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Kerry Says No One Country Responsible for Ebola Fight; CDC States Ebola Patient May Have Exposed Hundreds; Ebola Worker Returning to Texas; Cruise Ship Isolates Ebola Health Worker; Tide May Be Turning in Kobani; Kurds Offering Intel; Ebola Czar; Interview with Reps. DeGette and Blackburn

Aired October 17, 2014 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 6:00 p.m. in London, 8:00 p.m. in Istanbul, midnight in Ha Noi. Wherever you're watching from the around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

We begin with the latest on the Ebola crisis. Earlier today, CNN's Jake Tapper broke the news that President Obama will name an Ebola czar. The White House insider, Ron Klain, will coordinate the entire federal response to the threat. The White House will hold a briefing this hour. We'll bring you it live once it happens.

Meanwhile, the secretary of state, John Kerry, says the fight against Ebola needs to be an international fight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Meeting this crisis is going to require that we draw on each other's collective experience and our collective capacities. No one country, no individual group of nations is going to resolve this problem by themselves. This is going to take a collective global response, all hands on deck. That's the only way to get it done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: In Ohio, officials announce all people who came into contact with the latest Ebola patient, Amber Vinson, have been located and interviewed and there are still no Ebola cases confirmed in northeast Ohio. But Frontier Airlines is notifying as many as 800 passengers who shared either of the flights Vincent was on or the five flights after those before the plane was taken out of service and disinfected.

Meanwhile, the other nurse, Nina Pham, she is listed as being in fair condition. She's one of the two nurses infected with the Ebola virus at that Dallas hospital. Pham was moved to the National Institutes of Health Hospital overnight to be treated by a team of infectious disease experts. That's in Bethesda, Maryland, right outside of D.C.

And then, some good news. The World Health Organization has now declared that the West African nation of Senegal is free of Ebola. That means the country went 42 days with no new cases. As we mentioned, President Obama will name an Ebola czar. Ron Klain was a former chief of staff for the vice president, Joe Biden, as well as for the former vice president, Al Gore. He's currently president of Case Holdings and General Council of Revolution. That's an investment group based here in Washington. And he has worked at all three government branches, legislative, executive and judicial.

Let's talk about all of this with Dr. Celine Gounder. She's an infectious disease public health specialist. She's joining us from New York as well as our Chief Political Correspondent, Candy Crowley, the anchor of "STATE OF THE UNION."

Dr. Gounder, we just listed Klain's credentials. No medical degree. N real medical experience. Do you think that's a problem?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE PUBLIC HEALTH SPECIALIST: Wolf, the key here -- key word here is coordination. Managing the Ebola response is a bit like herding cats. You have a number of international players and nationally you have various federal agencies, state and local health departments, and the private sector. Most of our hospitals or clinics in this country are private. And so, it's difficult, for example, for someone like Tom Frieden, who's a CDC director, to try to manage folks and other agencies as well as at the state and local level and the private sector.

Klain has that experience as a Washington insider. He's worked in -- with various different federal agencies, has experience in the private sector, so really has the right management experience to break through some of the bureaucratic and regulatory obstacles here.

BLITZER: As you know, Candy, the presidentially initially resisted these outside calls for an Ebola czar. John McCain, the senator, he was one making that -- making that request of the president. But now he's come along. What does it say about the way the administration has handled this crisis, that they've now asked Ron Klain to come in and coordinate the effort?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It says they've lost control of the message and they understand that this Ebola virus has created fear. Let's face it, we're not -- within the United States, there are three cases. Mr. Duncan's tragic death and then two of the nurses who helped to treat him. That's tragic, but it's three people. What this administration is doing is dealing with is the fear of Ebola now more than anything.

So, yes, there has to be the coordination that Dr. Gounder just spoke of and certainly Ron Klain can do that. But this is a message guy and this is a man -- look, he was head of the fast response for the Gore campaign. I mean, he knows how to reach out and grab control of the message because the fear right now -- look at Wall Street. It's an economic -- you know, it's affected the economy by now. So, he is a message guy. And I think you've got plenty of doctors on this case, plenty of doctors he can call. And if you think the problem is the message, Ron Klain is probably your guy.

BLITZER: Yes, he can coordinate -- I don't know if he's the guy, though, who's going to be visible on television, --

CROWLEY: Right, we don't want that.

BLITZER: -- going out and doing a whole bunch of interviews, giving daily briefings, stuff like that. You really need, Dr. Gounder, a spokesperson for the administration who's got the credentials, who's got the expertise, who can reassure the nation that the government knows what it's doing. Isn't that right?

GOUNDER: Yes, we still need a surgeon general. So, Ron Klain's job is really going to be more about coordinating among the different agencies. It's more of a behind-the-scenes job, you might say. But we need a surgeon general, the doctor for the nation, to educate the public about Ebola and help under -- help them understand how the government's responding. There's really -- well, we don't have somebody right now. And Vivek Murthy was nominated about a year ago and his nomination has been held up for a number of reasons. But we really need somebody like that whose full-time job is just speaking to the American people.

BLITZER: And, Candy, as you know, there is no surgeon general. There's an acting surgeon control because the person the president nominated wants some gun controls. The National Rifle Association doesn't support that and his nomination has been held up in the Senate now for almost a year. We haven't heard at all from the acting surgeon general. The surgeon general of the United States is supposed to be the nation's doctor and that part of the government has been silent.

CROWLEY: Is missing. And, for that matter, HHS, you know, if in the second instance where that -- where has the secretary of HHS been? I think you saw a couple -- I think it was last Sunday, they put out a picture of the president phoning the HHS secretary to talk about Ebola. But there hasn't been someone out front and there needs to be.

And I think you're right. I don't think that's Klain. I don't think you'll see daily briefings from him. But I think he'll make sure the message gets out and that's where, I think, they have been lacking and everyone's going, well, who's running the show here? Now they have a name.

BLITZER: Candy, thanks very much. We'll see a lot more on this story coming up Sunday morning on "STATE OF THE UNION." And you're going to have Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health among your guests. A lot coming up on Candy's show this Sunday morning. And, Dr. Gounder, thanks to you as well. We'll continue our conversations.

Meanwhile, a cruise ship passenger is now under quarantine in the Caribbean. We're going to tell you what her connection is to the Texas Ebola case and what could happen next.

Also this hour, my family's powerful journey. We're going to follow along as I trace my roots from Poland when my grandparents died to my childhood home in Buffalo, New York.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: Another American health care worker is under quarantine, this time on a cruise ship in the Caribbean that it on its way home to Texas. But this worker didn't directly treat the Texas Ebola victim.

CNN'S Rene Marsh is with me here in Washington. This person is a laboratory worker. Tell us what happened.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, the situation, as we speak, this ship is right off the coast of Mexico. And this lab worker from the Texas Presbyterian hospital, she is self-quarantined along with her travel partner in her cabin. The reason for this is because -- and this is the exact wording from the State Department. She may have come into contact with the fluid samples from Thomas Duncan. Of course, we know that is the first Ebola case to make it here onto U.S. soil. So, that's the situation there.

I spoke with a passenger who is on -- who is on board this ship. I asked about the mood. He says that there's no sense of panic. However, this is something that people are talking about. All the computers are filled. People are Googling Ebola. So, they have some concern but no one is panicked at the time.

The current situation with the ship is they were supposed to stop in Cozumel so that the passengers could get off, enjoy this cruise here, but the authorities have not cleared them to do that. So, we just got word from the cruise line that they are heading back to Galveston, Texas now. Perhaps this has to do with the fact that this woman is on board. But we are stressing, the CDC says that very low risk as far as passing anything on to anyone on board. She has no symptoms and she was checked by a doctor who's on board this ship. So, the word from the health officials is very low risk.

BLITZER: I saw that, I think in the State Department's statement, she's being kept isolated in her own cabin, not walking around the deck, if you will?

MARSH: Right, that is the situation. She's again, away from everyone else with -- on board this ship. And, again, this passenger who I spoke to said that when the captain made the announcement that they had a health situation, the captain never used the word, Ebola. He simply said, there was a lab worker from Texas Presbyterian hospital who is self-quarantined within her cabin. She doesn't have symptoms but, again, this passenger telling me they never used the word Ebola. Perhaps they didn't want to get everyone panicked on board. But without even using the word Ebola, everyone knew what he was talking about.

BLITZER: And there -- some are already saying, why was she on this ship to begin with, knowing that she dealt with the laboratory work of the now dead Ebola patient? Why didn't she just stay in Dallas?

MARSH: Right. So, she got on the ship on October 12th. That was actually before she was notified that there was a change in the monitoring requirements. So, we know that there's been a shift in the monitoring requirements and that would acclaim why. Again, she didn't have symptoms when she got on the ship. BLITZER: Well, let's hope everything is OK. And we thank you very

much.

Much more ahead on the Ebola crisis. But first, coalition air strikes may finally be turning the tide, at least some suspect, in the Syrian city of Kobani. We're going to tell you what's changed about the intelligence that the U.S. and its coalition partners have been receiving from the ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: CNN has learned that for the first time the U.S. military is now getting intelligence from Syrian Kurds on the ground inside the besieged city of Kobani. They're offering up intelligence on ISIS positions. This news comes as a new round of coalition air strikes hit ISIS targets in the area. The town has been under siege by ISIS militants now for weeks, but their advances have been beaten back, at least a bit in recent days. Nick Paton Walsh is on the Syrian/Turkish border and he says there are disturbing new reports that ISIS has now taken to using warplanes of its own.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring the conflict, opposition activists, they say that over an air base to the east of Aleppo, the (INAUDIBLE) air base held by ISIS, residents have spotted three warplanes circling that base at a low altitude. The suggestion being that former Iraqi pilots have, in fact, been teaching ISIS militants to fly these planes. Now you have to bear in mind two words of caution here. These planes are going to be no match for the U.S. Air Force, so unlikely to have much longevity in the air if eventually used and, of course, they're going to lack the spares and potentially maintenance required to be effective for that long period of time. So ISIS short of an air force but certainly this shows both the scope of ambition they have to expand their capabilities and the sheer extent of former Iraqi military expertise that populate their ranks.

And where I'm standing now in Kobani, there is a quieter situation in the town certainly. We've been seeing two warplanes in the skies just in the last few minutes. And what we're hearing from Kurdish fighters down in the town is they say they control over 80 percent of it. In many ways, they think, too, they're pushing back to the east where ISIS used to be and down to the south where they were as well. And this is basically the results, everybody seems to agree now, of over 50 coalition air strikes in the past 72 hours, hammering ISIS positions around there, I think making it very hard for them to sustain a continued presence on their own front lines. And we've seen, too, how the access roads are being hit hard as well by those air strikes. In fact, we've just heard behind me there what looked like one explosion landing towards the city center.

But this, of course, suggests that we are seeing the Kurds increasingly in control of Kobani. I've just got off the phone with Salim Muslim (ph), their political leader of those Syrian Kurds, and he has said, look, the air strikes have been enormously helpful, obviously. He was deeply thankful to those coalition nations, but said now they need weapons, they need munitions, ammunition, they need anti-tank weaponry for the Kurds to be able to continue their increased hold on Kobani. So, a tough challenge still ahead for those down there. The Turkish border still a volatile place. Quite clear earlier on we saw the Turkish military not willing to let that many people through. We're hearing the jets in the skies above me now. A feeling I think that the fighting in Kobani is far from over but perhaps there's been a change on the ground through the dynamic of the coalition air strikes. The Kurds, though, appealing now for weapons to be able to hold that town.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, near Kobani.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And just ahead, we'll get more reaction to President Obama's decision to name an Ebola czar. I'll speak with two leading members of the U.S. House of Representatives. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Contentious Capitol hearing on the issue of Ebola. Joining us now, two congresswoman who were there as part of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Colorado Democrat Diana DeGette, who's the ranking Democrat on the committee. Also joining us, the Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn.

To both of you, thanks very much for joining us.

Congresswoman Blackburn, first to you. What's your reaction to the president's decision to name Ron Klain as the new Ebola czar?

REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R), TENNESSEE: Well, they needed one person to be in charge of coordination, but I'm one of those I would have loved to have seen someone like former Senator Bill Frist, who understands the mental and the governmental component, or General Honore, who did such a fine job after Katrina.

BLITZER: General Russel Honore, who was involved in Katrina.

BLACKBURN: Yes.

BLITZER: And Bill Frist was the former Senate majority leader, who himself is, what, he's a physician.

BLACKBURN: A physician.

BLITZER: He's a surgeon. He's a heart/lung transplant surgeon.

BLACKBURN: That's right.

BLITZER: What's your reaction, Congresswoman DeGette?

REP. DIANA DEGETTE (D), COLORADO: Well, I agree with Marsha that it's good to have somebody who can coordinate both the medical and the political and communication here. Ron has done this a lot.

I have a lot of faith in our CDC and our NIH medical personnel. I think that they're - that they're handling these things according to protocols. But I think it's good to have somebody to coordinate that. So I think it's good that the White House has done this.

BLITZER: You -- because Congresswoman DeGette, you asked some pretty pointed, tough questions at that hearing yesterday. It sounded to me like you - you weren't completely satisfied with all the answers you got.

DEGETTE: Well, I think that when Mr. Duncan presented himself at the hospital in Dallas, the way that it was --

BLITZER: He's the Liberian individual who had Ebola.

DEGETTE: He's the man who sadly has died now. And when he first presented himself, I thought the hospital handled this very poorly. And then I think that subsequent to that, some of the NIH directives were either not clear enough or else the hospital was not interpreting them clearly. And I think what we need to realize, and I'm sure Marsha would agree with me on this, is we shouldn't get hysterical over this. Ebola's not like the flu. It can't be transmitted by airborne transmission. But on the other hand, we need to have very clear guidelines about what we're going to do to handle these very few cases of people who have come into close contact with the bodily fluids of the sick people and then we need to treat those folks and get them better.

BLITZER: Right.

DEGETTE: And we need to focus on eliminating Ebola in West Africa. That's where we need to put our efforts.

BLITZER: So you mean you weren't happy, not with the NIH so much as the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, right, Congresswoman DeGette?

DEGETTE: That's right.

BLITZER: Yes, I just want to make sure that you're not critical of the National -

DEGETTE: I'm sorry, if I said NIH, I meant - yes, I meant CDC.

BLITZER: Yes, yes, you said NIH but I knew you meant CDC.

What about you? Were you - were you satisfied?

BLACKBURN: Well -- no, I was not. I think there has been a lack of clarity and great confusion coming from the CDC. There was underestimation. The hospitals across the country did not have and still do not have clear, precise guidance. There is lack of coordination on waste disposal and so many different areas the protocols being more precise in these protocols are something that we want to see. And as you've heard, there's unanimous agreement in this. We want to -- we're here to work with them to protect Americans.

BLITZER: Are the hospitals in your district in Tennessee ready? If somebody walks into the emergency room with Ebola, will they have the equipment, the gear, all the expertise that they need to get the job done?

BLACKBURN: We would hope that hospitals across the country -

BLITZER: I know we hope, but are they ready?

BLACKBURN: We would hope. That is something that we don't know. And this is something where the CDC should be more aggressive in coordinating that effort to be certain that every hospital has the gear that is necessary and knows what to do, rather than just say call the state health department.

BLITZER: And we've heard these horror stories out of the Dallas hospital.

BLACKBURN: Yes.

BLITZER: They didn't have the proper gear that -

BLACKBURN: Or how to dispose of the waste once they got it.

BLITZER: Yes. And as a result -

BLACKBURN: Yes.

BLITZER: Two nurses now are suffering from Ebola.

BLACKBURN: That's right.

BLITZER: I want both of you, congresswomen, please stay with us. We have a lot more questions, a lot more to discuss. For our international viewers, a separate program, "Leading Women," is up next. For our viewers here in the United States and North America, we're going to talk about the proposed Ebola travel bans, mandatory quarantines, the effort to try to protect U.S. military personnel now being deployed to West Africa. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)