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New Day

Dallas Ebola Patient Given Experimental Drug; ISIS Close to Capturing Key Syrian Town; FBI Says 19-Year-Old Wanted to Join ISIS; New Ebola Screenings at Airports

Aired October 07, 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: Lockdown, the president has a new plan to keep Ebola out of the U.S., so what are these new screenings at the airports, and will they really work? This, as a nurse becomes the first person infected with Ebola outside of Africa. We're covering all the developments.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Under siege, ISIS set to take a key town in Syria, despite U.S. and ally airstrikes. An American teenager is arrested at the airport trying to join the terror group. New details on what he thought he was going to do.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Friendly fire, President Obama's former defense secretary, Leon Panetta levels new criticism at the president, saying he lost his way, was too slow to act on Syria, and doesn't fight hard enough in Washington. How big is the fallout

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 Tuesday, October 7th, 6:00 in the East. Alisyn Camerota joins us again. Its good to have you.

CAMEROTA: Great to be with you guys.

CUOMO: And we do have breaking news this morning in the fight against Ebola. New screening procedures at the nation's airports. The president announcing these measures will help stop the spread of the deadly virus, hopefully. Now, the plan includes measures to tightly screen passengers at U.S. airports and overseas in Ebola-stricken nations.

CAMEROTA: Also developing this morning, Chris, the first person to contract Ebola outside of Africa. A nurse in Spain who treated two Ebola patients in Madrid is not infected herself and her husband is under observation. We have full coverage starting with senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. She is live for us from Dallas, where doctors are using an experimental drug to try to save the life of that Liberian man who we're told is near death this morning. Elizabeth, what do we know?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, what we know is that Duncan started receiving this experimental drug 10 days after he became sick. Now, that may not sound like much, but that's actually quite a bit of time for Ebola, which moves very quickly. His family is praying that the drug will still work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I consider this a top national security priority.

COHEN (voice-over): U.S. efforts to keep Ebola out of the country now ramping up. With President Obama announcing the development of new screenings at U.S. airports to detect those who may be carrying the virus.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: The procedures and protocols that are put in place must be followed.

COHEN: What those protocols are, yet to be determined. A federal official tells CNN it could include temperature readings for passengers arriving from infected countries. Something that takes place now as passengers leave those countries.

This, amid a frightening new development, a Spanish nurse's assistant becomes the first person to contract Ebola outside of Africa in this outbreak. The woman helped treat a Spanish missionary and priest, both contracting Ebola in West Africa, and dying after returning to Spain.

An investigation now under way to find everyone the assistant came into contact with while contagious. This as Thomas Eric Duncan, the Ebola patient seen here when he arrived in Dallas on September 20th, is now being given an experimental drug called Brincidofovir.

Originally developed to treat viruses like smallpox. Duncan couldn't be given Zmapp, another drug used on two Emory University patients who survived. Duncan remains in critical condition, but his family hopes for the best.

WILFRED SMALLWOOD, HALF-BROTHER OF THOMAS ERIC DUNCAN: We know he is going to be OK. After he receives the drops, he'll be fine.

COHEN: The fifth American to contract Ebola, NBC cameraman, Ashoka Mukpo, strong enough to walk off a plane Monday in Omaha from Liberia. Health officials at the Nebraska Medical Center where he is being treated say, they are preparing for the worst as the disease runs its course.

DR. BRAD BRITIGAN, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: In most cases, the symptoms tend to progress over a period of time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN (on camera): Now 48 people who were contacts of Duncan's when he was ill are being monitored by health authorities, that includes family members, hospital workers, ambulance workers, they'll be followed until October 19th, to see if they, too, come down with the signs of the disease -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Elizabeth, thanks so much for that update -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, thank you very much. So we're going to follow the cases we know about and now we have new information as well.

So let's bring in CNN aviation analyst, Mary Schiavo. She is also the former inspector general for the U.S. Department of Transportation, and Dr. Alexander Van Tulleken. He is a senior fellow at the Institute for International Humanitarian Affairs.

It's good to have you both. Now Doc, you said on the show, this is going to happen. We are going to see more cases, but we did not anticipate at that time seeing another case of someone catching Ebola from outside of Africa, this nurse is in Spain. She wasn't in Africa. She was just treating someone with Ebola. Is that a new concern?

DR. ALEXANDER VAN TULLEKEN, MEDICAL DOCTOR: I think this is something we definitely have to worry about. And what I mean by that is not the average person in the street should be panicked about Ebola. If you're running a hospital, if you're running an airplane or an airport, you should really, really have a high threshold for saying there are going to be more people coming in and we have to be prepared.

And preparation doesn't just mean you've got a box of hazmat suits and you've told some people what to do. It means drill, running every possible contingency. Because what's definitely happened here is there has been some failure somewhere. Some equipment has failed or someone has not followed protocol.

CUOMO: So it doesn't mean that the Ebola has change. It's just how you're dealing with it in the hospital that you have to monitor. This isn't a sign of some type of mutation.

TULLEKEN: Right. So the Ebola will definitely be mutating. What is probably the case with this strain of Ebola, it is a bit more contagious and virulent than other strains of Ebola we've seen.

But we don't know exactly what that mutation is. And what we shouldn't be worried about, is that it's going to go airborne because no virus has ever changed its mode of transmission in all of human history.

CUOMO: Important to repeat, no virus has ever changed its mode of transmission in history. The idea of this going airborne, like H1N1 or something like that, don't worry about it.

TULLEKEN: I think that isn't the thing to worry about. What we should worry about is dealing with the Ebola but we know. And we know how to deal with that and this kind of Ebola definitely responds to those measures. But they are difficult to do. You know, we're not used to dealing with these patients in western hospitals. CUOMO: So we want to be prudent, but we don't want to panic. Mary, that takes me to you. OK, so the main argument of don't panic is seen in not banning flights to or from Africa, West Africa, which is where the United States is right now.

The argument is this -- if you cut off the place, you isolate it, it makes it harder to treat things. We heard from the head of the CDC, you hurt their commerce, and that is going to just make things worse, not better.

However, as you know, ten airlines including British Airways, Air France, Emirates, Korean Airlines have banned travel there. What's your counterargument?

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I think they banned travel because it just makes more sense to stop the small population of transmission, rather than to monitor a very large population of potential exposure.

The decision has been made, we're going to do the monitoring route. I think the problem there is that to me will spread more fear than just banning the flights and the travelers from the Ebola-infected countries.

But that being said, the nurse in Spain is exactly the literally the example of why we have to have this screening. It's not just the first cases, it's not just the people with the Ebola infection. It's those who can transmit it to others.

And so I think the nurse case really explains why we have to have the screening in place. It's going to be harder than just banning the travelers from West Africa, but it's very important.

CUOMO: So let's look at it logistically and in terms of its medical impact. Do you believe that the FAA, the TSA, the CDC, the whole alphabet soup, can they do this type of screening effectively because one getting through is too many?

SCHIAVO: Well, you hit it right on the head there. There are so many agencies that are going to have to be involved first and foremost, the FAA because they are the responsible agency for regulation of airlines. And the airlines are going to be very important.

Because they're going to have to cooperate every step of the way and be trained themselves. They're really going to be the front-line responders. And an airline is trained to do things very fast, turn those planes around. Get these people through this line. Don't let them stand and wait.

This is going to take a lot of dedication on their parts and it's going to have to be the CDC to carry it out. The FAA already says it's up to the CDC. The biggest thing is to find the personnel to do this. We have 547 airports and 106 are international entry points.

CUOMO: All right, so let's say we get the logistics down, Doc, and they start pointing these thermometers at your head and taking temperature. Is that worth it when you have this x factor of these 21 days, meaning, I'm in West Africa, God forbid I get sick with Ebola.

I'm not showing symptoms, but I have it. I fly to Europe, I fly somewhere else. I now come to the U.S., but I'm within the 21 days, you point the thing at my head, it says 98 degrees. I come in and then three days later I start to show. Isn't that the problem?

TULLEKEN: First of all, you want people to be confident getting on planes that they are not going to be exposed --

CUOMO: Why would you be confident based on what I just said?

TULLEKEN: So anyone who doesn't have a temperature is not contagious with Ebola.

CUOMO: What about three days later?

TULLEKEN: Very clearly to see what you're getting for your money. What you're getting is the confidence of air passengers that they're not going to catch Ebola off the person next to them. That's what we can prevent with the screening.

What we definitely cannot prevent is people coming to the U.S. or to any other city outside Africa with Ebola. We should be confident that this will happen again. We have to be prepared. I think it would be reasonable to say there are people in Africa who will be seeking to get care in western hospitals.

CUOMO: So if you don't have a fever, you cannot give me Ebola.

TULLEKEN: To the very best of our knowledge, that's true. And I think we can say that quite confidently. It's hard to be confident 100 percent in anything in medicine. That does seem to be true to the best of our knowledge.

So that's what you don't want is to be having, get off, everyone on the plane and track them all down and say, you all might have Ebola. At that point, no one gets on planes any more.

CUOMO: Mary, look into your crystal ball, one of the titles is that you know how to read a crystal ball. When you look into it, what do you think happens with these screenings three months from now?

SCHIAVO: Well, I think it's inevitable that some are going to get through because you know, what's a temperature, what's a good read? I mean, there are so many variables here. And I think what's going to happen is we're going to have a lot of false positives.

We're about to hit flu season, there are lots who won't get their flu shots. There are people who are sick with fevers for other reasons and I think it will be the false positives that bog the system down.

I think eventually if Ebola is not contained in Africa, we will ban the flights and that will be an easier option than this one. We're the United States. We don't always take the easy course, sometimes we take the hard one. So for now I think that this probably will certainly help. I don't know if it will calm passengers' fears, but we do have to find the people who are sick.

CUOMO: So I think that the two key phrases to keep in mind as we analyze these screenings going forward is false positives and what you said, Doctor, to the best of our knowledge. The gray area here is probably the scariest. Mary Schiavo, Dr. Van Tulleken, very good to have you both here. All right, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, now to the fight against ISIS. This morning, Kobani, a key Syrian town is on the verge of being overrun by ISIS. You can see it here on the map, on the border of Turkey. Fighters have planted two of their black flags at positions overlooking this town.

CNN's Phil Black is live at the Turkey/Syria border. Phil, what's the latest?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, what we believe we are seeing across the border from here, are in fact coalition airstrikes, the sounds of aircraft overhead followed by very large explosions around the perimeter of Kobani, the city in northern Syria just behind me across the border.

The Kurdish fighters in that city are resisting ISIS, they are thrilled. They believe that these are effective strikes that are hitting ISIS at the perimeters of the city. And hitting them in ways that are really making a difference.

For them, those Kurdish fighters, this is important because their situation is increasingly dire. The facts on the ground suggest it is only a matter of time before this city falls. ISIS is in the city, there is intense street-to-street fighting. Heavy casualties on both sides.

They tell us ISIS still has superior numbers and more advanced weaponry and equipment, including for example, night vision equipment. But those Kurdish fighters say they know the territory, that gives them advantage. They think they've still got thousands of fighters in the city.

Resisting, as desperately and strongly as they can. They know they can't hold out forever. They're asking for more help on the outside because they believe if they don't get it, if ISIS wins, they say what happens inside the city will be a massacre. Alisyn, back to you.

CAMEROTA: So scary. Phil, thanks so much. Let's go over to Michaela for the other news.

PEREIRA: Lots of headlines happening this morning. Let's bring you up to date at 11 minutes past the hour. Here we go. The Veterans Administration is now cracking down and firing four senior executives in the wake of the scandal over long wait times for medical care.

These firings include directors of VA hospitals in Pennsylvania and Georgia, and a regional hospital director in Alabama. These dismissals are the first since Congress passed a law making it easier for the VA to fire officials suspected of wrongdoing in that scandal first exposed by CNN.

To Hong Kong now, thinning crowds of protesters and government officials are keeping the door open for talks to end the standoff that's gripped the city. A far cry from where the two sides were just days ago when officials called the demonstrations illegal and pro- democracy protesters threatened to occupy government buildings.

A surprise move by the Supreme Court could pose a major setback to legal challenges against same-sex marriage. The high court decided not to weigh in on the debate, despite appeals from several states. This move now clears the way for gay couples to legally wed in Oklahoma, Utah, Wisconsin, Indiana and Virginia.

Those voice-activated devices that you use behind the wheel, they may distract you more than you think. Studies out today from AAA and the University of Utah show that voice activated smartphones and the ones on the dash board systems, they increase your chances of losing focus on the road. I could have told you that.

The studies find that they're more complicated to use than using your hands. I can attest to that as well two separate drivers trying to use Siri while driving a simulator rear-ended another car. Because you're getting -- it's not working and you're calling grandma and trying to call AAA and it's -- yes.

CUOMO: Are you a, I don't use anything ever when I'm driving?

PEREIRA: I don't drive now.

CUOMO: That was a good comeback.

CAMEROTA: You're supposed to put it in the glove compartment. You will touch it.

PEREIRA: You can put it in the boot of the car.

CUOMO: The boot of the car, Canada. What do you do? Are you a hands-free-er?

CAMEROTA: I try to resist it except if the light is too long, I check e-mail then. Is that allowed?

CUOMO: I went up to Connecticut, "Consumer Reports" and we tested these things. And I was like, listen, one thing I know how to do is drive. I was hitting everything that they put in front of me. Everything that they wanted me to see, I didn't see.

CAMEROTA: Because you were distracted.

CUOMO: Even changing the radio significantly can distract.

PEREIRA: Who in the car is a distraction?

CUOMO: Eating in the car is a distraction.

CAMEROTA: So is putting on mascara. Try it.

CUOMO: Like I don't know.

All right. So latest on the front, in the war against terror here at home. A teenager arrested at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Why? For trying to join ISIS. We have new details on how the feds nabbed him and what he thought he was about to do.

CAMEROTA: Plus President Obama's former secretary of defense, Leon Panetta, with strong words for his former boss, criticizing his Syria policy, his leadership, even saying he's, quote, "lost his way." The two got Bin Laden together so what's going on now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: He is 19-year-old Mohammed Hamzah Khan, and he was nabbed in Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Next stop was supposed to be Turkey. What he thought he was going to do is equal parts naive and frankly shocking.

We have complete coverage starting with CNN's Ted Rowlands from the teen's hometown of Bolingbrook, Illinois -- Ted.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

According to federal investigators, in the house behind me, they found notes, drawing and a letter explaining why this American teenager wanted to leave his home and go to the Middle East to fight with ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLANDS (voice-over): According to investigators, 19-year-old Mohammed Hamzah Khan was on his way to join ISIS when he was arrested over the weekend after going through security at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. In a three-page letter allegedly left for his parents and signed, "Your loving son, Khan", according to a criminal complaint, wrote that he was obligated to migrate to the Islamic State and that he couldn't bear the thought of his taxes in the U.S. being used to kill his, quote, "Muslim brothers and sisters."

"The Western societies are getting more immoral day by day", he allegedly wrote. "I do not want my kids being exposed to filth like this."

Investigators say Khan was expecting that a contact he met online would meet him in Turkey and take him to join ISIS in Iraq or Syria. But details about who bought his plane ticket and who he would meet were not revealed.

Relatives declined to speak outside the family home in the Chicago working-class suburb of Bolingbrook. Neighbors say Khan lived with his parents and a brother and sister and spent time at an Islamic center across the street. TOMMY FERGUSON, NEIGHBOR: It's horrible, man. And it's in our

backyard. You know, it's literally in my backyard and it's bad, it's bad.

ROWLANDS: Next-door neighbor Steve Moore said he's known the family for about two years.

STEVE MOORE, NEIGHBOR: I was surprised. Really surprised. I mean, the kid was polite. You know, I didn't expect anything like that in the least bit.

ROWLANDS: What's unclear is how the teenager was radicalized, or if his family knew what he was planning. The criminal complaint mentions pro-ISIS writings and drawings found in common areas of the house. Suggesting his views may have been known to members of his family. Khan made an appearance in federal court on Monday. Members of his family were there in the courtroom, but had nothing to say after the hearing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLANDS: And, Chris, Khan is being held without bail, he has a detention hearing scheduled for Thursday morning -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Ted, thank you very much.

Alisyn, over to you.

CAMEROTA: All right, Chris.

Let's investigate this further with Tom Fuentes. He's a CNN law enforcement analyst and a former FBI assistant director, and Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a senior at the fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here.

Tom, let me start with you. Where do you think this 19-year-old got a $4,000 round-trip Turkey -- ticket to Istanbul?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, that's a good question, Alisyn. But we know that ISIS has a lot of money. We've heard about the income that they have had from selling oil on the black market, as well as ransoms being paid, especially by European countries for some of their hostages.

So, they have money. They're paying their fighters various amounts in the field to fight and would have money to probably send to him and do it. They have quite a sophisticated logistical support network to get people into Syria and Iraq.

CAMEROTA: So, Daveed, authorities arrested this kid at O'Hare Airport, before he ever boarded a plane, which seems like great police work. How do you think he was even on their radar?

DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: That's a good question. It's most likely that he was on the radar because he was communicating online with basically someone who seems to have been a recruiter, someone who is referred to as the individual C in the complaint. Assuming that's the case, the U.S. has excellent electronic surveillance and would have been likely especially if the communication was not encrypted, or only crudely encrypted, to pick up on this discussion.

CAMEROTA: So, Tom, you just heard on that report. This teenager, Mohammed Khan, he left this note for his parents, he said he felt compelled to migrate to ISIS because he wanted, he said to do some kind of public service. He said he wanted to provide some sort of humanitarian work over there.

So, what part of the ISIS message is he missing? How could he, if he's online, think that they're doing humanitarian work, rather than their barbaric attacks?

FUENTES: I don't know how he could possibly think it's humanitarian, you're right. You know what they, delusionally think in a situation like this, we don't know. But, you know, ISIS, al Qaeda, most analysts believe that the terror groups have killed about 85 percent of their victims being Muslim.

So -- and including ISIS. If you're, yes, ISIS is going after Yazidi and Kurds and a few others, but their predominant victims, intentionally are Shia Muslims and then moderate Sunni Muslims are also considered infidels by them if you're going to join a group like is, you're going to kill Muslims.

CAMEROTA: But, Daveed, is it possible we're missing some of the message and this kid had it right, at least in the PR, in other words, the propaganda that they're putting out that they claim that you will get stability, you'll get family values, you'll be able to do important works. Is that all online?

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: Yes, they absolutely claim. It's a group that has very mixed messages. In addition to seeing the photos of beheadings and other atrocities that they're committing, you can also see photos online of them setting up for example, fun day for kids where they have inflatable slides and things like that. You also have a number of photographs and demonstrations of them carrying out charitable works.

Also when he was talking -- when Khan is talking about taking part in humanitarian activities, he means humanitarian in a different way than we do, to him, most likely, given his radicalization, he thinks this harsh imposition of Sharia law, in itself is a humanitarian good being given as a gift to the population.

CAMEROTA: Fascinating. So, Tom, he was going to fly in and out of Turkey. We've heard that Westerners who are trying to join the fight are using Turkey as the entrance point. Is Istanbul now a red flag for law enforcement here in the U.S.?

FUENTES: I think so. You know, particularly, you know, 19-year-olds don't typically take a vacation in Istanbul, you know, on a regular basis, this is what we're seeing is that many of the people that have gone to join have traveled through Turkey to get there. And ISIS has again a logistical network set up there, that once he's there, they'll arrange the transportation to get him into Syria or Iraq.

CAMEROTA: Daveed, very quickly, is this kid going to get 15 years in prison?

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: Well, 15 years is what is sought. Often you'll have a plea bargain and he'll get some sort of reduced sentence, my guess is he won't get 15 in this case.

CAMEROTA: David Gartenstein-Ross, Tom Fuentes, thanks so much for your expertise. Always great to talk to you guys.

FUENTES: You're welcome. Well, blistering friendly fire, the president's former secretary of defense now calling President Obama a, quote, "a complainer who has lost his way", and that's not all that Leon Panetta is saying. Just wait until you hear it- - the vice president's response to it, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. Just about half past the hour. Now, let's give you a look at your headlines.

The White House is planning to ramp up airport screenings in the U.S., and West Africa to try to keep another case of Ebola from reaching our shores. This, as doctors in Dallas are using an experimental smallpox drug to try to save the life of an Ebola stricken Liberian man.