Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Fight Over Quarantine for U.S. Ebola Workers; Canada Gunman Prepared Video of Himself; Will Jeb Bush Run In 2016?; Mourning Zoe Galasso; New Kidnappings by Nigerian Insurgents

Aired October 27, 2014 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Living in isolation. A U.S. nurse returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa furious when she is placed in mandatory quarantine in a tent in New Jersey. The White House butting heads with governors over which precautions are necessary to prevent the virus from spreading. The very latest, ahead.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning: a second student shot Friday in a high school cafeteria died overnight. That as the community tries to make sense of the tragedy.

ROMANS: Could a third Bush, a third Bush be ready to run for president? Jeb Bush's son stirring new speculation over his father's plans for 2016? Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. It's 30 minutes past the hour this morning. And this morning, there is major controversy. New confusion over ever changing policies over how medical personnel returning from the Ebola outbreak zone in West Africa should be treated once they get here to the United States.

New York State backing off the mandatory 21-day hospital stay and allowing patients to be quarantined at home. New Jersey also clarifying its quarantine allowing returning health care workers to be confined at home if possible.

However, a nurse quarantined in a New Jersey hospital tent with no shower and just a portable toilet is criticizing Governor Chris Christie for diagnosing her as sick even though he, of course, is not a doctor.

The symptoms of the doctor being treated for the disease in a New York hospital have progressed. Officials at Bellevue Hospital say Dr. Craig Spencer did look better on Sunday than Saturday, still though they declared his condition serious but stable.

CNN senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us now with more from Bellevue.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, here at Bellevue, Dr. Craig Spencer is now in serious condition. Doctors say he's moved into the next phase of his illness. He now has gastrointestinal symptoms. He is getting a blood transfusion, a plasma transfusion actually from Nancy Writebol.

She is an Ebola survivor who was treated at Emory University. He is also getting anti-viral medication. The doctors are not saying exactly what, but likely it's an experimental medication. It may be (inaudible), which is a medicine that's been given to other Ebola patients.

Here in New York and in New Jersey, the quarantine controversy rages on. At the center of it, a nurse named, Kaci Hickox, she flew from Sierra Leone into Newark Airport on Friday and she wasn't sick.

She was feeling fine, but she was sent to the hospital where she has remained in isolation. She doesn't have a temperature. She tested negative for Ebola twice. She says she is feeling fine, but her spirits are sometimes low.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KACI HICKOX, QUARANTINED NURSE (via telephone): Everyone keeps asking how are you feeling physically? And of course, I feel fine physically. I don't think most people understand what it's like to be alone in a tent and to know there's nothing wrong with you. And the decisions are be made that don't make sense and show no compassion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: After I spoke with Hickox, I spoke with Dr. Rick Sacra. He is a health care worker who's worked in West Africa and an Ebola survivor. He says he doesn't understand why Hickox is being quarantined. She doesn't have Ebola. She is not sick.

So how could she possibly give the disease to anyone? Governor Chris Christie says he is protecting the public health -- Christine and John.

ROMANS: All right, Elizabeth, thank you for that. Now New Jersey Governor Christie and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, they are still standing by their decision to quarantine anyone arriving in the United States from West African countries where they had direct contact with Ebola patients.

That's even though the governors have clarified that they can stay at home if possible. The Obama administration pushing back and arguing what they view as unnecessary quarantines will discourage health care workers from fighting Ebola at its source.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY: I'm sorry if she was inconvenienced. The inconvenience that could occur from having people symptomatic and ill out in public is a much, much greater concern of mine.

ANDREW CUOMO (D), GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK: We are staying one step ahead. We are doing everything possible. Some people will say we are being too cautious. I'll take that criticism because that's better than the alternative.

SAMANTHA POWER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: We need to find a way when they come home that they are treated like heroes and not stigmatized for the tremendous work that they have done.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: The Texas nurses who cared for the first U.S. Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, say confronted major obstacles including inadequate protection guidelines from the CDC and also lies they say Duncan told about his exposure to Ebola.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital nurses tell CBS that Duncan initially told them he had come from Africa, only later specifying Liberia. They say he misled officials about other possible sources of exposure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What information was it that he denied to the health officials?

SIDIA ROSE, TEXAS HEALTH PRESBYTERIAN NURSE: About his travels, about his hand-bearing his pregnant daughter who died in child birth. He denied that he said that's not true.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So he wasn't honest with them?

ROSE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Thomas Eric Duncan's fiancee is struggling to put her life back together with the help of her church. More than a week of passing the 21-day isolation period for Ebola, Louise Troh, her son and nephews are still looking for a new place to live.

Troh's pastor tells the "Dallas Morning News" that landlords are reluctant to rent to them and that nearly all of the family's belongings were destroyed in the decontamination process.

ROMANS: All right, now, there is no cure for Ebola, but governments and pharmaceutical companies working together committing millions of dollars to change that. The two leading vaccines to protect against the virus both being funded with public and private money.

One was developed by the U.S. National Institute of Health and GlaxoSmithKline. The other initially developed by the public health agency of Canada.

It's now owned by a small U.S. drug maker, still unclear who will pay for the drugs. But pharma companies are betting on high demand from governments and aid groups. Time for an EARLY START on your money this morning, European stocks moving lower on a troubling report about Germany's economy and U.S. stock futures barely moving this Monday morning coming off the best week of the year for stocks. We had a strong, strong reading earlier from European stocks. They turned lower on that German number.

BERMAN: All right, 36 minutes after the hour. We are learning details about the deadly attack in Canada's National War Memorial and Parliament. The gunman prepared a video showing he was driven by ideological and political motives.

Officials say they are investigating Michael Zehaf-Bibeau's interaction with numerous people in the days leading up to the shooting to try and determine whether those individuals that he had contact with had anything to do with the attack.

ROMANS: All right, could we see Bush versus Clinton again in 2016? This time it would be a different Bush, Jeb facing Hillary. There has been plenty of speculation about both of these potential candidates. On Sunday, Jeb's son, George P. Bush in an ABC interview, he gave the clearest sign yet of what his father may be thinking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is your dad going to run for president?

GEORGE P. BUSH, JEB BUSH'S SON: I think he is still assessing it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it more than 50 percent or less than 50 percent?

BUSH: I think it is more than likely that he is giving this serious thought.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That he will run?

BUSH: That he will run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Jeb's eldest son is running for Texas land commissioner. A lot has been made on Jeb Bush's political positions on education, for example, on immigration. He has also been out there in this midterm season. He has been standing up at rallies for other candidates. He has definitely got the network and still has skin in the game.

BERMAN: It will not be a clear path for him because support for the common core and also immigration reform may be difficult for him in the Republican primary. He goes in with a lot of advantages as well.

It's 37 minutes after the hour. The death toll rising and the war being waged by ISIS in the key Syrian city. We are live now in what is being done to stop ISIS from taking over that town.

Plus, another victim from Friday's school shooting died overnight. What we are learning new this morning about this tragedy next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: New developments this morning in the battle against ISIS. In Iraq, government troops have retaken a town south of Baghdad from ISIS fighters. Further north, Kurdish Peshmerga forces have regained control of the town just west of the Mosul Dam.

A Syrian human rights group says that ISIS fighters make up the majority of those killed in the ISIS fight to take the strategic city of Kobani. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says, 518 people who have died in the fighting, 481 were with ISIS, 21 were Kurdish civilians and the rest were Kurdish fighters.

Let's bring in CNN's Nick Paton Walsh. He is on the near the border between Turkey and Syria with the latest on this battle for Kobani -- Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, the human rights say the figures are not final, but there are more that lost their lives in the weeks of fighting. That gives us a clearer idea of the casualties that ISIS has sustained.

Significantly more than the Kurds and the coalition the airstrikes must have brought upon the outskirts of town. We have been speaking to Kurdish who had been trying to move into the city center overnight. They successfully repelled that bid from the east to the border crossing.

The question now, John, is when do the Peshmerga arrive? The Iraqi- Kurdish fighters have expected to travel from Northern Iraq through Turkey and arriving Kobani where the Syrian Kurds say they badly need heavy weapons.

They hope the Peshmerga will bring with them. A lot of confusion now, the Turkish president saying he was not sure the Syrian Kurds wanted the Peshmerga fighters to join them. Confusion if they wanted that victory for Kurds.

Now suggestions and media reports from the Kurdish side that mission may be diluted to supplying weapons, a very confused picture. We don't have the Peshmerga in sight. We are still waiting for ISIS to pull back. Instead, they seem to advance to the center again. And yesterday, sound of clashes is intense over Kobani -- John.

BERMAN: No reinforcements, Nick, and confusion reigns as it often does in this conflict. Nick Paton Walsh for us on the border between Turkey and Syria, thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right, breaking overnight, a 14-year-old girl wounded in the Washington high school shooting has died. Gia Soriano had been in critical with head injuries. She succumbed to those wounds Sunday night. Her family is devastated by this, quote, "senseless tragedy."

Another student, Zoe Galasso died at the scene Friday. People who knew her described her as vibrant and larger than life. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell me about her.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The goofiest girl. Loving. Airhead. She just brought happiness. She was a beautiful soul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Police now trying to piece together a motive. Three other Marysville-Pilchuck High School students are in the hospital fighting for their lives this morning. Two of the students are the shooter's own cousins.

BERMAN: Friends and family coming together to pay tribute to Hannah Graham. A memorial was set up Sunday on the campus of the University of Virginia. Students came by throughout the day to leave flowers in memory of the sophomore who vanished last month.

Human remains discovered on an abandoned property eight miles from where Graham was last seen. They were identified on Friday as belonging to Graham.

ROMANS: All right, 45 minutes past the hour. Indra Petersons, she is here with us this Monday morning with an EARLY START on the forecast for the week. Hi, Indra.

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Finally a better forecast than last week. We had this nor'easter and rain. It will look better. High pressure in place, but that doesn't mean it will stay that way. We are looking at a frontal system that will start to slide across the country bringing showers already today around the lakes through Texas. Light rain.

We are not talking about a lot, but nonetheless by Wednesday in the northeast, you will see that change. It's only about 1 inch farther down south to 2 inches of rain.

You will notice the roller coaster of temperatures. In the east, 70s in New York City by tomorrow, extremely warm, temperatures will back down as the cold front makes its way through. Look at this.

We talk about temperatures above normal. Fall? Where? You're talking about 76 degrees in Chicago today. Temperatures almost 20 degrees above normal. That changes quickly once that frontal boundary kicks through.

Tomorrow, another 20-degree drop. Temperatures down to the 60s. We will talk about showers. Out west, if you are traveling that way, we have the remnants of Ana bringing more rain where they don't need it.

BERMAN: Thanks so much.

ROMANS: Let's look at what is coming up on "NEW DAY." Alyson Camerota joins us this morning. Happy Monday, Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": There are questions about Ebola and quarantined. New Jersey and New York are trying to keep people isolated after they come back from hot zones in West Africa. They say this is for the public safety.

But now both states are under fire from all sides. The White House is not happy and neither is a nurse already under quarantined. She is cutting loose against Governor Christie. We will have that debate and analysis.

We will talk to Dr. Rick Sacra who survived the disease after contracting it in Liberia. We will have all of that and more when Chris, Michaela and I see you on "NEW DAY" at the top of the hour.

ROMANS: All right, can't wait, thanks, Alisyn.

BERMAN: All right, 47 minutes after the hour. Terrorists kidnapping dozens of children, just the latest in the series of attacks by Boko Haram. We are live with all of the developments next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: So hopes for a cease-fire that the Nigerian government claimed it negotiated with insurgents, they have all but disappeared this morning. Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped at least 30 boys and girls from the northeast Nigerian village of Mafa over the weekend.

That is after they killed 17 in the nearby village last week and seized 60 women and girls from Christian villages in a neighboring state. CNN's Isha Sesay is live in the capital of Abusha this morning with the latest on the Boko Haram marauding and the claims that seem not to be true of the cease-fire by the government.

ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, there is no doubt the statements made by the government last week are increasingly questionable. Since that announcement has been made, there have been near daily attacks in Eastern Nigeria. You mentioned the attack in Mafa.

Children targeted, John, 30 boys and girls, boys as young as 13 and girls as young as 11 carried off by suspected Boko Haram militants. It is worth pointing out these attacks are in villages that are supposedly under a state of emergency.

There is an increased military presence there to protect residents. The residents are feeling so unsafe that the village of Mafa, they have left their homes and seeking safety in the state capital. It is a horrifying reality that people in the part of the country have been dealing with for years.

All of this begging the question will those 200 plus girls taken in April really be released as the government has long been saying given the events taking place on the ground -- John.

BERMAN: It keeps going on, such a tragedy for all the families involved. Isha Sesay for us in Abuja, thank you so much.

ROMANS: The most important economic indicator is what you pay at the gas pump. How low can they go? An EARLY START on your money is next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right. Let's get an early start. European stocks losing those early gains after a new report shows business confidence in Germany in declining. Germany, of course, is a huge economy. U.S. stock futures lightly lower this morning.

Last week was the best week of the year for stocks. Look at the chart. Dow climbed 425 points. That is about 2.6 percent. S&P 500, it did even better, it climbed more than 4 percent.

This week, the Federal Reserve is expected to end the bond buying stimulus program that propped up the stock market for so many months now.

Gas prices are plunging. The average price for a gallon of regular is $3.03, the lowest price in almost four years. It is down 30 cents from a month ago. It is down 60 cents from prices over the summer. Experts say prices could fall a bit more. Why?

Oil prices are falling. Crude oil is about $81 a barrel this morning compared to $107 over the summer. Oil prices are down on weak global demand and booming oil supplies especially right here in the U.S.

Sitting in traffic is a headache and apparently is expensive. A new study finds the cost of traffic gridlock in the U.S. and Europe will soar to $293 billion a year. That's up 50 percent from last year. The cost includes value of fuel and wasted time not productive at work. The report warns of carmageddon. Congestion is getting a lot worst.

BERMAN: It is presumption to think I will not be productive at work.

ROMANS: My best ideas come when I'm stuck in traffic.

BERMAN: All right, "NEW DAY" starts right now.