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Dallas Sheriff's Deputy Being Screened For Ebola; Ebola Screenings Set For Five U.S. Airports; Protests Erupt After Cop Kills Teen In St. Louis; Hostage's Mom Makes Twitter Plea to ISIS Leader

Aired October 09, 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: New fears. A sheriff's deputy who was inside the apartment of the Dallas Ebola patient is rushed to the hospital. Did he contract the disease? And new airport screenings are about to be instated. We have where they will be and whether they're enough.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking overnight, protests erupt in St. Louis. Angry residents shouting down police, kicking their cars, after an off-duty police officer shot at a black man 17 times, killing. But the officer was shot at first. The police speaking out this morning.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Also breaking overnight, a desperate plea. The mother of the latest American hostage to be threatened reaches out directly to the leader of ISIS, asking for a meeting. Is there any chance he could grant one?

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 Thursday, October 9th, 6:00 in the East, and I am joined by Alisyn Camerota.

CAMEROTA: Great to be with you.

CUOMO: Good to be with you, as well. Let's begin in Dallas. That's where a sheriff's deputy who made contact with Thomas Eric Duncan's family is now being tested for Ebola. Yesterday Duncan lost his battle with Ebola after more than a week. He was the first man diagnosed with the disease on U.S. soil. The virus.

CAMEROTA: And Duncan's family of course is grieving, but they're also expressing outrage over his medical care, claiming that he was forced to wait too long for that experimental medicine. This as we learn more about the new screening measures about to be put into place at some U.S. airports. We begin our coverage with senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, in Dallas with the very latest for us. Good morning, Elizabeth. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Alisyn, as Thomas Eric Duncan's family grieves, more questions about the care he received at this hospital, and more questions about a new possible, although very unlikely, case of Ebola.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did not receive any type of emergency equipment.

COHEN (voice-over): Ebola fear escalating as Sergeant Michael Monnig, a deputy sheriff who initially entered into the apartment where Dallas Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, was staying before it was sanitized started experiencing some Ebola-like symptoms Wednesday. He told CNN affiliate WFAA Friday, he thought he may have come in contact with the virus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Touched doors and turn on lights.

COHEN: According to the CDC, Ebola can't live on surfaces for more than just a few hours and Monic said he was in the apartment several days after Duncan had already been admitted to the hospital.

A state health hospital saying we know he didn't have direct contact with Duncan and he doesn't have a fever. In a situation like that, there is not a risk of Ebola.

MAYOR MAHER MASO, FRISCO, TEXAS: We're taking several actions to make sure that the public health safety and welfare is protected.

COHEN: The deputy sheriff was transported to the same hospital where Duncan, the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., died early Wednesday.

DR. TERRY FRIEDEN, CDC, DIRECTOR: Today, we're saddened by the death of the patient in Dallas.

COHEN: Some community leaders are now questioning Duncan's care.

REV. JESSE JACKSON, SPEAKING ON BEHALF OF DUNCAN'S FAMILY: They are concerned is that the same standard of identification and diagnosis and safe care not applied in first did not apply to him.

COHEN: Admitted September 28th, Duncan lay sickened in his hospital bed at Texas Health Presbyterian for six days before doctors tried an experimental medication to fight Ebola compared that to NBC cameraman, Ashoka Mukpo, also fighting the virus.

He arrived at the University of Nebraska on Monday, and right away, doctors gave him an experimental anti-viral medication. Mukpo also received a blood donation from American survivor, Dr. Kent Brantley.

Blood donations from Ebola survivors are believed to provide antibodies to patients still fighting the disease. Duncan never received a donation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: While Monig is not a contact of Mr. Duncan, Mr. Duncan did have 48 other contacts. Those contacts are being followed closely, monitored by health personnel and so far, none of them have gotten sick -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All such good questions, we'll try to get answers to those. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

CUOMO: All right, so five major U.S. airports are now set to begin screening for Ebola starting Saturday. All passengers arriving from West Africa will be questioned and examined at New York's JFK airport.

And next week, similar screenings will begin at Newark, Dulles, O'Hare, and Hartsfield airport. So let's get to our aviation correspondent, Rene Marsh, live from Dulles International Airport in Virginia. What's the reaction so far? Do you see any kind of movement toward this?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, we know this morning preparations are under way for that ramped-up security or screening measures that we've been talking about.

The focus and the target is going to be people flying from three Ebola-impacted countries. The tougher screening means tougher questions and temperature checks using noncontact thermometers like this one.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSH (voice-over): In just days, ramped-up screening of passengers will begin at New York's JFK Airport and expanding to Atlanta, Newark, Chicago, and here at Washington, D.C. Dulles. The five airports receive about 95 percent of the 150 passengers arriving in the U.S. every day from Ebola hot spots, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Under the new screening measures, all passengers traveling from those countries will have their temperatures checked with a laser thermometer. No touching necessary, just held close to the forehead. A new CDC questionnaire must also be filled out upon landing.

AMESH ADALJA, MD., UPMC CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY: There's a 21-day incubation period. People may not have a fever when they're passing through the airport and invariably when a case comes through, we had this temperature screening set up, why did this happen?

And I'm telling people that it's completely predictable that it will happen because it's not a fool proof way to prevent Ebola from coming into the country.

MARSH: Similar screen is already in place in West Africa, but the goal of these new U.S. checks is to identify passengers airport officials missed or who developed symptoms while traveling.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is an additional layer of screening that can be targeted to that small population in a way that will enhance security, but also minimize disruption to the broader traveling public.

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MARSH: The CDC says one out of 500 travelers coming from West Africa getting off of planes, they will have a fever. But most of the time, it is malaria. So they're pretty confident that they're going to detect people with these thermometers who do have a fever.

It doesn't necessarily mean it will be Ebola. We won't see this rollout of this ramped-up screening until Saturday. That's because I'm told these Customs and Border Protection officers have to be briefed and trained in the new procedures -- Chris.

CUOMO: No question they're going to have false positives. You know what they're calling aren't Ebola. It will add to time and people will say it's only a half-measure. Better than nothing. Rene, thank you for the reporting. Alisyn, over to you.

CAMEROTA: All right, Chris, let's bring in CNN's national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem, also a former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, and Dr. Alexander Van Tulleken, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Humanitarian Affairs.

It's great to have both of you with us to try to answer all of the questions this morning. Doctor, let me start with you. Mr. Duncan who sadly died yesterday, his family, his fiance, have a lot of questions about his treatment here.

They want to know why he wasn't given the experimental drug sooner. He had to wait six days before doctors tried that on him. Furthermore, he never got a blood transfusion as the American patient in Nebraska did. What went wrong?

DR. ALEXANDER VAN TULLEKEN, MEDICAL DOCTOR: I don't think, I think it would be premature to say anything went wrong in that case. What we know is that early treatment in Ebola saves lives and if he had been admitted to hospital earlier, that might well have affected that prognosis.

But everything else is experimental and it would be up to the physician's discretion whether or not they thought it would be useful. Blood transfusions are not a risk-free procedure. And in this case, he would have had a blood transfusion from someone who would have survived Ebola.

CAMEROTA: But Dr. Kent Brantly is providing that for the freelance cameraman in Nebraska.

TULLEKEN: We have some sorry that the hospital did reach out to Nancy Writebol who was out of the country at that time. So I think that they may have felt it was too time-consuming or the disease was too advanced for that particular way of attacking the virus to work.

The virus is still affecting blood vessels and other organs in his body. It may well reveal a bias. I don't get a strong sense here that he has been neglected or not treated well. He did get an experimental drug. They have run out of ZMapp.

I think to me the really concerning gap is those four days when he wasn't admitted.

CAMEROTA: Before I bring in Juliette, I have another question about the sheriff's deputy who went into Mr. Duncan's apartment. That sheriff's deputy woke up yesterday feeling sore, feeling fatigued with a stomach ache. Do you think he was exposed to Ebola?

TULLEKEN: It seems to me extremely unlikely that he would have caught Ebola from what happened. But I think he was exposed to a risk would be fair to say and I think the way that that was handled, there did not seem to be a protocol.

There didn't seem to be clear advice, that didn't seem to be a decision-making pathway that said it was safe to go in there. He may be manifesting symptoms along with an extreme amount of worry about this. It shows a failure in the decision-making process.

CAMEROTA: Juliette, there were even failures in the safety precautions when he went into the apartment. Let's listen to the sheriff's department and why they're so concerned today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. MICHAEL MONNIG, DALLAS COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: We did not receive any type of emergency equipment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And did you all touch anything while you were in there?

MONNIG: We touched doors, touched lights to turn on lights. That sort of thing leaves question marks in your mind. When you go home the next day, you start hearing that equipment is being quarantined or asked to be bagged up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So Juliette, they touched doors. They touched lights. They didn't have any sort of safety equipment. What do you make of that? Just consistent failures in the Texas response including protecting our first responders, which is of primary importance, how can we expect them to go into the next patient?

And there will be a next patient if we can't protect them and just the sort of casualness by which Texas handled the entire case. You know the good news is, it's just a case of one. We've learned a lot of lessons.

But you know, agree with Alexander that one of the consequences of not protecting our first responders is going to be these worried well. Lots of people coming in, they probably don't have Ebola coming into hospital rooms, but they're going to sort of overwhelm the system in ways, much more so than Ebola. We saw this of course with the anthrax attacks immediately after 2001. Many more worried well than there were actual anthrax patients.

CAMEROTA: You're nodding, Doctor?

TULLEKEN: Absolutely. I'm speaking to colleagues in hospitals all over the city and they know we've got flu season coming and people are going to be worried about this.

And we've got a real issue where hospitals are now circulating protocols, people are aware of the kind of things they need to be doing. They need to be doing dress rehearsals in protective gear.

CAMEROTA: Juliette, let's talk about the new airport screenings will be at major airports, here in JFK and starting on Saturday. Are these the answer?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: There's going to be no perfect answer except for killing off this virus. So the way to think about it is layers of security. Some are going to look like scalpels and some are going to look like hatchets.

Some will be big, like screenings at airports that cover 95 percent of the travel from West Africa. Some will be the kind of surveillance we've seen coming out of the Texas case and other potential exposure cases. None are going to be perfect.

This is what the CDC is trying to say to the public that may be clamoring for a travel ban. The travel ban is essentially sort of a side issue. It is not going to solve both the security crisis, let alone the public health crisis going on in West Africa.

So you have to view it as many options. Many sorts of policies and procedures will be put in place. But someone will get through, even these screening measures, just given the nature of the Ebola threat. We have to be prepared on the response side.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Ominous warning but very practical. Juliette Kayyem, Dr. Van Tulleken, thanks so much for the information this morning. Let's go back to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn, breaking overnight in St. Louis, another fatal police shooting has outraged a community that's already on edge. Overnight, an angry crowd gathered near the scene where police say an off-duty officer exchanged fire with a teenager before killing him.

The incident comes two months after the Michael Brown shooting in nearby Ferguson, Missouri. In both cases, the officer is white, the dead teen, black. But in this case, the police say the teen fired first. Rosa Flores is here with more -- Rosa.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, good morning. Tensions are high in St. Louis and so are emotions. This time, police are describing a very different shooting scene when compared to the Michael Brown case. Police say this teen suspect was not only armed, he fired the first shot. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES (voice-over): Overnight, protests erupt in St. Louis, angry residents charging at police, kicking at police cars, shattering windows and shouting for police to leave their neighborhood.

This, after an 18-year-old black man was shot and killed by an off- duty St. Louis police officer, Wednesday night. According to the St. Louis Police Department, the 32-year-old officer, a white male and a six-year veteran of the force, was off-duty in uniform working for a security agency on neighborhood patrol, when he saw a black man running from the officer. He said then fired shots at the officer.

CHIEF SAM DOTSON, ST. LOUIS POLICE DEPARTMENT: A police officer tonight chased an individual who was armed with a gun, the individual shot at the officer least three times and the officer returned fire.

FLORES: Authorities confirmed the officer shot at the suspect 17 times. The officer was not hurt and police say a 9-mm gun was recovered from the scene.

FLORES: This shooting happening just miles away from where Michael Brown, who was unarmed was shot two months ago and just ahead of a weekend of resistance in St. Louis where activists will push for a movement in the investigation into that case.

All this as demonstrators continue in a community already reeling and seeking answers to another young man's death.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Despite the outrage and tensions there, police say no looting has occurred and police officers are offering much restraint as protesters confront them face to face -- Chris.

CUOMO: Sad commentary when looting is the bar of community relations, there's no question that there's a lot to be resolved there. Rosa, thank you very much for the reporting this morning. Let's go over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, good morning, everybody. Here's a look at your headlines, an embarrassing new revelation surrounding the 2012 Secret Service prostitution scandal.

Despite repeated denials by the Obama administration, the "Washington Post" reports a White House aide had a prostitute staying with him at his hotel during President Obama's trip to Colombia and that senior officials were told about it.

According to that report, the aide now works full time at the State Department and his father is a prominent Democratic donor.

Police in Pennsylvania revealing the contents of a chilling handwritten note, series of them, apparently left behind in the woods by suspected cop killer Eric Frein. The notes describe the ambush of two state troopers last month. Here is an excerpt. Friday, September 12th, got a shot around 11:00 p.m., he took it. He dropped, I took a follow-up shot on his head-neck area, he was still and quiet after that Frein remains at large.

Where is Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader has not been spotted in over a month. All eyes will be on a key political event tomorrow to see if he shows up. If he doesn't go, it will likely fuel further speculation over his health and future leadership of that country.

Here's a question for you this morning -- who would you cast for the "Ghostbusters" reboot? The long-awaited third instalment of the film franchise now been confirmed.

The director of "Bridesmaids" says it will star hilarious women. Original Ghostbusters star, Bill Murray loves that idea. Suggesting Kristen Wiig and Melissa Mccarthy would be perfect.

CAMEROTA: Well, that's the answer, those two, don't you think? Aren't they just great, being together in everything?

PEREIRA: They are. They're comedy genius as far as I'm concerned.

CUOMO: You ever get little Kristen Wiig comparisons?

CAMEROTA: I've never gotten it. But I see it. When I see her, I sometimes see it.

CUOMO: Not so much with the humor part, but I'm saying just in the looks a little bit.

Melissa McCarthy is great in everything. You need her to be in there. But you need somebody to play the geeky genius.

CAMEROTA: Sandra Bullock.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: And so, Sandra Bullock.

CAMEROTA: She's always in those --

PEREIRA: She does a good straight-face kind of delivery.

CAMEROTA: You're welcome, Hollywood.

PEREIRA: So, hey, look, I want to ask you at home. Get online, get on Facebook, and let us know what you think -- who should be the actresses cast in the leading roles? Our Facebook page is Facebook.com/ -- conveniently - NEWDAY, except for conveniently.

CAMEROTA: Don't type that. Thanks, Michaela.

Well, a dramatic plea from the mother of an American hostage being held by ISIS, reaching out directly to the terror group's leader, asking to speak with him. Will her plea have any impact? COUMO: And Excalibur, the dog of the nurse in Spain, did he have to die? Spanish officials euthanized the 12-year-old rescue dog owned by that family because they -- she was infected with Ebola. They were worried about the dog. Hundreds of thousands signed a petition to stop them from putting the dog down.

Did they go too far in the name of safety? What is the exposure of pets? We'll take you through it.

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CUOMO: -- my only child. My husband and I are on our own, with no help from the government. We would like to talk to you, how can we reach you?

This is going on as the Syrian border town of Kobani continues to dangle by a thread and nearby Turkey totally equipped, but doing nothing to stop it.

Let's bring in James Jeffrey. He's the former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and Iraq. He's now a distinguished visiting fellow at the Washington Institute.

Certainly, you understand the politic there is very well. Thank you very much, Ambassador, for joining us.

The first question in the news of the day is -- you have to feel for the Kassig family. The reason their son is named Abdul-Rahman is because he went through an Islamic conversion, he's a Muslim now. They want a meeting.

Do you think that is advisable? Do you think it might happen? And do you think any good could come from any meeting like that.

JAMES JEFFREY, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ & TURKEY: Chris, I've been in such situations with hostages taken by al Qaeda in Iraq. The family has to do everything possible to try to get their child back. We all understand that. The record of success of such efforts frankly has not been good.

CUOMO: And what about the safety of the family, the chance that ISIS may set something up only to take more people hostage. Is there any indication that they would show mercy? Have we ever seen that?

JEFFREY: We have not seen mercy from this organization and there is a danger if the family were to do this. But once again, in a situation like this, people -- and I've seen this happen -- people are going to do whatever they feel is morally right to try to get their child back.

CUOMO: Now, there is something about this that is touching on a different angle. Which is often these families don't feel adequately supported by the State Department, where they feel -- we've heard it in the past, not enough was done to save my son. They're playing the macho politics of not negotiating with people and putting my son or my daughter's life in the balance.

Do you think it's fair criticism in the situation?

JEFFREY: It's understandable, if not fair. When I was doing this back in Iraq and recently, with ISIS, the U.S. government has done everything up to and including sending hundreds of commandos in to try to rescue these people. But it's never going to be enough for families, and there's one thing they do object to, which is the U.S. government refuses understandably to pay ransom.

CUOMO: OK. So, that takes us to the other front on the war. Let's stick with the border, the town of Kobani. Now, Secretary of State John Kerry, other military officials have come out and said, Kobani, we don't want them to take it. We don't want them to take anything, but the border is porous and this is not a particularly strategic stronghold.

Do you agree?

JEFFREY: I do not agree, respectfully. This is strategic terrain. It was defended heroically by a force of let's put it, boots on the ground, allied boots on the ground. We provided air support and we didn't succeed.

But it's not up to John Kerry or me to determine whether this is a strategic victory if it falls to ISIS. It's up to the people of the Middle East. I'm sure they're going to see this as another very significant ISIS victory, and that spells bad news for us.

CUOMO: Well, but then again, if it's -- when you say the people of the Middle East, what do you mean? You mean the countries that have to decide whether or not to get into the fight or the people who are thinking of whether or not ISIS is the right side to be on?

JEFFREY: All of the above. It's our job to mobilize the countries. We have not been successful yesterday in mobilizing Turkey to take necessary action. Although General Allen, the president's envoy is in Turkey today.

And most importantly, the areas that the ISIS people recruit from, they're going to see this as a dramatic ISIS victory, despite U.S. air power. That's not good.

CUOMO: But aren't you seeing this population as a little too impressive? I mean, the extremist population, if you take all of them together, no matter what name they want to go by, is such a small slice of the overall population of Islam, which roundly rejects the extremists.

What is the threat of ISIS getting that much bigger? How big can they get?

JEFFREY: The threat is significant. Not only in Arab countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan, but also in Turkey. ISIS resonates among many people. It's not just a tiny slice.

The question is, will these people actually volunteer? Will they actually travel to Syria or Iraq and fight with ISIS? And that's based upon whether they think ISIS is winning or losing. That's why this is so important.

CUOMO: Now, when we get to the winning or losing of it, someone who could weigh in very heavily. One of the biggest armies in the area and in NATO is Turkey. They've lined up tanks, this is their border.

Why aren't they doing more? They got the parliamentary authorization to do it. Is this about the Kurds and them not wanting to help the Kurds who are fighting in these border towns?

JEFFREY: Chris, with Turkey, everything is complicated. It is often, I'm afraid, an opaque foreign policy. Nonetheless, what the Turks want is more -- almost subservience by the Kurds, but more importantly, they want the Obama administration to engage with them against the Assad regime, which is what most of the Arab countries want as well, with a no-fly zone in the north so that Turkey doesn't have on top of its current 1.5 million refugees, another 1.5 million or 2 million more.

They want us to play a role more actively against Assad, as well as against ISIS, and we need to listen to them.

CUOMO: All right. So, that gets us to the last point, and the main point perhaps, which is often, we talk about right and wrong, the good war, the bad war. But often, it comes down to the deal, let's be honest.

General John Allen, the coalition coordinator is going to meet to Turkey today to try to get support. What deal has to be on the table if we want to see the Turkish military cleaning out their own border?

JEFFREY: We need to push the Turks to do more. If not, put troops across the border. Artillery fire, allow supplies to go into Kobani and others who are fighting against ISIS and Assad.

But I think we really need to talk with the Turks about what we're going to do against Assad. What we're going to do to keep new refugee flows from going into Turkey. And what about a no-fly zone. It's not just the Turks, the French and others are looking at this, too.

CUOMO: So, we'll have to see what deal is struck, because obviously, we need boots on the ground. Nobody wants it to be American boots. But that's going to be the only option left if the Turks don't get involved. There's somebody else very soon.

Ambassador, thank you very much. Ambassador James Jeffrey, always a pleasure to have you on NEW DAY.

JEFFREY: Thank you.

CUOMO: Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris.

Is it possible for pets to spread the Ebola virus? There's outrage in Spain after health officials euthanized a dog belonging to an infected nursing assistant. We'll ask an infectious disease specialist if putting down Excalibur, this dog, was really necessary.

And, an Indiana family is suing police and speaking out to CNN after police smashed in their window and tased a passenger. You won't want to miss the emotional reaction from that family.

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