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New Day

Banning West Africa Flights; Ebola Questions Answered; Meeting Between Protestors and Hong Kong Government, Women in the World of Chevy Racing

Aired October 06, 2014 - 08:30   ET

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

DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL: He didn't become ill for about four days after he arrived. And we've had over 40,000 visitors from West Africa or people returning from West Africa, Americans and others, over the past six months.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I mean, as you pointed out, the screening in his country did not work for Mr. Duncan. It failed. His temperature hadn't spiked yet.

FRIEDEN: It failed to identify a patient with infectious Ebola. He didn't have infectious Ebola. He developed that four days after he landed in the U.S.

CAMEROTA: As you know, there's a whole bunch of lawmakers who are calling to ban flights. They want flights out of these African nations stopped. Now, we understand why you wouldn't ban flights going in. They need supplies, obviously. But why not ban them returning to the U.S.?

FRIEDEN: One of the challenges is, if we can't get assistance in, if we can't keep the airlines flying, it will be harder to stop the outbreaks there. And I'll tell you what could happen very easily if we isolate these countries, harder to get help in, the disease, it spreads more within these countries, it spreads to other parts of Africa. And within a few months, we're dealing with outbreaks in many parts of Africa. A big problem not just health wise, but economically and a threat of Ebola that continues for months or years that we have to deal with.

CAMEROTA: Sure. Sure.

FRIEDEN: We have to insure that we're focusing on stopping the outbreaks. It's (ph) something we might do out of the best of intentions to protect Americans might actually increase American's risk.

CAMEROTA: But just explain again what the difference is between not stopping flights in, everyone needs medical supplies in Liberia and other disease torn countries, but stopping the flights with passengers out of those countries?

FRIEDEN: Well, first off, most of the people leaving those countries have a right to leave. They're American citizens, they're people with dual citizenships, they are people who are traveling to other parts of the world and airlines aren't going to fly one way. They're going to have to have travelers in both directions if they're actually going to keep flying. If you isolate these countries, the governments will get less stable and the ability to stop the outbreak there, I think, will be very problematic.

CAMEROTA: So we know that you're going to the White House, you're meeting with President Obama today. What will you be recommending to him?

FRIEDEN: We're going to be discussing what we can do to follow up on the president's directions, do everything possible to protect Americans and stop the outbreak.

CAMEROTA: And, Dr. Frieden, what is the status of that experimental serum that has shown effectiveness, the ZMapp, as it's called?

FRIEDEN: ZMapp may work. It's a promising drug. But there is, as I understand, no more of it. Right now we're looking very closely at vaccines because there are a couple of vaccines that are very promising and that are already in clinical trials. We don't know if they work, but we need to quickly figure out if they do work. And if they do, get them into the field so that can be another tool to help stop the outbreak. But we know now how to stop Ebola. You isolate patients, you track contact, and you make sure in Africa that burials are safe. Do those things and Ebola goes away.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Frieden, you sound optimistic. You sound as though you believe that U.S. authorities have a handle on this. But as you know, Americans are concerned. So what is your message to them this morning?

FRIEDEN: I understand that Ebola is scary. It's a deadly disease. But it's not going to spread widely in the U.S. We can stop it in its tracks here. CDC works 24/7 to protect Americans. We need to both stop it here, which we're doing, and keep Americans safer by helping to stop it at the source in West Africa.

CAMEROTA: OK. Dr. Thomas Frieden, thanks so much for making time for us and all the information. We appreciate it.

FRIEDEN: Thank you. Thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: All right, we have a breaking update for you right now. The NBC cameraman who became infected with Ebola has just arrived in Omaha, Nebraska. You're looking at the specially equipped plane that brought him there. Ashoka Mukpo was treated at -- will be treated at Nebraska Medical Center. That's the same hospital that treated another American infected with Ebola, Dr. Rick Sacra. Mukpo was diagnosed with Ebola last week in Liberia. His plane arrived in Maine first this morning to refuel and now it is at its destination at the hospital where he will be getting the best American treatment for Ebola.

All right, we know that all of you have many questions about Ebola, so we're asking for your question this morning. We'll take them to our panel of experts next. For instance, would airport screenings even work?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're watching breaking news. The U.S. cameraman from NBC, infected with Ebola in Africa, has just landed in Omaha, Nebraska. That is where he is going to receive treatment at a Nebraska medical center. That young man's name is Ashoka Mukpo. He became infected in Liberia and was diagnosed last week. We understand that Mukpo was taken from the plane in a hazmat suit. One we're been accustomed to seeing now in these Ebola cases. He was put in to the waiting ambulance there. He will be transported to the Nebraska medical center where he is said to be receiving treatment likely similar to what we saw Dr. Rick Sacra, an American physician who had contracted Ebola and West Africa while he was doing work there in a medical center -- likely he will receive the same type of treatment.

We've just watched that happen just moments ago. This is a live picture that we're showing you there from Omaha, Nebraska.

In the meantime, Thomas Eric Duncan is fighting for his life. We're told he's in critical condition in Dallas. And dozens of people who had contact with him are now being closely watched.

We certainly know that you have a lot of questions and a lot of concerns. We asked many of you for your questions and we have quite a team to help answer some of those. We have our Elizabeth Cohen, CNN senior medical correspondent. Also here with me in studio, Arthur L. Caplan, director of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center. And rounding out our trio, retired Major General James "Spider" Marks, CNN military analyst.

Thank you so much, the three of you, for coming in to talk to us about it.

I think what we should do, Elizabeth, is start with you. You've got some info for us on officials ramping up the screenings at airports after learning about these reports of blunders and poor handling of potential Ebola patients. Why don't you talk us through that.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. So, Michaela, we've been talking on your show for a week now about how when my crew and I returned from Liberia into Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport, there was basically no screening at all. And this really surprised us because customs and border patrol knew that we were journalists coming in from Liberia who had been covering Ebola, yet they really - they didn't' ask us any questions.

So we're hearing now that the U.S. authorities are thinking of ramping up screening, making it more stringent. We don't know exactly what they're going to do. I thought it was interesting that Thomas Frieden was on your show just a little while ago and he said we're considering all possibilities so that we can make a game plan. I don't know why it's taken this long to try to come up with a plan. I mean Ebola's been out there for months now.

PEREIRA: Well, and that's the point, Elizabeth, we were talking and I -- you and I had a conversation offline. Screening is difficult. Testing is difficult, especially when you throw in the airport component. And I was asking you about the testing. It's really infuriating to me that if it's in my body, and unless I'm showing symptoms, it can't be detected. Help me get my brain around that.

COHEN: I know. This is a hard one for people to get their brain around because it's not the way it usually works. So if you have Ebola, if you're infected with it but you're not yet sick, if you're still in that incubation period, the test is going to be negative. The test will only be positive if you're actively ill.

So let's say Thomas Eric Duncan had been tested on his way out of Liberia or into the U.S., he would have been negative because he wasn't yet sick. It's just a - sort of a deficiency of the test. It's just the way that test works. Unfortunately, we don't have a better one.

PEREIRA: We need a get a better test. I think that's the urgency there.

COHEN: Yes.

PEREIRA: Arthur, since you're sitting here, I want you to take a listen to a little bit of sound we have from the partner of Thomas Duncan, the patient in Dallas. Louise spoke to Anderson Cooper about that patient's current condition. Take a listen. We'll get you to reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOUISE (voice-over): He has went from critical to worse. And that's why I really want to go on air to ask the American government to please help me. I want him to be saved, for them to save his life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: You hear her angst. You hear her concerns. She wants his life to be saved and wants the government to step in. We know there are no more ZMapp supplies. Are there other experimental drugs they could use? How do they decide who gets them and who doesn't?

ARTHUR L. CAPLAN, DIR., DIVISION OF MEDICAL ETHICS, NYU LANGONE MED. CTR.: Well, to use the small amount of experimental drug that's out there for therapy, you usually need a refrigerator. You usually have to transit that stuff. You have to have somebody who's got clean water to give it and so on. That's why you tend to see the doctors first, rather than just the average person in Liberia or Sierra Leone getting it. They don't have the delivery ability to get it. There's not much of it. And you kind of want to monitor people after they get it to see whether they get better.

PEREIRA: Was part of the challenge here that he was -- it wasn't caught soon enough with this patient in Dallas?

CAPLAN: Yes, I suspect that's right. I don't know that, but I suspect that's right. And as Elizabeth started to say, we have a test now that tests Ebola, but you've got to build up a ton of virus before it detects it. So a better test is just as important -

PEREIRA: Sure.

CAPLAN: In terms of priority. And I'm going to tell you this, I think we're going to get that before we get a therapy or a vaccine out there.

PEREIRA: A better test.

CAPLAN: It takes so long to make. You know, you have a vaccine. Let's say it worked. You've got to build a factory.

PEREIRA: Right.

CAPLAN: You've got to make a lot of it.

PEREIRA: Yes.

CAPLAN: It's going to take forever to do that. A test you can really use sooner.

PEREIRA: We should increase the calls for that.

In -- I have a great question for you, Spider, in a second, but I want to follow-up. Why not give him - and this is a question from Twitter, Elizabeth - why not give him blood from an Ebola survivor? This patient in Dallas, could he benefit from that kind of transfusion?

COHEN: You know, it's really unknown whether he could benefit because, As Art will agree with me here I'm sure, this has never been studied. None of this has really ever been studied. So you're giving it and you're sort of - you're crossing your fingers and hoping that it helps and hoping that it doesn't hurt.

PEREIRA: Yes.

COHEN: Now it's interesting because we have heard of other patients getting a blood transfusion. We've also heard of other patients getting something called TKM Ebola, which is another experimental medication. We're told that it sounds like he is not - that Duncan's not getting either of those things. It's really not clear why.

PEREIRA: Huh.

COHEN: I think these are just decisions that get made patient by patient.

PEREIRA: Sure.

All right, Spider, here you go. You're up. Another question from Twitter, and this is one we've been asked repeatedly and people want to know, why haven't we banned flights to or from Africa, the infected nations in Africa and why aren't they closing our borders? Not as easy as it sounds, is it, Spider?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, no, it's not at all. First of all, let me start with the - with the border question. First of all, under the best conditions, we have an incredible mission statement to try to control our borders. They're extremely porous. So that becomes extremely difficult just to enforce under the best of conditions that we have.

And then in terms of flights -- clearly has been indicated, I'm not the doctor in this discussion, but as has been indicated, the tests don't exists that would make the banning of those flights effective in terms of what type of virus might be able to get to our shores. That's the primary concern that I would have.

PEREIRA: Well, right now, is -

MARKS: But the fact, Michaela -

PEREIRA: Yes, go ahead.

MARKS: Go ahead. I'm sorry.

No, I was going to say, the fact, Michaela, that the 101st is now implementing a solution and will be deploying here in a couple of weeks is a good sign because that gets to, as the CDC director indicated, the potential isolation of the disease at its source. And that's the good news.

PEREIRA: A quick final thought from you, General Marks. We have - we know that right now we have to take people at their word, passengers coming in. We know that Thomas Duncan did not tell authorities that he had been in the presence of somebody with Ebola. So we're taking people at their word. But, you know, we as a society, we're forced to be in small areas, on planes and trains and automobiles with people that potentially could be sick. When do the rights of, you know, the public supersede individual rights?

MARKS: Well, again, not a constitutional lawyer, but I need to tell you, we're approaching a point where those kinds of liberties will need to be restricted. We can't simply have an honor system, where individuals will self declare what their conditions might be coming back to the United States.

That has to be very, very tightly controlled. My primary concern as I look at this, is we now will have up to 4,000 soldiers from the 101st deploying.

PEREIRA: Sure.

MARKS: What will happen to them upon redeployment? Will there be quarantine type situation?

PEREIRA: Well, let's hope there is. Art's nodding with you in agreement. Art Caplan, General Spider Marks, Elizabeth Cohen, always a pleasure to have you. Thanks for being a part of our Ebola panel today. Obviously, we're going to be discussing more about this coming up here on CNN.

But also, the standoff in Hong Kong, not over. (BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

PEREIRA (voice-over): A group of pro-democracy demonstrators lining the streets, ignoring a government imposed deadline. We're going to take you live to the scene.

Also, have you seen this video? A rally car loses control, flips into a crowd. More of this amazing video, and its outcome, coming up.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. As you begin your NEW DAY, you should know that Hong Kong officials and protestors remain at a stand off this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

CUOMO (voice-over): While the crowds are smaller, there's still a large number of protestors lining city streets. Pro-democracy activists ignored a government deadline to disperse, but they did allow city workers to enter offices that had been blocked last week.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

CUOMO (on camera):We have Will Ripley live in Hong Kong with the latest. Will, what do you see?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, within the last hour, a brand new piece of information. About ten minutes from now, at 9:00 pm Hong Kong time, a preliminary meeting will take place between the students who organized this protest and the Hong Kong city government.

This is laying the ground work for more formal talks in the days to come. What a difference two days can make. If this were Saturday at this time, Chris, you would not even be able to see or hear me because this street, Harcourt Road in the central business district, was full of tens of thousands of people. You can see the numbers have diminished substantially, perhaps several thousand would be the visual estimate that I would give standing out here right now.

This is part of Hong Kong and Beijing's strategy, to wait this out, to see if the size of this demonstration gets smaller and smaller as people tire of spending night after night sleeping in the streets. The indication we're getting from the government here is that talks and a peaceful solution is their top priority because, Chris, after the devastating and catastrophic events of Tiananmen square 25 years ago, it appears that China does not want to see a repeat right here on the streets of Hong Kong. Chris?

CUOMO: The question of course, Will, will be what are they willing to give in order to make the situation go away, and that's why we're going to keep watching. Will Ripley, stay safe. We'll be back with you. Mick?

PEREIRA: Alright, time for the five things you need to know for your NEW DAY.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA (voice-over): At number one, a freelance NBC camera man with Ebola is now back on U.S. soil for treatment. He is in Omaha, Nebraska. He is being taken to the hospital as we speak, as officials consider tighter screenings at U.S. airports to prevent a domestic outbreak.

Abdul-Rahman Kassig's parents begging ISIS to release their son. CNN is now using Peter Kassig's Muslim name out of a show of respect for his family. That 26-year-old was captured last October in Syria.

The U.S. is gearing up for a potential terror attack by Khorasan according to the head of the FBI. In an interview on "60 Minutes," James Comey said they are keeping a close eye on about a dozen Americans who may be fighting with extremist groups in Syria.

The search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 under way once again in the Indian Ocean. Search crews are scanning the ocean floor for any signs of the jet which went missing now more than six months ago.

Have to show you this crazy video. A rally car losing control in Italy, flips into fans, all caught on tape. Look at it. It just barely misses that woman. No one was seriously hurt. A young girl was taken to the hospital for shock.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA (on camera): We always update those five things to know, so be sure to go to newdaycnn.com for the very latest.

Alright, turning to this. Jobs under the STEM umbrella, science, technology, engineering and math, often get a bum wrap for being uncool or boring. Alba Colon is out to prove all of that young. She took her degree in mechanical engineering and she's now in charge of Chevy Racing's engineering program. This is her story in this week's Science of Work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA (voice-over): As a young girl in Puerto Rico, Alba Colon's head was in the stars.

ALBA COLON, LEAD ENGINEER FOR CHEVY RACING: I remember in fifth grade we studied a lot about when man went to the moon. That was where it decided to grab my attention, and when I saw Sally Ride it became like an inspiration for me. I wanted to be the first Hispanic woman to do that. My dream got deviated and I started to fall in love with vehicles.

PEREIRA: She's now lead engineer for Chevy Racing, but she remembers a time when teams didn't have engineers at all. Colon is a Latina woman in a white man's world, but she says that's all changing.

COLON: Maybe at first when I came to the sport guys the were like oh, there's a woman, you know? What does she know? But I have worked hard and I have gained respect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Her and the whole team that my dad drove for at Richards were all great friends. She was the one person out of the Chevy group that they respected and really appreciated what she did for the race teams.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's probably most important when we have either a car change or a rules change. She fights really hard for all of our teams.

PEREIRA: Colon knows her role is much bigger than just getting her teams to the victory lane.

COLON: I could have never had an opportunity to meet another woman that was an engineer. When you are (inaudible) possibility for us. We have been very fortunate to have a great career that we pass along our knowledge and the (inaudible).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Alba Colon, a trailblazer in her own right. Alright, still ahead, the Ebola infected camera man is now in Omaha, Nebraska for treatment. We'll have the very latest on his fight for survival and, of course, the battle to contain Ebola. We'll have that at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: That is it for Mick, science, and Alisyn. Thank you for being with us.

CAMEROTA: My pleasure. I'll be back tomorrow.

CUOMO: That's good to hear. A lot of news this morning on this fight for the better progress on what's going on with Ebola. So, let's get you to the "NEWSROOM" right now with Miss Carol Costello. Sorry about your Tigers.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Please don't remind me of that. I'm still in pain, but I appreciate your thoughts. Have a great day.

NEWSROOM starts now.