Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
Mumps Outbreak in Midwest; Bush Meets With Chinese President; Gonzales Addresses Child Pornography Issue
Aired April 20, 2006 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: There's a new trend when it comes to air travel. Think of it as a yellow cab in the sky. CNN's Miles O'Brien has a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SCOTT: I travel at least once a week. You've got to be face to face. Travel has become much more difficult. Travel has become exhausting. Travel has become a job in itself. Getting from your home or your office to the airport, through the airport, to the plane. Can there not be an easier way to do this?
One of my wishes is that this concept of the air taxi with planes just sort of pulling up, I need to go here now, who's going there? Taxi service, but it just happens to go through the air, and it goes more than just around one city. I'd hop in one right now.
O'BRIEN (on camera): Hailing an airplane may seem like a fanciful notion, but business travelers may be ready to pay a little more for more tailored service. Those long lines, overcrowded, delayed and canceled flights might render old fashioned airline travel obsolete.
(voice-over): Ken Stackpoole of Emory Riddle Aeronautical University says the future of air travel is in smaller planes flying to smaller airports.
KEN STACKPOOLE, EMORY RIDDLE AERONAUTICAL UNIVERSITY: One of the positives of using small aircraft and the small airports is that the small airports are normally closer to the real destination that you want to get to.
O'BRIEN: Just one reason why Stackpoole says the air taxi concept is ready for takeoff. In fact, he says air taxi operators are already lined up to buy a new fleet of very light jets once FAA certification comes through. And the taxi fare for passengers, about $1 per mile.
STACKPOOLE: Within the next couple of years, you're going to be able to go to your nearest airport, flag down an air taxi pilot and fly to your destination, quicker, less expensive and at the time that you choose to fly, rather than on an airline schedule as we fly today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, she's no pooh bear looking for honey. This black bear is angry. The lady who owns the tree, well, she's not too happy, either. You get the bear facts on CNN LIVE TODAY.
And next, a mostly forgotten disease now making an unwelcome comeback. What you should know about the mumps outbreak, straight ahead.
But first, a look at the numbers. Pretty promising. The Dow up 88 points and overall, the industrials are up about 91 points. The NASDAQ up two points and the S&P also up seven points.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: The mumps, a common childhood illness, is making a comeback. The Midwest is seeing its worst outbreak in two decades. The CDC reports more than 1,000 cases of mumps spread across eight states, and there are concerns that many more people are at risk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CDC DIRECTOR: We will not be surprised if we see more people affected, either in the college context or as students spend time with their families or with their community friends. We will continue to see some extension of this outbreak into the community level. And we need to be prepared for that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: That's Dr. Julie Gerberding, who is the head of the CDC.
Now you're looking at Dr. Phyllis Kozarsky. She's an infectious disease specialist at the Emory University School of Medicine right here in Atlanta.
Good to see you, doctor. Why is mumps now experiencing this outbreak?
DR. PHYLLIS KOZARSKY, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: I don't think anybody is quite sure, and the state health departments of those states involved, along with CDC, are doing quite an investigation to try to determine exactly what happened. The vaccine, although very efficacious, is not 100 percent. And so -- we're seeing breakthroughs in people who have been previously immunized.
WHITFIELD: Does it concern you at all that the numbers reached the hundreds before most of the country knew about it? Does that mean that the medical community as a whole was learning about it at the same time the general public was?
KOZARSKY: I think pretty much so. This was not particularly expected, and it's an illness that most healthcare providers and most of the American public does not remember and has not seen for quite a while.
WHITFIELD: Yes, a lot of people are really out of practice, unless they have small kids who are getting their mumps, measles, rubella shots right now. A lot of folks are thinking, you know what, mumps, what is that? We don't even have that anymore.
KOZARSKY: Absolutely. We do see it, and sometimes a few hundred cases way back in 2001. But the vaccine is very effective and has been around since 1967. So the number of cases seen has gone down about 90 -- over 99 percent.
WHITFIELD: So if we have about a thousand reported cases right now, the majority in Iowa, what's the explanation as to why so many people? Do we think many of these people didn't get their mumps shots or vaccines or that perhaps their vaccines wore off or could they be in that 10 percent category of people who still, you know, will get mumps even though they've had a vaccine?
KOZARSKY: I think all of those things could be true. For the most part, most people do get mumps vaccine now. And the mumps vaccine, although very effective, is not 100 percent. So you may see waning immunity with time, and I think the investigation will look into all of these things.
WHITFIELD: So what do we all need to be thinking about right now? We know our small kids need to get their mumps, measles, rubella shots. But how about everybody else? Does it mean that many of us who got it a long time ago need to think about getting another vaccine now?
KOZARSKY: Not necessarily. I think with time, we'll know a little bit more. I think it's very important to reinforce to all parents, certainly, that childhood vaccines are very, very important, and also to alert people, especially in the states involved -- and we have no reason to expect that this won't continue for a while in a lot of communities -- for awareness of both families and the physician and health care provider sectors to the fact that mumps is occurring and to expect that people will present with just mild viral illness and then go on to develop the typical, sometimes chipmunk look of mumps.
WHITFIELD: Was that was what it was like for you when you got it? Because you did tell me you'd had it before.
KOZARSKY: I have to admit -- it does age me, because most people in the United States who were born before 1957 actually did get mumps and measles and those what we call childhood diseases.
WHITFIELD: All right. But you moved on, you survived, and now you're talking all about it.
All right, Dr. Phyllis Kozarsky, thank you so much.
KOZARSKY: You're welcome.
WHITFIELD: At Emory University Hospital.
Well, minivan, mini driver, big trouble. The story of a third grader's joyride, straight ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY.
And weird pedicures. We head to Japan, where a special beauty treatment is all the rage. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well now let's talk a little pampering. And Chad Myers, I'm going to bring you in here, because you know, Maybe you're looking for the perfect pedicure for yourself, or perhaps even your wife. If you need a pedicure, you may want to go to the Japanese mountain resort, like this one. The water is fine. Why? Because of these little squiggly things swimming around.
The resort uses these tiny little fish, which happen to have enormous appetite. And yes, they are feeding off her feet, because apparently they like to eat some of the dead skin. Ew, very gross. And somehow the women find this to be a rather enjoyable experience. I guess, the men, too who get their pedicures there. The folks are lining up -- lining up, Chad, every day to get this toe-tickling little treatment.
What do you think? would you bite?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I think that would really annoy me. I don't know.
WHITFIELD: I wouldn't like that either, and I love a good pedicure, but no, I don't think I want little fishies swimming in between my toes and that. That freaks me out at the beach.
MYERS: Well, that person had perfect nails. I mean, it that was a great pedicure already, so I don't know what she was doing.
WHITFIELD: Maybe she's a regular.
MYERS: Maybe.
Just glad not piranhas down there.
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: When it comes to satisfaction, do equality and sex make good bedroom partners? A new revealing study coming up. Details straight ahead on LIVE TODAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD:: I want to take you to Washington D.C. While inside the White House private talks are taking place between Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Bush, outside a lot of people gathering. We don't know if the majority happen to be demonstrators, protesters or supporters of either side.
But this is taking place just as less than an hour ago, while President Hu was speaking there on the White House lawn, with President Bush being a close witness to a heckler yelling in Chinese -- was in the rafters where a number of the foreign press were assembled, and started heckling just as President Hu was speaking. She was very quickly carried away, escorted away from armed -- or rather uniformed officers there at the White House, but still continuing. A number of people gathering outside the White House as the two presidents meet behind closed doors inside the White House.
(MARKET REPORT)
WHITFIELD: Well, they came with baseball tickets, they left with airline tickets.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: St. Louis, we think. I think we're going to go to St. Louis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have family there?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, we're just going to go on vacation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I thought it was a joke at first, yes, but now I'm going to Las Vegas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: OK, so it wasn't baseball. It was basketball tickets. Nonetheless, now they get to go somewhere. Fan appreciation night, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Speaking at the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales talking about an issue he feels passionate about, protecting children. Earlier, he talked about very disturbing evidence that he found on the Web. And we warn you, some of the details are very graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I've seen pictures of older men forcing naked young girls to have anal sex. There are videos on the Internet of very young daughters forced to have intercourse and oral sex with their fathers. Viewing this was beyond shocking, and it makes my stomach turn. But while these descriptions may make some uncomfortable, we will not defeat this threat unless we all really understand the nature of the child pornography that is now prevalent on the Internet.
As a chief law enforcement officer of the United States, my job is to investigate and prosecute crimes against our children. Changes in technology have made that much more difficult. And, of course, privacy rights must always be accommodated and protected as we conduct our investigations, but I fear that if we do not do more, if parents, community, business, civic industry and political leaders do not work better together, then we will lose this fight on behalf of our children.
And so today my message to the American people...
(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: Very disturbing information there, but the Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez feeling very passionately that people need to come to grips and face the reality of this that is taking place. He is going to be live on LIVE FROM later today. You'll want to stick around for that.
Meantime, getting tough on illegal immigration. The Feds round up hundreds of workers in dozens of cities, but the employees aren't the only ones in legal trouble. A new crackdown, straight ahead on LIVE TODAY.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
