you know, Hickox is fighting back against state officials who want her to remain inside her home and finish out a 21-day quarantine.

Several states have a quarantine rule into place for health care workers coming back from West Africa. Those quarantines are something Republican Congressman Dr. Michael Burgess supports.

He joins me now. Good morning, sir.

REP. MICHAEL BURGESS (R), TEXAS: Good morning, Carol. How are you?

COSTELLO: I'm pretty good. You saw the picture there of Kaci Hickox going for a bike ride and state police following her. What goes through your mind when you see such things?

BURGESS: Well, I will confess to you I really don't understand what is happening in that case in Maine. It does sound like there is going to be a significant amount of legal proceedings which will probably take longer than the 21-day interval. In all likelihood, nothing will be resolved when this case finally is litigated.

It was on your show I think two or three weeks ago when your senior medical correspondent described coming back from Liberia having been there covering the epidemic. And she made the statement that there really wasn't much interest in where she had been and what she had been doing when she arrived back at customs. I got to tell you, that was a red flag for me. We have got to be doing a better job.

Now, I do think that people who are traveling electively who are not American citizens, that we should consider a suspension of those travel documents.

COSTELLO: Can we concentrate on Kaci Hickox for just a second?

BURGESS: Sure. COSTELLO: If the state of Maine gets its court order to force Kaci

Hickox to stay in her home for 21 days, should she be placed under arrest if she leaves her home?

BURGESS: Well, you know, it actually has come up here in Texas in the incidents surrounding the case that was here. There were individuals who were put on a county hold and placed them -- under a county hold and were actually given a pretty nice play to stay during that interval. Yes, the state has an obligation to protect the public health.

COSTELLO: And you're a doctor, and I respect your opinion. But in your mind, is Kaci Hickox contagious in any way? She's tested twice -- she's tested negative twice for Ebola and she's voluntarily submitting to tests from health officials to take her temperature and that sort of thing. Is she contagious, doctor?

BURGESS: Well, you know, the fact is, I should not render an opinion on that.

COSTELLO: Why not?

BURGESS: My understanding is that there was a temperature recorded on temporal scan which then from the public health standpoint invoked the proper sequence of events.

COSTELLO: But, Doctor --

BURGESS: And one of the things that I said right from the beginning is --

COSTELLO: But Doctor, I would like your medical opinion. Is she contagious? Would you go up and shake Kaci Hickox's hand right now?

BURGESS: Again, Carol, I don't know where she is in the course. I don't know how long it has been since she returned. Certainly she -- my understanding is she has had a blood test or two which has been negative. That's great. And I just hope that that clinical course continues.

COSTELLO: I ask you these questions because the criticism is that these decisions for quarantine are being made for political purposes and not for scientific reasons.

BURGESS: Look, this is one thing that I think perhaps everyone should take a step back and understand. People should have a great deal of humility when dealing with this virus because it is unlike anything that has ever been seen before. That's one of the lessons I think learned here in Texas, in north Texas when the case occurred here.

Remember all the brave pronouncements of the President and the head of the CDC in the middle of September, all turned out to be non- operational just a few weeks later. And that's why you have the anxiety. That's why you have the public anxiety over who can you actually trust in this. You said in an earlier statement where is the Ebola czar? A good question. He wouldn't have been my choice for an Ebola czar, but why is there not more public comment by this individual who is supposedly running interference for the president on this?

COSTELLO: I don't think many people would disagree with you there. But I think that part of a politician's job is to calm the anxiety of people and tell them what the truth is. If Kaci Hickox isn't contagious and she does not have Ebola, why should she be quarantined?

And also, I'll run this by you, too, the doctors who were treating Ebola patients at Emory, they were never quarantined. They're right on the front lines. They go home to their families, they go out to restaurants, why aren't they under quarantine?

BURGESS: They are under -- my understanding is they are under observation and people do self monitor --

COSTELLO: So does Kaci Hickox.

BURGESS: Again, I can't speak to that case because I'm not directly involved in it. I do know that the governors of states go have an obligation to provide protection for the public. And they are required to call things as they see them. It's not my job -- or rather, it's not my place to tell them what to do or not to do. That is a function that is reserved to the states.

COSTELLO: Congressman Michael Burgess, thank you for being with me this morning. I appreciate it.

BURGESS: Thank you.

COSTELLO: I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: For the first time Apple CEO Tim Cook is speaking out about his sexuality and acknowledging that he is gay. Cook made the announcement in an essay published in "Bloomberg Businessweek" writing in part, quote, while I have never denied my sexuality, I haven't publicly acknowledged it either until now. So let me be clear. I'm proud to be gay and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me."

Cook added, "America is moving towards marriage equality, and the public figures who have bravely come out have helped change perceptions and made our culture more tolerant. Still there are laws on the books in a majority of states that allow employers to fire people based solely on their sexual orientation."

Joining me is CNN's Poppy Harlow. And it's a touching essay, I've got to say.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is. It is a very -- I think a lot of us had an emotional reaction reading this essay. He's right, 29 states can legally have companies that can fire you if you are gay. And a lot of people say, wow, is that really the case in 2014? And it certainly is. Something else that stood out to me from the essay Tim Cook wrote. "Being gay has given me a deeper understanding of what it means to be in the minority and provided me a window into the challenges that people in other minority groups deal with every day. It's made me more empathetic which has led to a richer life."

This is a C.E.O. that we barely hear from. He really does few interviews. He's very private and he talks in this about the struggle between standing up for what he believes and keeping some semblance of privacy. It's a struggle that so many people in this country are still facing. We explored that in this report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW (on camera): Would you call this living a double life frankly?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, pretty much the definition of it. I mean it's just like being back in the 1950s, wondering if you were going to be canned.

HARLOW (voice over): We're not showing you this man's face because for him to speak freely we can't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your heart kind of knot up or your blood pressure will rise a little bit.

HARLOW: He's in his 20s and gay, out in his personal life but closeted at work.

(on camera): Does anyone at work know that you're gay?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

HARLOW: You've in fact gone do great lengths to hide it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Definitely avoided a lot of personal anecdotes or outright sometimes said, "Oh, I'm single."

HARLOW (voice over): But he's not. He lives with his partner of more than a year. But at work he silences his partner's phone calls and hides vacation photos of them together. He volunteers hundreds of hours fighting for gay rights. But at the office he is muzzled, muzzled by fear.

He lives in one of 29 states where advocacy groups point out private companies can legally fire someone because they're gay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All it takes is one person with a homophobic view to decide that that's their -- that's what they want to do and they can legally fire you for being gay.

HARLOW (on camera): In 2014?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For sure. There's no protection at all.

HARLOW (voice over): Many major companies do protect employees by including sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policies, his though does not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It kind of diminishes you as a person.

His struggle is not an anomaly.

(on camera): Despite gay rights progress in the courts and in public opinion, a new survey by one human rights group found 53 percent of LGBT employees across America hide their sexual identity at work. It also found that 35 percent felt the need to lie about their personal lives in the office.

CHRISTIE SMITH, DELOITTE: I'm a gay woman. I'm a mother, I'm a sister, I'm a daughter -- I'm all of those things. And it informs my leadership style.

HARLOW (voice over): Christie Smith is a high ranking executive at consulting firm Deloitte. Her study with NYU of more than 3,000 Fortune 1000 employees found 83 percent of lesbian, gay, and bisexual respondents cover at least part of their sexual identity at work.

SMITH: This is the population that is most impacted by this concept of covering, hiding their identity when they come to work.

HARLOW (on camera): The most.

SMITH: The most. They're completely denying, if you will, their sexual identity in order to conform.

HARLOW: But we have all these committees and organizations and signs on the wall of corporate America.

SMITH: Yes.

HARLOW: It's not translating?

SMITH: No, it's not translating. I think that it's not because this isn't about programs and initiatives. This is about leadership, fundamentally, full stop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was my direct manager who was a homophobe and he called the guy beside me -- the analyst beside me a faggot, my second week at work.

HARLOW: Wow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I went back in the closet.

HARLOW (voice over): That was 16 years ago. Today Todd Sears runs Out Leadership.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you to think about some questions.

HARLOW: He works with some of the biggest companies in the world to drive change.

TODD SEARS, OUT LEADERSHIP: I've actually had a number of senior straight managers say that's personal, you don't need to bring it to the office. And I challenge them. I say take 24 hours and don't talk about your wife, your children, put all the photos away from your desk, see if you can do that.

HARLOW: Smith and Sears both say that even though 91 percent of Fortune 500 companies ban discrimination based on sexual orientation, it's about a lot more than diversity and inclusion programs and posters.

SEARS: It really does take CEOs say that being LGBT matters, it's positive and that tone has to trickle down.

SMITH: The companies run the risk of losing these people and them walking out the door.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Carol, Tim Cook said in this essay, "Life's most persistent and urgent question is what are you doing for others?" It takes the CEOs on the top to have this trickle down. When you hear that number, 53 percent of LGBT workers in this country right now are in the closet, a lot of them don't want to be. Some want to be and they have that right but we need to talk about the fact that more than half of our LGBT workers, many of them don't feel like they can even say this publicly.

COSTELLO: Thanks, Poppy Harlow. Thanks so much.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: While excitement builds towards the first ever major college football play-off, all is not good news these days for the NCAA and member schools. There was that investigation into a paper class at the University of North Carolina where student athletes got As without even showing up for class.

And there are new calls to give some kind of pay to athletes in major sports. This comes in the wake of the four-game suspension to Georgia running back Todd Girly for signing autographs for money. And then there are concussion concerns that show up in all levels of football. But critics say the NCAA has failed concussed athletes.

CNN's Sara Ganim has the story of one of them -- Derek Sheely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEREK SHEELY, FOOTBALL PLAYER: I play football because simply it's the greatest game ever invented on the face of the earth.

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Even as a little boy, Derek Sheely absolutely loved playing football.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Loved the boys, loved the coaches, just became this little football guy.

GANIM: He wanted to play in college. So he went to a small school in western Maryland -- Frostburg State University. The team rarely won, but it didn't matter. After three years Derek had enough credits to graduate but stayed to play another season.

KEN SHEELY, FATHER OF DEREK SHEELY: He was kind of going to be king of the campus that year. So that was the last time that we saw him, is when I dropped him off.

GANIM: Preseason practice was tough. According to a lawsuit the family would later file, the team endured more than 13 hours of full contact practice in three days. During that time Derek's forehead started bleeding. The suit says he developed a large, protruding discolored bruise on his head. It also says the school's trainer bandaged him up several times and sent him back onto the field. One of his teammates described to CNN what he saw.

BRANDON EYRING, FORMER FROSTBURG STATE FOOTBALL PLAYER: I just remember seeing -- like looking across the line and seeing blood come down his face, I'm thinking, you might want to get that looked at.

GANIM: Derek's dad received an anonymous e-mail from another teammate saying Derek complained of a headache and the coaches cursed at him, called him names, told him to, quote, "Get back out there, Sheely." A short time later he collapsed.

EYRING: It was kind of the culture. It was just -- again, the only word I can quote is gladiator. It was just like you're going to fight unfortunately to the death. And that's kind of how it happened. And it was not metaphorical at this point.

SHEELY: To our knowledge when he finally -- when the pressure got so much that he couldn't even stand anymore and went down on all fours, it's our understanding that the coaches were still yelling for him to get up, get up. Stand up. And he attempted to re-stand up and he collapsed and that was the last time that he was ever conscious.

GANIM: Derek died six days later. In response to the Sheely's suit, the NCAA denied it has any legal duty to protect student athletes or prevent injury. It said it's saddened by Derek's death, but, quote, "nonetheless we disagree with the assertions and allegations made against the NCAA". And it conceded to CNN it does not punish schools for the handling of injuries because the NCAA enforcement staff only oversees, quote, "academic and amateurism issues". They do not have authority to make legal or medical judgments about negligence.

That's a surprising statement since the NCAA was created more than 100 years ago at the request of President Teddy Roosevelt to protect young people from dangerous and exploitive athletic practices.

SHEELY: There's a big gap in what they care about. And you know, it's pretty obvious; they haven't even been very subtle about what they care about. They will protect the safety of their pocketbook.

GANIM: The Sheelys are not part of a federal class action suit against the NCAA that reached a preliminary settlement last month. That settlement, if approved, could keep athletes with a head injury from returning to play the same day as a concussion. But the Sheely's lawyer doubts the NCAA will enforce any new rules.

(on camera): Do you have any faith in the NCAA going forward?

SHEELY: I really don't.

GANIM (voice over): Citing the lawsuit, no one at Frostburg State will comment. The Sheely family started educating people themselves through a foundation in Derek's name.

(on camera): This is not an easy question, but what do you guys miss most about him?

KRIS SHEELY, DEREK SHEELY'S MOTHER: I had him when I was 19 years old, and I grew up like that. And in 22 years he's gone and I don't know who I am anymore. My heart is gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GANIM: The coaches and the trainer of that Frostburg State team are also defendants in the Sheely lawsuit. They say they're not responsible and that football is a dangerous sport that always carries a risk -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So you would think the NCAA would have rules about concussions.

GANIM: Carol I want to say this. I printed this out. This is the NCAA's rule book. It prints out more than 400 pages. There is one rule in here that has to do with concussions and that one rule is that schools simply have to have a plan. There's nothing about what happened to Derek, about going back onto the field after you clearly have a head injury -- nothing in here about that.

Now, there is a lawsuit from another group of athletes who want to change that. They want to mandate a 24-hour waiting period after a head injury before you can go back into the game. But as you saw, as part of our investigation, the NCAA said they don't enforce rules that have to do with health and safety. They leave those to the schools.

So if they're self-policing, what's going to happen? You know, we've seen it over and over again. They mandate academic-related issues, amateur-related issues. You know, if you sign an autograph, you know the NCAA is going to come knocking on your door, but not with a concussion. There's all of these rules, and all of these rules but no enforcement when it comes to concussions.

COSTELLO: Not worth someone's life. Sara Ganim, thanks you so much.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Pumpkins, a knife and a shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller "Psycho". Here is Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alfred Hitchcock has never been presented -- like this: carved in a pumpkin that might drive him psycho.

In honor of Halloween, there is a new take on that famous shower scene, matched practically frame for frame right down to the shower rings and shower head, carved in pumpkin by this Brooklyn artist.

YULIYA TSUKERMAN, ARTIST: If there is somebody out there who has carved more shower tiles than I have, I would really like to meet them.

MOOS: Yuliya Tsukerman sat here at her dining table for a couple of weeks carving 30 frames from the classic scene, frames like the one depicting Marion Crane's eye. The pumpkins have since rotted.

TSUKERMAN: They went to the pumpkin graveyard.

MOOS: So, she carved us a new eye -- ouch.

TSUKERMAN: Sorry, Marion.

MOOS: She calls her three-minute video psych-o-lantern, you know, like psycho and jack-o-lantern.

TSUKERMAN: A hilarious plant.

MOOS (on camera): Yuliya is no pumpkin waster. She did the entire film using only 10 pumpkins, by carving three scenes per pumpkin.

TSUKERMAN: I was trying to save on pumpkin slaughter.

MOOS (voice-over): Yuliya isn't exactly a Hitchcock buff. Last Halloween, she first got the idea of doing a stop-motion video made out of carved pumpkins, but it was too late and pumpkins were sold out, so she did it this year.

Normally, her art consists of etching ships on ostrich eggs. But carving a bloody hand? So much spookier.

At the end of psych-o-lantern, Yuliya carved herself holding a pumpkin.

TSUKERMAN: Like this. And offering it to him.

MOOS: Offering it to Hitchcock.

(on camera): Do you like long showers?

TSUKERMAN: As a matter of fact I do.

MOOS (voice-over): You need a long shower to wash off all that pumpkin, but pumpkin sure beats blood circling the drain.

Jeanne Moos, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Well that is certainly true.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"@THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA" starts now.