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New Day

Dallas Ebola Patient Fighting For His Life; U.S. May Increase Airport Screening; FBI Director: A Dozen Americans Fighting for ISIS in Syria; Fifth American with Ebola Back in U.S.

Aired October 06, 2014 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, the NBC cameraman infected with Ebola now back in the U.S. This, as the Dallas patient's condition turns for the worse. And the last man who may have had contact with him finally found.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Stopping the spread. The CDC and the White House now considering extra screenings at airports. This as more U.S. lawmakers say all flights from Ebola-stricken countries should be halted. We're covering it all.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Frightening words from the FBI director, saying that Americans who joined ISIS can come back to the U.S., but the FBI will track them. And what he says about the threat of from the al Qaeda off-shoot Khorasan.

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning, welcome to NEW DAY. It is Monday, October 6th, 6:00 in the East. Alisyn Camerota joining us. Very nice to have you.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much, great to be with you guys. A lot of breaking news today.

CUOMO: Yes, you bring news with you. Just moments ago, the fifth American to be infected with Ebola now back on U.S. soil. 33-year-old Ashoka Mukpo. He's a freelance photographer for NBC. He touched down in a specially equipped plane after being evacuated from Liberia. Now, while the U.S. government says there is no cause for concern with each new case it does seem to be upping the urgency nonetheless. Now considering increased screenings at major airports to prevent a full- blown outbreak.

How would that work, and is there a chance they'll ban travel to affected countries? Those are the questions, and we're covering every angle of them for you this morning, beginning with senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen in Dallas. Now, that's where an Ebola- infected man from Liberia is battling to stay alive this morning. Elizabeth?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. Chris, while Thomas Eric Duncan is in the hospital, authorities here are trying to keep Ebola from spreading in Dallas, and trying to keep it from coming to our shores once again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. TOM FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: People are scared. It's normal to be scared.

COHEN (voice-over): This morning, CNN has learned U.S. officials are considering new screenings at airports to detect passengers arriving by the CDC itself. Lawmakers are now calling for the U.S. to halt flights from Ebola-stricken nations to America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not do everything we can to prevent this awful epidemic, this awful disease from coming further into the United States.

COHEN: A step the CDC says goes too far.

FRIEDEN: If we make it harder to fight the outbreak in West Africa, we actually increase our own risk.

COHEN: This as the condition of Thomas Eric Duncan who arrived in the U.S. by plane September 20th advances from serious to critical. The Ebola patient now fighting for his life after being diagnosed almost a week ago in Dallas.

On Friday, Duncan's family was relocated to an undisclosed location quarantined until October 19th. Their apartment where Duncan was staying is finally being sanitized. They had lived in the home for six days after he was diagnosed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anything in the area will be completely stripped out, d-con from the carpet to the curtains to all belongings.

COHEN: Over the weekend, authorities found the last of the 48 people they say may have come into contact with Duncan in Dallas after a day- long manhunt including this man, Michael Lively, who road in the very same ambulance after Duncan last Tuesday.

Lively is escorted to the hospital in full surgical garb, a mask covering his face. All ten high risk patients, mostly health care workers have shown no symptoms as of yet, this as the fifth American to contract Ebola arrives back in the U.S. from Liberia this morning.

The father of Ashoka Mukpo, an NBC freelancer told the "Providence Journal" newspaper he still has the fever, but his spirits are very good. The freelance journalist will be the second Ebola patient treated at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

He will be transported through a remote area of the airport, away from the terminals and public areas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Now, screening at the airport may be a little bit more complicated than it sounds. There are few, if any, direct flights from West Africa to the United States. People are flying mostly through connections. You got people arriving from West Africa to various points around the globe -- Chris.

CUOMO: A strong point, Elizabeth. It seems they have their hands full at the airport for the screening they do already. We will stay on that angle. Thanks for being with us this morning -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right. Let's talk more about that. The head of the CDC will head to the White House today to brief President Obama on all these concerns and questions.

Our Jim Acosta is already there. So, Jim, extra airport screenings. Is that what the White House is considering today?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It is possible, Alisyn and we should point out President Obama meets with his national security team later today to talk about efforts to deal with the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

One measure under consideration, as you said and as Elizabeth said, is to have the CDC do screening at airports for travellers may be coming in from West Africa. One CDC official told me they want to make sure that any new screening is worth the disruption to travelers.

It has not been determined yet which airports would have those additional screening and officials cautioned, though, final decisions have been made. Top health officials in the Obama administration remain confident that an outbreak in the United States can be prevented.

They will be talking about that later today here at the White House. The president obviously is going to want some answers -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right. Jim, thanks so much for that update. Let's go to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, we need some analysis on this. Let's bring in CNN national security analyst and former assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Juliette Kayyem, and CNN aviation analyst and former inspector general at the U.S. Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo.

Ladies, thank you for being with us this morning. Dr. Fauci, National Institutes of Health on Fox, when you start closing off countries, there is a real danger of making things worse.

CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden told Candy Crowley Ebola is spreading so fast, it is hard to keep up. You don't need to be a doctor, Juliette, to know those two statements don't go together. Is this a message issue or do we not know what we need to do?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I'm definitely not a doctor, but I will try to sort of interpret what may be going on, which is to put greater restrictions at the airport may be a lot of effort in an area that might be put elsewhere.

In other words, because the Ebola contagion doesn't show for seven or nine days, you really not going to catch people who might go from West Africa to London on Paris and then come over.

So then you will require almost like, you know, sort of security across the board and not allowing people in from many other countries. The second issue is one the White House is not discussing, I think has got to play into it.

We have 3,000 to 5,000 troops in West Africa right now. To put a travel ban on particular countries may actually cause more unrest there, more sense of antagonism. More sense that we are at war with them than it is worth it.

Because just given the nature of airline travel now, people are stopping everywhere. They are stopping everywhere and this Ebola is not showing symptoms anywhere from two to 20 days.

CUOMO: Right. But Mary Schiavo, just because something is difficult and maybe even risky doesn't mean that you don't do it. When you look at this screening potential, can you do it in a way, especially when a lot of these flights aren't direct? You know, Mr. Duncan came through Brussels. Do you think it can be done? Do you think it should be done?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: What can be done and has to be done is just a matter of common sense. Already, several African countries themselves have banned travel to and from the stricken areas. British Airways and other airlines have already done it.

And because of flights to the United States most of them are on connecting flights, but the screening has to be done for a couple reasons. One, you can't tell where someone is coming, it's largely honor system.

You check their passports and that's what we're supposed to be doing anyway. Yes, there is a problem with fake identification. You need to identify where these people are from. Not necessarily so you can abandon them or send them back.

Because no airline will take a sick passenger back. You need to be able to track them. The fact that African countries are already doing the screening. The United States of America is not. It's a matter of common sense.

The problem is, who is going to do it? The Federal Aviation Administration does not have the abilities, the training or even the legal power to do it.

It will have to be through the public health system or the local health authority, which are really, it's the states who govern the health and well-being concerning airlines. CUOMO: This is too complicated. It's just too complicated. Let's be honest. This is too complicated. They can't get patting you down for a gun in the airports right now. Now they're going to take on this sophisticated task?

Let's leave that to the side. That's just cynicism. Let's say they can get it done. Here's my question now, 21 days you don't show symptoms. So what good is any type of screening that they can do at an airport, Mary Schiavo?

SCHIAVO: Well, any screening for sick people. Remember, not everyone is going to be fever-free. They are going to find some people who are ill. They have to find those for tracking them, for getting them care and also for tracking the people that they have been in --

CUOMO: You don't know why they have the fever, Juliette? They could just have a fever. People get fevers. You don't know if it's an Ebola fever, right?

KAYYEM: That's exactly right. I think that just given the nature of airline travel now. Millions of people flying at any given moment across the world. I agree with Mary. Screening is different than a total ban.

We can increase screening in particular high risk fights, but the idea of a ban is going to have consequences in the nature of the way this Ebola is working, given the resources, it would have to be focused on airline travel in the hopes that you catch that one person who may come through.

As compared to other efforts, which include screening at our airports and screening abroad. In a world of limited options, a total ban would be one in which you are trying to get a needle out of a haystack as compared to other efforts.

CUOMO: Mary, counterpoint.

SCHIAVO: Well, a total ban is actually a kind of taking place through attrition already. The travel to the area from other than aid workers and people providing assistance and medical care has really dwindled down to nothing.

And a total ban actually makes sense because for at least for a short time, if you cannot get the screening in place, it's utterly ludicrous that the United States of America says it's too complicated. So for the short term, it would make sense to get control of the situation.

CUOMO: Juliette, last point to you, the vaccines. We are watching two things. The first is, where is the vaccine, why aren't we banging on Big Pharma to start producing the vaccine?

We know they weren't producing it simply because of supply and demand issues. No other explanation is satisfying. Is that going on? You've worked on these types of protocols before. Is that a part of it to force them to ramp it up or hopefully they volunteer? KAYYEM: Right. This happened in H1N1 that there wasn't a vaccine. That was when demand was quite high. I mean, that virus was in Mexico. It was coming across in tens of thousands of numbers. So you can ramp up very quickly.

Look, creating a vaccine is less a concern to me than distributing the vaccine if there is actually an outbreak, which is that is quite complicated getting it two people in hospitals and public health facilities.

But you know, look, we have one case. There is sort of weighing the balance of other efforts to try to control Ebola just comes into play. They'll ramp up.

CUOMO: I only say, we actually have two cases right now, right? We have the NBC man and we have the man who came over. I want to see who gets the vaccine. If one of them gets the vaccine and not the other, there is going to be a problem.

Then there is the overall, are you preparing in general? Juliette Kayyem, Mary Schiavo, thank you very much for the perspective this morning.

Coming up, we will get the very latest on the Ebola fight from the man at the center of it. That is Dr. Tom Frieden. He is the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We are also going to have Dr. Anthony Fauci. He is with the National Institutes of Health and General Gary Volesky. He is leading the military response in Liberia. You cannot get better sources about the situation than these three men -- Mich.

PEREIRA: All right, we'll get back to our top story in a moment, but let's give you a look at more of your headlines at 10 minutes past the hour.

Abdul Raman Kassig's parents are begging ISIS for mercy in a heart wrenching video released Sunday. CNN is now respecting the wishes of Peter Kassig's parents to refer to him from now on by his Muslim name. The 26-year-old was in Syria providing humanitarian aid when he was captured by ISIS last October.

A service of reflection, meanwhile, for British aid worker, Alan Henning executed by ISIS was held in his hometown over the weekend.

To Hong Kong now, protesters still facing off with government officials after days of demonstrations in the center of the city's financial hub. Protesters ignored a deadline given by the government to leave the streets.

But they did allow city workers to enter offices that had previously been blocked. We're going to bring you a live report from Hong Kong coming up later this hour.

The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 once again under way in a desolate stretch of the Indian Ocean. It's hard to believe it's been more than six months since the airliner vanished.

The first of three ships that will spend the next year hunting for the wreckage. It will spend the next 12 days searching for jet before heading to shore to refuel. We want you to tune in tomorrow night for a CNN special report "Vanished, The Mystery of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370." That will air at 9 p.m. Eastern.

Another apology from VP Joe Biden apologizing now to Turkey and the United Arab Emirates after suggesting that the United States Arab allies are partly to blame for strengthening ISIS and other militant groups.

The White House says Biden spoke to the crown prince of Abu Dhabi by phone to say that he did not intend to imply that the UAE supported terrorists. Joe being Joe, perhaps, but then he did have to apologize.

CUOMO: He says what others sometimes think before they drink it all the way through. That's what makes him Joe.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much, Michaela. Scary candor from the director of the FBI revealing to the public what he knows about American fighters in Syria. He also talked about plans for an imminent terror attack by the Khorasan Group. How soon could they strike?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT PELLEY, CBS NEWS: How many Americans are fighting in Syria on the side of the terrorists?

JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: In the area of a dozen or so.

PELLEY: Do you know who they are?

COMEY: Yes.

PELLEY: Each and every one of them?

COMEY: I think of that dozen or so, I do. I hesitate only because I don't know what I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Chilling words from FBI director, at least a dozen Americans fighting with extremist groups in Syria. Now, there is fear they may be returning back to the U.S. ready to attack.

So, let's bring in CNN global affairs analyst and managing editor of "Quartz", Bobby Ghosh, to find out what we do know.

Bobby, great to see you.

So, he says he believes there is a dozen fighters, how does he know they have joined the fight rather than say traveling through Turkey? BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, this has been a three-

year conflict. You have to imagine every major intelligence outfit in the world has assets in the region. We know the Turks do. We know the Jordanians do, the British, French and presumably American intelligence as well. And you take all that information, you triangulate, you see who's been traveling through that region, and you go through the data.

And in some of these cases, these people are not afraid to announce themselves. You track the thousands upon thousands of YouTube videos. You can see people who say that they are Americans, and you can triangulate all that information and get a pretty good lead, I think, on at least some of the people.

CAMEROTA: Now, what the FBI director said last night on "60 Minutes" is different than what the Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said a month ago to CNN about how many Americans have joined the fight.

Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHUCK HAGEL, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We are aware of over 100 U.S. citizens who have U.S. passports, who are fighting in the Middle East with ISIL forces. There may be more, we don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, 100 U.S. citizens there may be more versus a dozen. Which one is right?

GHOSH: Well, that's -- it's quite disturbing that you have two such vastly different figures. The most charitable account you can say is that maybe at the time, Hagel said he thought 100. Maybe they have done more careful analysis and come to a smaller number.

The other possibility that there are 100 people who have gone to fight, some have died. Some are fighting with other groups, not necessarily with ISIL. Let's remember that there are literally dozens of different groups. Some Islamists, some non-religious that are fighting in Syria. And so, maybe the Americans who are there are (INAUDIBLE)

The least charitable account is that the administration still doesn't know really at this late day, how many people -- how many Americans are fighting there. And that's not reassuring.

CAMEROTA: So, I assume that when any of these Americans come -- try to come back through customs, their passports flash bright red warnings. Does that solve the problem?

GHOSH: No, that's just the start. That means you -- that's when you -- first of all, you hope all of their passports flash right. And then when that happens, then you begin the intelligence operations at home. And, presumably, the FBI and local law enforcement gets involved. Presumably at some point, you bring them in and have a conversation. If there is a track record, if you know they have committed crimes in a foreign country, there are laws that fall into place.

But at the very least, as Comey was indicating there, they'll be watched very closely. You know, presumably the NSA has got all of its wiretaps in place. They're watching their phones. They're watching their e-mails. They're watching every moment. At least you hope that.

CAMEROTA: You do hope that. And, of course, the other fear is that they don't come in through a conventional route and they are not showing their passports to anybody. They come through some other place that is unguarded on the border.

GHOSH: And they don't have to be Americans. There are so many other people who have gone there, from many countries around the world. A lot of them European countries with European passports. You hope that different intelligence agencies are sharing the right kind of information. History suggests things slip through the cracks.

So, they could be a British citizen, French citizen, German -- we don't know of all of these people and the threat may not only come from Americans. That's one part. The second part is the trick is not necessarily only in the homeland. There are American targets around the world, all over Europe, all over the world.

There are Americans, American institutions, NGOs, companies, if you decide that you want to attack America, you don't have to come to America, and that's a much grander scale of problem.

CAMEROTA: We've heard many reports about ISIS trying to recruit western women. Do we know anything about that?

GHOSH: No, there is more rumor and suspicion than hard fact on the ground. We know some women have gone and joined the fight. Whether they have gone for ISIS or more generally a fight against Bashar Assad, it's a little unclear.

CAMEROTA: OK. So, very quickly. What is the answer with the new information that we have? That we know there's at least a dozen people, Americans.

GHOSH: Well, a lot more intelligence. More and more intelligence. There's no substitute to that. We need more eyes on the ground. They can't honestly be Americanized, but lots of other -- as I said at the top, there are lots of other agencies that are operating there that needs to be better coordination.

CAMEROTA: Bobby Ghosh, great to see you. Thanks so much for joining us.

We do have some breaking news now -- the American cameraman infected with Ebola is now back on U.S. soil. When will he be given an experimental serum that have saved the other infected Americans? We'll explore that.

And why hasn't the man infected in Dallas received any of those medications? We'll get into all of that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: All right. We are watching breaking news: the fifth American diagnosed with Ebola is now back on U.S. soil. The first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. he is fighting for his life in Texas, in critical condition.

Now, the U.S. government is considering rather increasing screening at airports. Also the department of defense plans to send more troops to Liberia to help with infrastructure they sorely need.

There is so much to discuss with our guest today. Retired lieutenant colonel Rick Francona, military analyst for CNN, and a former U.S. military attache in Syria. Dr. Irwin Redlener, head of the Columbia University National Center for Disaster Preparedness.

All right. Gentleman, much to dig through.

Dr. Redlener, I think right away we have to think about this patient, Thomas Duncan, who is in a Dallas hospital in critical condition. Give us an idea how they are treating him. Many are wondering why he isn't be given an experimental drug. We know that ZMapp is very difficult to come by. There are no supplies left.

But aren't there others? How will they treat this man who is so, so sick?

DR. IRWIN REDLENER, DIR., COLUMBIA UNIV. NATL. CENTER FOR DISASTER PREPAREDNESS: Unfortunately, because there is a shortage of the very specific medication that you would want to give someone. You're either left with something very experimental, absolutely not proven or just providing state of the art what's called supportive care.

PEREIRA: Which would be like what? Give us an idea.

REDLENER: Supportive care is, you know, keeping somebody hydrated. Keeping the I.V. in and making sure the kidneys are working properly.

PEREIRA: Keep the temperature down, et cetera.

REDLENER: Yes, there's a whole series, basically symptomatic treatment and is trying to support the body's function. But this is one of the things that's so dreaded about Ebola, it's a very serious disease. It really attacks many different organs and leaves the guy in terrible conditions.

PEREIRA: Was it further complicated by the fact that he was already quite sick by the time he was finally hospitalized?

REDLENER: Well, he was sick, because he was not -- nowhere near this sick. This presents a serious medical challenge in the absence of specific medications that would directly address the Ebola virus.

PEREIRA: So, Colonel, let's talk about what we're hearing this morning, when you hear about the situation in Newark over the weekend, two patients potentially with showing symptoms. There is a whole -- we'll have that conversation with Dr. Redlener about how that was handled, but there are calls now this morning for increased screening.

We know that Africa is screening outgoing passengers, but the U.S. is not. And people are saying, why aren't we doing this? It's not so easy, is it?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think one of your earlier guests said it creates whole system of problems, I mean, once you start the increased screening, slow things down.

What are you screening for? As the doctor said, they're not always symptomatic until you are very sick.

PEREIRA: Right.

FRANCONA: So that creates a big problem.

PEREIRA: Are you of the mind we should stop flights in and out of there?

FRANCONA: No, I don't think so. And I think that's what's driving the Defense Department to go fight the problem over there.

PEREIRA: Sure.

FRANCONA: So that we don't have to deal with it here.

PEREIRA: But the reality is we know how many have been sickened and how many people have died in Liberia alone. It's a gigantic problem.

Are troops going to help? Are U.S. military troops, are they going to be of assistance?

FRANCONA: Oh, absolutely, because the U.S. military brings a skill set that no one else can provide. One thing we can do is build things. We can move a lot of equipment there.

As you heard the Defense Department say, they're going to take everything with them. OK? That sets the whole air bridge they're going to have to set up.

So, right now, the initial cadre is there. What they're going to do assessment of the airports, where can we land aircraft, how many aircraft we're going to need, what actually we need to take, what is the requirement? The USAID wants 1,700 beds added to the capability over there.

The Defense Department can do that. If you look at some of the reserve and National Guard units that do their annual training, they do it in Africa. And they build these kind of facilities. We are very good at this. It's part of the humanitarian mission.

PEREIRA: But what about this concern if you got military personnel on the ground, military personnel will be arm. It's going to give the optics of looking a bit like a militarized zone. That's concerning, is it not?

FRANCONA: Yes, that's one of the things.

I looked at the deployment list of what they're actually sending. Most of it is medical and civil engineering. They're taking a whole army field hospital there, and they'll set that up.

But they're only taking a military police company and I think that's going to be to guard the airport, that they're going to be using the air force also to secure and to guard the facilities that they're building, guard the troops. But you're not going to see U.S. armed soldiers enforcing the quarantine. We don't want that.

PEREIRA: No.

REDLENER: The other point, Michaela, is that the military has been used effectively, U.S. military, in other disasters around the world, including in Pakistan, and where the U.S. military has been deployed for those humanitarian purposes, it is really has enhanced the reputation and impacted the United States of America. So, if it's done right, I think we have an opportunity to show what we can do --

PEREIRA: Right.

REDLENER: -- and how we can respond to a true humanitarian crisis.