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New Day

Two Ebola Tests Come Back Negative in Spain; Dallas Nurse Speaks Out; Texas Health Care Worker Self-Monitoring on Cruise Ship; New Information on Amber Vinson

Aired October 17, 2014 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Half past the hour. Here's a look at your headlines:

Breaking overnight -- hundreds of police in Hong Kong storming the site where pro-democracy protesters have camped out now for weeks. They were armed with wire cutters and riot shields, those police tore down tents and dismantled barricades. Our CNN team on the ground said most protesters did not put up a fight. It's unclear how these actions will affect talks ongoing on long-term reforms, which could begin again next week.

Breaking moments ago: Oscar Pistorius will learn his sentence on Tuesday for killing his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. The legal battle that precedes the formal sentencing wrapped up this morning, with prosecutors calling for 10 years in prison for the former Olympian. The defense argues Pistorius' disability would make him vulnerable in prison.

Famed author John Grisham now apologizing for comments he made to a British newspaper concerning child pornography and sex offenders. Grisham sparked outrage with his remarks about overly harsh prison sentences in cases involving child pornography. Now in a statement on his Facebook page, Grisham said he never intended to show sympathy for those convicted of sex crimes, especially the molestation of children.

Got to tell you about something that is happening once in a million years -- this event will unfold near Mars this weekend, a comet, the size of a mountain, is expected to come within a scant 87,000 miles of the Red Planet. The comet, called Sighting Spring, will travel at 126,000 miles an hour. Which I believe is over the speed limit.

It is making its first known visit to our solar system. NASA's robotic explorers are positioned to protect themselves and witness the incoming comet. Officials aren't sure what they'll be able to capture because there will be all of this cosmic dust kicked up from the comet's tail. You might very well be able to see it with a telescope if you're in the southern hemisphere, in South Africa, or Australia, or use some vernaculars.

But that kind is once in a million.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Those are pictures? They look like a Bob Ross painting.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: They do.

PEREIRA: Well, also.

CAMEROTA: What is the solar speed limit?

PEREIRA: It depends on who you ask?

CAMEROTA: Right, right. It's hard to get pulled over.

Thanks so much, Michaela.

All right. Back to the latest in the Ebola crisis. This morning, two of three people in Spain who were thought to have had the virus have tested negative but they will be quarantined and tested again just to be safe, as others await results.

Our Nic Robertson is in Madrid with more.

What's the latest in Spain, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, one of the people who was admitted to the hospital here yesterday, a third person, missionary who had been in Liberia, no results back from the test that he had. He'd also had Ebola fever-like symptoms and there is also another person, another aid worker, working for the Red Cross in the Canary Islands, also admitted to hospital yesterday. Spanish health officials say still waiting for test results to come back on him. Two people living with him also at the hospital in the Canary Islands under observation.

At the moment, it looks like two people here, first test negative. Still waiting in a couple of days to see what the second tests will look like -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Nic, thank you very much. Appreciate it. We'll check back in with you. So, you let us know what's going on over there.

Now, over here, a little more to the east than south actually, there's a big hurricane bearing down. Specifically on Bermuda.

Let's get to Chad Myers.

How hard will it hit? Where will it hit? And then what?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, I see the eye going right over the island nation of Bermuda. Here's a live shot here from PTZTV.com. You can see the wind blowing some of the trees, we're still hundreds of miles away from where this storm is going to make landfall.

Something else I'm watching this morning, Chris, is that the eye seems to be getting smaller. Think of an ice skater at the Olympics when she pulls her arms in, she spins faster. When that happens, we could get more spin. Right now, like they need that, the wind is 130 miles per hour here. The waves are 40 feet high. The storm surge will be at least ten feet from all directions, and it's moving right over Bermuda as either a category 4 where we are now, or 130 miles per hour, and the forecast is for it to die a few miles per hour, but 115.

Here's exactly what Bermuda looks like. Here's the island nation of Bermuda. So, for a while as the eye goes over the island, we're going to get waves from this way. And then as the eye goes by, the waves are going to be coming from this way. So both sides of the island will get surge. Certainly, there will be damage in Bermuda. Right now, we don't know how much. If the eye tightens up it will be significantly worse -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Chad, we'll be watching it. You always have to. Even if it doesn't hit, the effects usually go beyond what's expected.

So, Chad, thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. This one looks particularly serious.

CUOMO: All right. And there are some stunning charges from the whistle-blowing nurse who cared for an Ebola-infected colleague at Texas Presbyterian Hospital. You need to hear both sides of this, because you heard from the management yesterday. Her accusations about the hospital and readiness in general? Pretty stunning.

We have an interview with her. It's up ahead. She's very emotional. You'll want to see it.

(COMMERICAL BREAK)

CUOMO: We still can't be sure what was really going on inside Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital. We heard one version from management yesterday before Congress, right? Now you can hear from a staffer who helped treat Ebola patient there and fellow nurse, Nina Pham.

She is Briana Aguirre. And she says the hospital did not give staff training or even give them adequate protection. She tells Anderson Cooper when she finally did get hazmat gear, it left a big chunk of her neck exposed. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You were involved in the treatment of Nina Pham. What was that like? What was the protective gear that you yourself wore?

BRIANA AGUIRRE, DALLAS NURSE: On the day that I took care of her, it was my first time being involved and in the care of any potential or confirmed Ebola case in my hospital. And you know, they asked me if I had been in there, if I had been trained. And I said no, I have not.

COOPER: And what was the gear that they gave you?

AGUIRRE: So, I went over there, I had the infectious disease department -- the infectious department and I had the -- some representative from the CDC there telling us what to put on. And they were going over the different changes they made because, you know, they before they were putting on three pairs of gloves, now they were putting on two. And they were saying, this is the system, we've moved to now.

And it was, it was a Tyvek suit. A white, Tyvek suit. What I assume was a hazmat suit. It was only available in one size, it didn't fit us all and other people were given yellow DuPont suits. And I'm not sure which one is superior to another. They're not exactly designed the same. But depending on your size, you know, you had to fit which one, get which one fit you.

And so, we had that suit on. A pair of surgical boot covers, just cover your shoes, and then a taller pair of surgical boot covers that go up to either mid calf or almost to my knee. And then we had on a pair of long gloves, about to here, taped to the Tyvek suit. And then another pair of long gloves on over the top of that. So, a total of two.

We had a hood on, over our head. Both types of suits had a hood that just went around here. And it came to a zip at the base of our necks.

We had on a paper machine, a form of airborne isolation. That is a machine you hook around your waist. It leads by a tube up to a hood. That sits on the base, the crown of your head and goes, covers your face with a shield and goes under your chin.

And then because the zipper of the suit was a -- a source of, you know, contamination, we had an apron on covering that zipper seam, so that, you know, no bodily fluids or anything could penetrate that and go to our under layer of clothing.

COOPER: But your neck, was your neck exposed?

AGUIRRE: Absolutely. Yes. There's a --

COOPER: What part of your neck?

AGUIRRE: Well, the zipper ended about here on me. And the hood ended about hear on me.

And, you know, this part right here made a triangle that was open. It was -- it was completely open. And the very first time that they were instructing me how to put this on, is exactly the point when I said, "Why would my neck be exposed?" I just told them, "Why would an area so close to my mouth and my nose, why would that be exposed?"

And they didn't have an answer.

COOPER: What did they say? Was there any follow-up when you raised objections? To what is clearly a ridiculous situation, a dangerous situation?

AGUIRRE: I immediately felt like it was ridiculous, and I immediately posed the same question that you're posing to me, you know, asking me right now. I said why? Why? What explanation can you give me, or anyone, about why we would be in the second week of an Ebola crisis in our hospital, and we don't even have the same equipment or protection that's given to sanitation workers that have no contact with patients at all? And they said, we know, we've ordered it.

COOPER: I can't believe their response was, well, we've ordered it. I mean, that's inexcusable.

AGUIRRE: Two weeks? I mean, I could have, not to be taken lightly, but I'm sure I could have ordered that on Amazon Prime and had it in two days. It's outrageous, and the most outrageous part about it is, is that every time I think about the facts that I'm saying right now, I just know that the nurses that have been infected, they were dealing with the same equipment while they were dealing with so much more than I dealt with personally. And they put their lives on the line and without the proper equipment. And there's nothing --

COOPER: You believe nurse Pham was wearing that kind of equipment when she was exposed?

AGUIRRE: I know she was because the equipment we needed was still on order.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Still on order.

CAMEROTA: Yes, well, I mean, she's asking all of the right questions, she's raising all of the right red flags, but it has not been resolved, obviously.

PEREIRA: She's very emotional, you can understand why.

CUOMO: You know how it is, I mean, if you've ever been around hospital workers, they're very tight. They're doing some of the most difficult work imaginable.

PEREIRA: Long shifts, long hours.

CUOMO: And they lean very heavily on each other. Two problems here, one is the exposure. The second is do you hear all those layers?

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: That sounds great in terms of, well, they have enough layers.

CAMEROTA: Removal, that's the issue.

CUOMO: But you have to take them off, and that's why it gets so complicated. You're exhausted, you're dealing, you know, with very specific types of margins of error which are very small, and it becomes part of the problem. What protects you becomes part of the risk.

CAMEROTA: Coming up, we're going to talk to somebody who has been very critical of the CDC guidelines, so stick around for that. Health care workers and airplane employees are finding themselves on the front lines of the battle to stop Ebola. So, are companies headed for a slew of lawsuits?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Welcome back, we have learned this morning a health care worker who may have handled lab specimens from Thomas Eric Duncan in Texas has been self-monitoring on board a cruise ship in the Caribbean. The State Department says the person has so far shown no signs of Ebola and dealt with the sample almost three weeks ago. Three weeks ago Sunday. But, the government contacted authorities in Belize to make them aware.

Now, with this issue spreading, tough legal questions need to be answered as hospitals, airlines, now cruise ships and other big industries face fallout associated with Ebola. Here to help us sort it all out Mel Robbins, CNN commentator and legal analyst, and Mary Schiavo, CNN aviation analyst and former Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Transportation. The perfect people to discuss it all.

First of all, I think I want to play a little bit of sound, because we just heard that really emotional sound from Anderson Cooper talking Briana Aguirre, the nurse. Her attorney now addresses this question, Mel, of legal protection for whistle-blowers in Texas. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

ROB KELLY, BRIANA AGUIRRE'S ATTORNEY: The whistle protection blower laws in Texas are not that strong. That's why what I would really like, to be able to avoid any kind of litigation or any lawsuit. If I could, making a public request to Jim Burke, who's the president of the hospital, to contact you, Anderson, go on record and say, look, we recognize that this nurse is a hero and her job is in no way in jeopardy as a result of what happened.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

PEREIRA: So, Mel, could her job be in jeopardy? Could she face getting fired, and would the hospital then have to face the blow-back for doing that?

MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, you know, good morning, Michaela. Good morning, Mary. Bob Kelly, the guy you just heard from is one of the top malpractice, medical malpractice and whistle-blower attorneys in the country. He's based in Florida and he's absolutely right.

First of all, the whistle-blower statute in Texas only applies if you're a government employee, and she's working for a private entity hospital that has union laws involved. But Michaela, here's something that's interesting, there is protection for health care workers, but only if they're reporting a violation of the law.

PEREIRA: Oh.

ROBBINS: So it's not clear here, and this attorney is very, very smart to go the PR angle, Michaela.

PEREIRA: We just heard, Mel, too that the nurse said that she doesn't feel they had the proper equipment, that it was on order. Do they have any legal repercussions that can be taken on their behalf?

ROBBINS: You know, this is, I think we're in new territory here.

PEREIRA: Yes, yes.

ROBBINS: The fact that it's on order, the fact that this crisis was kind of unfolding, the fact that this is not willful behavior, that it sounds like it's negligent behavior, I think that makes it more difficult to prove, too, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Let's turn to transportation. Mary, I'll talk airlines in a second, but this new news of a patient aboard Carnival cruise ship, who was a lab supervisor at Texas Presbyterian, is on board that cruise ship and is now self-quarantined. It brings up the question, should we be asking these people not to be traveling at all, and wasn't that sort of put in place? Wasn't that suggestion already made?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, absolutely we should stop travel because there are two components to it. It's not just everyone on the cruise ship is now going to get Ebola, we know that's not going to happen, or everybody on planes to and from Cleveland. I mean, that's not going to happen. Some people are at risk, perhaps, but what is going to happen, and what we know for sure now for every one person, we have the numbers now.

For the young woman who flew to Cleveland, the CDC is now searching for 300 people and that can expand exponentially. If the gentleman were to get sick on the cruise ship, we would be searching, not for 300 people, but more likely 3,000-plus people. So, the travel ban serves not only to keep people from getting sick, but also to stop a crisis in the transportation industry, which is where monitoring everybody, because it expands exponentially.

PEREIRA: And also to tap the brakes on the fear factor, too because we have to mitigate the risk, but let's look at the science. Unless these people are in that height of showing symptoms, they're not going to sicken people.

SCHIAVO: Well, that's what the science tells us. You know, like I said, I can't help but notice that a lot of the people who had the protective suits are the ones getting sick, so the public doesn't trust a lot of the information. So, stopping the fear is also part of it, but you do that by eliminating the risk.

You say, look, we've put a travel ban in place. 21 days, for example, if we were to stop this, stop it now, somebody has to get control of this. Then people would know, okay, people are not traveling who have been exposed to the virus. Right now we have no way of knowing that, and if the World Health Organization is right, and the cases, at least in Africa, are going to increase to 5,000 to 10,000 a week, we could, without a travel ban, we could be looking at a lot of people here, and every country in Africa has instituted a travel ban.

PEREIRA: Right, the president saying yesterday that he doesn't have a philosophical objection necessarily to a travel ban, if it's the thing that's going to keep Americans safe. I want to talk about one of the aspects here, Mel. We've got a lot of people, if you're looking at potential contacts, I think about those people as potentially being people that could have legal recourse. You've got people that clean the ambulance, you've got the hospital workers that are removing the waste, not just the health care workers, but there's just a whole list of people. Are there structures in place that give, allow these people some sort of legal avenue?

ROBBINS: Well, let's talk about Texas first, okay? And when we're talking about travel bans just as a way to allay fear, I hope we're just talking about travel bans for health care workers in Dallas that have come in contact with anybody that has Ebola. That's number.

Number two, medical malpractice laws in Texas are extremely tough, Michaela. You have to prove that there was willful and wanton conduct on behalf of the medical workers. So, unless you can prove that doctors, or that hospitals, or that anybody was acting willfully in the way in which they handled these, you know, Mr. Duncan or the two new nurses that have been diagnosed, there is no medical malpractice claim that's going to be successful in court in the state of Texas, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Interesting conversation to have with us. Thanks so much, Mel Robbins, Mary Schiavo. As always, our appreciation. Chris?

CUOMO: Alright, thank you very much, Mich. We're following a lot of different angles on what's going on with Ebola, and there's a lot of other news as well, so what do you think?

CAMEROTA: Let's get to it.

CUOMO: Alright.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nina Pham has arrived here at the National Institutes of Health.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amber Vinson may have already been showing symptoms when she boarded that flight from Dallas to Ohio.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After multiple calls, the CDC said that it was okay for her to fly.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I understand that people are scared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: President Barack Obama signals openness to appointing an Ebola czar.

OBAMA: We are taking this very seriously at the highest levels.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we know whether or not the protocol works?

A: I'm so tired of hearing their explanations that don't mean anything to anyone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was there actual training?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone, welcome back to NEW DAY. I'm Alisyn Camerota joined by Chris Cuomo. Critical new developments in the battle to contain Ebola.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

CAMEROTA (voice-over): Infected Dallas nurse, Nina Pham, has been transferred overnight to the National Institutes of Health in Maryland. Before she left, she recorded a tearful video from inside her Texas isolation unit.

CUOMO (voice-over): Look at what life was like for her there. Some good news for her as well, I mean when she walked on to the plane herself, that's good. It looks like she is doing well in her fight, but there is some troubling news on the other infected nurse. The CDC now confirms Pham's colleague, Amber Vinson, may have been showing Ebola symptoms as early as last Friday when she flew from Texas to Ohio.

Remember, we'd only been looking at the flight coming back. That means every passenger on that plane, as well as the passengers on that return flight Monday, now have to be contacted. This is leading to more scrutiny. The CDC director, the man on your screen, Dr. Tom Friedan, he took a pounding on Capitol Hill about the CDC's response. The question is, is this just about heat, or will there be some light and change? Let's start our coverage of the Ebola situation this morning in Akron, Ohio, with national correspondent Susan Candiotti.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

CUOMO (on camera): Susan, what do we know?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. Well, here in Northeast Ohio at this hour, a dozen people are quarantined because of contact with nurse Amber Vinson, and there is this. Health officials are also looking for anyone else who might have had contact with Vinson during a three-hour visit to a bridal shop on Saturday. Health officials would like to talk with them.

And there is new information about fellow Ebola nurse, Nina Pham. We are hearing from her for the very first time.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: Overnight, the first critical care nurse to contract Ebola arriving at the National Institutes of Health clinical center in Maryland.