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Where is the Ebola Czar?; Boston Bomb Suspect's Friend Found Guilty; Surviving in the Wild for Weeks; Broncos Fan Vanishes During Game

Aired October 28, 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: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, the Ebola czar is out of sight but not out of mind as some states choose stricter quarantine rules than the federal government. Where are you, Ron Klain?

Then, the manhunt for the suspected cop killer Eric Frein goes air born; police now using a balloon to search the Pennsylvania woods from above. But how long can he last in that dense forest? A survivalist walks us through it.

And mystery at the Broncos game -- a father vanishes without a trace at half time. Could stadium surveillance hold a clue?

NEWSROOM continues now.

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

Kaci Hickox, the nurse quarantined in a tent outside of a New Jersey hospital is back in her hometown in Maine where she will be monitored. Her attorney says Hickox, who's tested negative for Ebola, feels just fine. But a New Jersey quarantine created a headache for Governor Chris Christie and Christie is not backing down from a fight with federal health officials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: When they're in direct contact with people actively with the Ebola virus, asking them to quarantine at home for 21 days, unless they're systematic, I don't think it's draconian. And I think Dr. Fauci is responding, unfortunately, as are many other people from the CDC, in a really hyperbolic way because they've been wrong before.

And now they're incrementally taking steps towards the policy that we put in effect in New Jersey and now six other states have put in effect and its Joint Chiefs of Staff have put in effect. We're all wrong and they're right, Matt? We're trying to be careful here.

This is common sense. And the members of the American public believe it is common sense and we're not moving an inch. Our policy hasn't changed and our policy will not change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Ebola may be on the minds of many Americans, but a new poll finds people are not all that worried. Yes, they think Ebola will hit somewhere in the United States but not in their community and definitely not in their family.

A new CNN/ORC poll finds eight in 10 people believe someone in the United States will be infected with Ebola in the next few weeks. But about three-quarters of those polled say it's unlikely an Ebola victim will be from their community. And an overwhelming number, 93 percent, say it's not likely someone from within their family will be infected.

Well, it has been a week and a half since President Obama appointed Ron Klain to handle the federal response to Ebola. But critics say he's been missing in action.

Check out the "New York Daily" headline -- actually I've lost it but it says "Where the hell czar you?" CNN's Michelle Kosinski live at the White House to tell us where is he?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey Carol. I don't know. I wish I did know.

You know, the truth is, we've been asking that question to the White House for days now. He's been on the job less than a week but as things have really been developing and there seems to be a glaring lack of coordination over the last couple of days -- he's supposed to be the Ebola response coordinator -- that question just becomes stronger and stronger. We know that will be a question at the White House briefing today as well.

But what the White House has said pretty much from the start is that his job is going to be primarily behind the scenes. You have to wonder, during all of this kind of evolution of the response to the threat, why wouldn't the White House want this new Ebola czar to be front and center, coordinating at the very least the information at this point? The answer, well, it might be because, you know, in the very beginning when there were calls for -- especially by Republicans to appoint an Ebola czar, the White House said it's not needed, we have what we need. That would just add an unnecessarily layer of bureaucracy. They really pushed back. And then when the criticism grew louder and louder they said, ok, now we are appointing an Ebola czar.

So because it wasn't their idea and they didn't see the importance of it from the beginning and they keep referring to the need for all of this response to be driven by the science, maybe that's why the White House is still relying on the CDC and the WHO to be the face of the response on television especially. They've been the ones who are hitting these talking points that the White House keeps hitting as well.

But there is criticism out there of where is he. We know that he's been working on the problem; he's been in these high-level meetings. He's supposed to visit the CDC this week. Although when asked, the White House isn't saying at this point when we will see him meet with the CDC there down in Atlanta -- Carol.

But, you know, they've pointed to successes. When asked about -- what about the lack of coordination in many people's views over the last few days, here you have guidelines put out by the federal government and states saying, yes, ok, that's great but we need to go further for our own safety.

And then the Pentagon saying, you know, we're going take it a step further also. Where's the coordination in that?

Well, the White House lists some successes over the last week with Ron Klain as the Ebola czar, things like more information out there, better coordination in certain areas. And they say that it's a success that New Jersey released the nurse from quarantine. They say that was a result of conversations with the federal government and that there is coordination -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Michelle Kosinski, reporting live from White House this morning. Thank you.

Joining me now to talk more about this from Washington, Gavin MacGregor Skinner, he's an infectious disease expert and epidemiologist. Welcome back Gavin.

GAVIN MACGREGOR SKINNER, EPIDEMIOLOGIST: Good morning Carol.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you here. Do you understand what Ron Klain's job is?

SKINNER: I think what we've been looking for Carol, now, for many, many weeks, even months is where is the Ebola team. No, I do not understand at the moment what he's been -- what his roles and responsibilities are -- how they are clearly defined. But I would like to see him start to pull that whole community approach and get the team together.

COSTELLO: And it would be a good thing because you have concerns about credible information on Ebola. You even say doctors and nurses use four sites to get information on Ebola and one of those sources of information is Wikipedia. In fact, the "New York Times" reports that Wikipedia had 17 million page views last month. That's right up there with the CDC and the World Health Organization. Seriously -- Wikipedia?

SKINNER: Wikipedia actually changed their business model for their Ebola page so, again, with Wikipedia, anyone in the community can go on and edit and make change to Wikipedia, but not for their Ebola page. They've now restricted access to a very small group of professionals that can go on and update with the most credible scientific information.

Also, if you look at the Wikipedia Ebola page, it has over 230 references. These are peer-reviewed references. So again the credibility of that one page in Wikipedia I can vouch for because I know who works on that. Other pages like the CDC Ebola Web site, WebMD, but also amongst physicians, doctors, nurses throughout the country we use a Web site called "Up-to-date. And Up-to-date is what we pay for. But now they've released their information for Ebola free for everyone. So if you go and Google "up to date Ebola" you'll get the same information that I receive everyday and that's available to everyone in America.

COSTELLO: Good. That's great information to have. Thanks.

So on another topic, slightly different topic. Health care workers are really taking a beating. New York and New Jersey have these mandatory quarantines because Dr. Spencer, the doctor who came down with Ebola hit the town -- right. And this nurse Kaci Hickox is now paying for that. She's at home in Maine. She's received a lot of criticism. Can you blame people for their reaction?

SKINNER: Again, Carol, we cannot make decisions based on fear. We have to make decisions based on scientific evidence. What we've now seen -- we've now received information that over a two-week period in October this year 807 people have come back in by planes through airports from West Africa, from those three countries in West Africa. Of those 807, 46 were health care workers. Of those 46 -- some of those people I know personally -- we have been using for years and years and years when we deal with highly infectious diseases like Ebola, we control the movement.

And now in the last 24 hours we've seen the new CDC guidelines come out with controlled movement. We're seeing a lot more collaboration now between state departments of health, public health, so at the state department level we're seeing people talk between the different states. I think that's very good news and so, again, the last 24 hours, lots of things have changed and, again, within the profession we're still practicing and ensuring that we all practice controlled movement. We tell the truth when we come back in but we all monitor each other through a peer-to-peer network.

COSTELLO: Got you. And I know you organize teams to fight Ebola in West Africa. Have any doctors pulled out?

SKINNER: This is the concern I have at the moment. West Africa is the focus, that's where we fight the fight. Again, we've heard for now weeks, months from the president down we need more people on the ground. Again, we're finding where is the funding? All of us are here ready to go. We haven't seen more funding for us to pay for those airline tickets for us to go.

Many of my friends and colleagues that are within my team are saying you've got to ensure that if you send me there, can I get home for Thanksgiving? Can I get home for Christmas? Again, let's get those messages clear. Let's go back to those recommendations from CDC and work at how to implement them so that every state within the U.S. is clearly defined how we can protect the people's health and their best interest but also we can send people over to West Africa to fight Ebola.

COSTELLO: All right. Gavin MacGregor Skinner -- thanks again for being with me. I appreciate it.

SKINNER: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: All right. A bit of breaking news to pass along to you regarding the friend of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev -- a jury has found Tsarnaev's friend guilty of lying to investigators.

CNN's Susan Candiotti joins me now with more on this. Good morning.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Carol. It's very interesting because in this particular case the jury was out, surprising a lot of people, for six days. This is the sixth day of deliberations and the other two friends didn't get anywhere close to that.

But, in fact, a jury has found this young man guilty of lying to investigators, two counts of that. As we will recall, these were friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, classmates of him at college, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. And authorities initially questioned them about whether they knew anything about what happened, et cetera.

There is no proof that any of these young men knew in advance of plans for the Boston Marathon bombing. However, they did throw out a computer that belonged to him as well as a backpack that was filled with residue of fireworks that could have been used as a material in making a bomb.

COSTELLO: So they destroyed evidence.

CANDIOTTI: Exactly they did. So what's interesting here as well is that this young man had help -- on a defense angle -- from former Governor Michael Dukakis, of course, also former presidential candidate, who spoke on his behalf. Turns out he was a family friend of this young man. His defense had been that he was so high on pot that he couldn't remember anything about what happened.

COSTELLO: Wow.

CANDIOTTI: That was his defense. Obviously in the end the jury apparently didn't buy it.

COSTELLO: So is he -- is he from another country originally and could they send him back or does he go to jail?

CANDIOTTI: No, he could not. The other two, however, are students who were here from overseas. And they do face deportation eventually. But they are both facing many, many years in prison. Not sure when the sentencing is scheduled for this just yet.

COSTELLO: I'm sure you'll keep us posted. Susan Candiotti, thanks so much.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In Pennsylvania, investigators are using a new tool in the search for the accused cop killer Eric Frein -- balloons with cameras attached are being flown high in the sky to take pictures and send them back. The balloons can stay up in the air for up to three days.

As you know, Frein has been on the run for a month and a half now. The search is focused on wooded areas and Frein may not need that much to survive.

Alexandra Field has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you have some idea of what you're doing, how tough is it to survive out in the woods this long?

MIKE DENNIS, SURVIVAL EXPERT: If you're out with nothing, you're going to have to be very innovative.

FIELD: Eric Frein has been on the run for six weeks. Police believe he's hiding in the woods of Pennsylvania's Poconos. How much did he have to plan? How much would he have to pack? Mike Dennis teaches survival skills.

He probably can't carry that much with him. How much does he need to carry with him?

DENNIS: I've been walking with everything a person would need to stay out. I don't want to say indefinitely, but all my immediate needs are met with what's on my shoulder.

FIELD: You can go six weeks with that?

DENNIS: I wouldn't want to have to go six weeks with just this.

FIELD: These are things you can hold in your hands.

DENNIS: Yes. These can fit in a pocket. And they can give you what we might consider an advantage.

FIELD: A cover for shelter.

DENNIS: Essentially my shelter is made.

FIELD: Maybe a source for fire and something like this. He can't hunt, you know. He doesn't want to --

DENNIS: Right, he can't fire a gun. He can certainly trap. If it were me in this situation I would take this and I would find a game trail and I would hang a noose right there. And I would hopefully capture and hold anything coming through there.

FIELD: As simple as that -- just a rope?

DENNIS: As simple as this.

FIELD: Police consider Eric Frein a survivalist. Now he's likely doing whatever is necessary. Authorities have found various shelters he may be using, but based on reported sightings, he seems to keep moving. It isn't likely he's hunkered down somewhere. DENNIS: I have to believe that if someone is moving continually

through the wilderness, just because of the nature of it, they're more prone to injuries and that's where things get very, very bad for somebody.

FIELD: And then also the cold.

DENNIS: If this person got wet and we get a cold snap, hypothermia can set in within hours.

FIELD: We're starting to see the leaves come off the trees --

DENNIS: Right.

FIELD: -- as the weather changes. How much of a concern is this going to be for him?

DENNIS: I think that the fact that he's going to be losing cover from above is the main thing that he's -- would be concerned with. People are very skilled with just being in the outdoors, but the longer it goes on, the harder it's getting for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Alexandra Field reporting.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a Denver Broncos fan gets to see his first game in person and then vanishes before the game is over. Five days later, he's still missing. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking some top stories at 52 minutes past, Corporal Nathan Cirillo, the Canadian army reservist who was gunned down last week at the National War Monument in Ottawa will be honored this morning at a regimental funeral in southern Ontario. Thousands are expected to line the streets. The prime minister and other dignitaries are also expected to attend the ceremony.

It's being called the Mile-High mystery. Investigators trying to figure out how and why a father vanished from a crowded football stadium where he was watching his first Broncos game.

Reporter Mark Meredith with from affiliate KDVR picks up the story from there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MEREDITH, REPORTER, KDVR: It's a place where thousands of people come almost every week to celebrate but for the family of Paul Kitterman, Sports Authority Field is the place they come to search.

JARROD KITTERMAN, SON OF PAUL KITTERMAN: We're looking everywhere, parking lot, in the trees, bushes -- anywhere we could think of.

MEREDITH: We met Kitterman's son Jarrod outside the stadium on Sunday. It was then he told us about his father vanishing during half time of Thursday's Broncos-Chargers game. And after searching for a few hours around the stadium, the family also checked hospitals and jails but came up empty.

KITTERMAN: We really don't know what to do.

MEREDITH: But trying to find Kitterman hasn't been easy. The 53- year-old did not have his cell phone at the game and rode down with friends leaving him without a car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Also unusual is that he went missing at the middle of a football game on national TV.

MEREDITH: Denver police tell us so far there's no reason to suspect any foul play, but that's not stopping detectives from reviewing stadium surveillance videos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't have anything right now that we can say is concrete. I mean you've got what the tapes are going to tell us. It will maybe show if he's with somebody else or be by himself.

MEREDITH: Kitterman's friends are anxious for answers but also want more help searching.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's absolutely out of the ordinary. It doesn't make any sense. Nothing adds up.

MEREDITH: Without any sign of where the 53-year-old went after the game, the family is hoping tips from the public will pay off and help them figure out what happened to their father.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anything that they think can help, call Denver PD.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That was KDVR reporter Mark Meredith. The mystery deepens with friends saying Kitterman has no medical condition and no history of drug use or dangerous activity.

I'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Firefighters in Arizona had the odd job of saving a snoring horse from a pool -- really.

CNN's Jeanne Moos reports on a bizarre rescue that will not put you to sleep.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Horses are known to snore, even ponies in "My Little Pony". But you don't expect to hear a horse snore as he's being rescued from falling into a pool.

Stormy is an Arabian stallion who's allowed to roam the backyard. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on Stormy -- are you coming to play the

game.

MOOS: At this home in Mesa, Arizona no one saw him fall into the pool, but the grandson of Stormy's owner heard the splash and then the horse began to thrash.

MARK BRANHAM, HORSE OWNER: His head would bang against the deck and I mean we're talking hard.

MOOS: He's just completely freaking out.

BRANHAM: He's freaking out.

MOOS: Mark Branham says they called 911 and when the Mesa Fire Department arrived --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was probably the most interesting horse call I've ever been on.

MOOS: They called a vet to tranquilize the horse and managed to get his head on to the deck. It was a close call for Stormy, according to the vet.

BRANHAM: When he took his temperature he said that's the coldest I've ever seen a living horse.

MOOS: 92 degrees. 100 is normal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three. There we go, yes, boy. All right. Now what?

MOOS: But the rescue was a snooze -- at least for the horse. He snored through the whole thing even when they dragged him across the lawn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now he's just asleep.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's sleeping like a puppy dog.

MOOS: Despite his traumatic two-hour dip in the pool, Stormy has recovered.

BRANHAM: The sweetest, most gentle horse. We're so glad he's all right.

MOOS: Stormy, now known for snoring up a storm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He'll be all right.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN --

BRANHAM: He says get my good side.

MOOS: New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Happy ending.

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

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