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World Trade Center Window Washers Rescued; Clinical Trials to Begin Next Month for Ebola Treatment; Problems Pop Up During Philae Landing

Aired November 13, 2014 - 07:30   ET

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

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: An update now for you on a story that we've been watching. A 90-year-old veteran who's already been in trouble for violating a Florida law against feeding the homeless in outdoor public spaces, well, he has been cited a third time. Arnold Abbott was with a group of supporters when police singled him out, gave him another citation, but they did allow him to keep handing out food. Ft. Lauderdale's mayor says the law is designed to help the homeless get off the streets by taking away the incentive to wait for help. You know we're going to follow up on this story.

Here is one for the record books, Cory Thunderlaw, a member of the world famous Harlem Globetrotters, shattered the Guinness mark for the far farthest basketball shot ever made backwards, did in Phoenix at the U.S. Airways Center there. He did it backwards. Can you believe it? It's 82 feet, 2 inches, nothing but net.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: See the arms on that guy? You cannot be weak and shoot a ball over your head that far.

PEREIRA: He beat the old mark by a full ten feet.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I'm not sure it's just brute strength. There is a lot of technical skill happening there.

CUOMO: Very few people could reach the basket from there is what I'm saying, let alone make it.

PEREIRA: I couldn't do it from the foul line. He's amazing, Thunderlaw, nice job.

CUOMO: Their show is better than ever.

PEREIRA: Yes, it's so much fun.

CUOMO: All right, so one of the stories we're all literally watching with bated breath yesterday, two window washers were just dangling from the freedom tower, this morning, they are safe thanks to the New York's bravest and a diamond saw.

They were left clinging, dangling on their scaffolding. They were cleaning windows obviously and the question is -- why? Why did it take this kind of effort for these men to do their job safely? Miguel Marquez has the story. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Frightening moments unfolding on a newly opened One World Trade Center. Two window washers trapped on a platform dangling 68 floors above the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED CALLER: I'm seeing two heads right now dangling over their scaffolding.

MARQUEZ: At about 12:40 in the afternoon, 41-year-old Juan Lizzama and 33-year-old Juan Lopez were headed to the roof of the Freedom Tower when a cable on one side of the platform gave way. The workers pushed the emergency stop button, but the rig didn't come to an immediate stop, dropping it from horizontal to nearly vertical.

LT. WILLIAM RYAN, NEW YORK POLICE FIRE DEPARTMENT: They weren't going anywhere, you know, so they weren't panicking, but they had no options.

MARQUEZ: Within minutes, authorities on scene. The rescue begins. With another platform in place on the roof as a back-up plan, rescue workers use a diamond saw to cut through three layers of thick glass to reach the trapped workers. After 90 heart-stopping minutes, they succeeded pulling them in through the 68th floor window.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our people are trained for it and they amaze me every time with how good they are at it.

MARQUEZ: Officials credit police and fire departments and the workers themselves for being prepared for this dangerous rescue.

SHIRLEY ALDEBOL, VICE PRESIDENT, 32BJ SEIU UNION: Had they not had the proper equipment and the proper training to handle a situation like this, we might have had a different ending to the story.

MARQUEZ: Upgrade Services, the company employing the workers issued a statement saying although all safety measures were exercised, the cause of the incident appears to be equipment failure.

Officials at Tractle, the company that designed, built and installed the window-washing rig had no comment. Tractle also designed the scaffolding that collapsed at the Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan last year. Leaving two workers stranded more than 550 feet in the air before eventually being rescued.

The window washers have now been released from the hospital lucky to be alive after dangling from the tallest building in America.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: And now you're looking at a live picture of the window that FDNY turned into a door as they call it. It has been repaired with this very high-tech building, with duct tape and some wood. To keep it secure until they can replace the window for good. The scaffold has been secured up on the top of the building -- Alisyn. CAMEROTA: Scary stuff, Miguel. Thanks so much for showing us all of that. We want to bring in now Gerard McEneaney. He is the director of the window washing union that serves the two employees that were involved in Wednesday's ordeal. Welcome. Have you spoken to those two window washers?

GERARD MCENEANEY, DIRECTOR, 32BJ SEIU WINDOW WASHING UNION: I've been able to contact one of them, the lead man on the scaffold and he briefly told me he's a little shaken, but he's doing OK, spending time with his family right now.

CAMEROTA: Did he explain to you what it was like for that hour while they were suspended there?

MCENEANEY: Well, obviously it's a harrowing experience for anyone to be suspended that high in the air on one wire rope of a scaffold. It was frightening, but they're well trained. We're train our window cleaners, 32 BJ Window Cleaning Division Apprenticeship Program. They're prepared for these incidents.

CAMEROTA: Are they? So you train them for this scenario. First of all, what happened, the cable broke?

MCENEANEY: It appears there was a mechanical failure on one of the wire ropes, yes.

CAMEROTA: OK, so you train your window washers in the event that a cable breaks and you're suspended 68 stories in the air. What are they supposed to do?

MCENEANEY: Well, at this point, the point they were there's nothing much they could do, but to sit there and wait. They called the third man, there's always a third person in radio contact when workers are suspended scaffold.

CAMEROTA: But how were they able to stay so calm?

MCENEANEY: Their training, again, we always go back to the training. We prepare them for this. We tell them stay calm. They have their life lines on and they're safe. It's just a matter of waiting until help arrives.

CAMEROTA: Now is that right, did they have their life lines on? Because what we had heard is that when the FDNY got there, they lowered down a rope to them and they were able to kind of harness themselves in.

MCENEANEY: No, that's a standard in the industry. You have to wear life lines. You have to employ them at all times on a scaffold.

CAMEROTA: And where are those connected to?

MCENEANEY: They're connected to separate anchorage points on the roof and they tie their ropes to that and they connect it to themselves. In the event of an emergency like, this a situation, they're prepared and it saves their lives. CAMEROTA: OK, so what happened when you got the call at the office that there was an emergency happening?

MCENEANEY: I rushed down to the trade center and I got up on the 68th floor, you can imagine, it was chaos at that point. The fire department, police, building personnel, everyone is running around. But the FDNY was at the window trying to cut through it at that point to rescue them. Secure the scaffold and rescue the workers.

CAMEROTA: Was there any moment that you thought that they might not be rescued?

MCENEANEY: No, the FDNY is fabulous. These guys are incredible. They do a tremendous job and this is not their first time doing something like this.

CAMEROTA: So how are the rest of your window washers feeling today about heading back up on a building?

MCENEANEY: Well, everyone knows in the industry, that this could be them this could happen to any of us at any point working in the industry. And they're well prepared for it and you know, they know that the risk is always there.

CAMEROTA: Well we're so happy that this ended well, it was so nerve- wracking to watch it unfold.

MCENEANEY: It certainly was, yes, and I'm very happy myself.

CAMEROTA: Thanks for coming in today to talk about this. Gerard McEneaney, best of luck for a quick recovery for your guys.

MCENEANEY: Thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: All right, let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: The worst of the situation for the window washers, but also it got us to see the best of our first responders on display. Thankfully it ended the way it did.

All right so, Ebola gone here. It's good news. Here's the bad news, only came here because it is overwhelming parts of West Africa. If you don't stop it there, you will see it here again, no matter what restrictions you have.

That's the fact so where's the answer, maybe clinical trials. There's exciting new science. Sanjay Gupta is here and he's going to tell you about it.

And Europe's Space Agency releasing the first pictures ever of the Philae Lander landing on a moving comet, never happened before, however, it's new home seems to be a place it is renting, not owning, why didn't it hook in like it should have? We're going to talk with Bill Nye, "The Science Guy," and he will tell us what happened and why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: Just announced this morning, clinical trials will begin next month to try to find a safe and effective treatment for Ebola. Doctors Without Borders hosting three separate research projects at treatment centers in West Africa. This effort is being billed as unprecedented international partnership, meant to give hope to people in Ebola hot zones.

Chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is here in the CNN Center in Atlanta with the latest on these trials. An international partnership, it sounds big.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is big and it is unprecedented. Think about the fact that there's this ongoing humanitarian disaster, epidemic going on in West Africa. Now they're going to start these trials.

Some people will say, look, it's been a long time coming. We need to actually see if these medications really do work and test them in some way. But what's happening here, Mich is something that's not happened before.

They're going to find three centers in West Africa, at least 100 patients in each center and they are going to try these different medications. Some of them have been already medications we've heard about because they've been given to patients here in the United States.

And one of them is going to be the blood transfusions of people who have, who have survived Ebola and have the anti-bodies in their blood. That's the trial they want to do there.

But again, this is an unprecedented thing. Peter Horby, who is with Oxford, is partnering in this trial as well. Listen to how he described it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROFESSOR PETER HORBY, THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD: There's a great need for these trials. We have the products, which may or may not work in Ebola, in patients with Ebola. And the only way we can test them is during an epidemic. If we're going to find a treatment, we have to do it now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: When you hear that Michaela, it's important to point out that we've been giving some of these medications. But really don't know for sure how well they work or if they work at all. It's an answer that we really need to have going forward.

PEREIRA: The question is how do they select which clinics in West Africa and then which patients within those clinics will be part of this experimental treatment?

GUPTA: It's a great question. And I'm sure you know, the exact where probably had to do with density of patients right now. We know there's still many patients who have the infection, but here's what's interesting about the second part of that question.

When you typically do science, you do what's called randomization, you find some patients who are going to get the medication and compare them to similar patients who don't get the medication. That's how you normally do this.

They're not going to do this in this case. They're going to essentially give at least 100 patients the medication in these particular locations and compare how they do over 14 days, with how people have been doing the last few months.

We know the death rate is very high. So they're going to compare it to the existing data as opposed to randomization. It should be good data, still, they think it should come back by February or so. But it's a very different way of conducting science. And again, it's sort of because of the extraordinary circumstances.

PEREIRA: So amazing to think that they could use the blood from survivors to potentially help others. That's so fantastic, ultimate recycling, if you will, Sanjay. Dr. Sanjay Gupta with us, thanks so much for that. We appreciate it -- Alisyn.

GUPTA: Yes, Mich. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, Michaela, we're getting our first glimpse at some very cool images sent in by the Philae Lander. But the historic mission did not go exactly as planned. We're learning some technical issues popped up. Will it doom the mission?

We're going to ask Bill Nye, "The Science Guy." He's going to break it down for us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Making history in space, but now there are some concerns about the Philae Lander. It's sitting on a moving comet, remember, but it's not sitting very securely. We're being told the Lander did not attach properly to the comet's surface.

So there are some questions about the stability of the probe and concerns that it could go off into space in the low-gravity environment. Here to discuss the latest on the mission is the author of "Undeniable: Evolution, Science and Creation" Bill Nye, "The Science Guy." Great to have you back.

BILL NYE, "THE SCIENCE GUY," EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE PLANETARY SOCIETY: It's so good to be had.

CAMEROTA: So this mission was a success, but it didn't go exactly as planned. It precariously plopped on the comet.

NYE: So the idea was to have what they call harpoons to stab this comet and it would stay there. Well, the harpoons didn't fire, but they still have mutual gravity, so it's sitting there. The one thing that won't be so easy to do is drill into the surface of the comet, which was a pretty cool goal.

CUOMO: Can they move it down the farther? Can they get a second shot at this?

NYE: I don't think so. I think once it's gently I think once it's gently deployed it has to gently sit there. You guys, can I just say, they did all this for $1.5 billion. Over 13 years, it's a cup of coffee once every 13 years.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but they had 13 years, but it didn't go exactly --

NYE: It went very well. My goodness, you caught up with in thing in the middle of deep space nowhere and did you listen to the sounds? You know where they come from? Nobody knows where they come from so when you go exploring you're -- two things are going to happen. You're going to make discoveries like and you're going to have an adventure.

CUOMO: That sounds like whale speak or dolphin speak.

NYE: Everybody's speculating, there's so much ice, so much water on these objects that just a little bit of sunlight is causing them to scrape on each other electrostatically like static and it's being picked up by the instruments.

PEREIRA: Back to your point about that, you talked about, it really hit me what you were saying yesterday, I think we TV people want things to go off just as planned but part of this is the adventure of discovery.

NYE: That's right.

PEREIRA: All of the things we don't know we're learning, and even out of the so-called mistake of the harpoons not being able to attach, there may be discoveries that we still find.

NYE: Yes, absolutely. They'll learn a lot about these objects, these cometary bodies.

CUOMO: I'm one of those TV people who likes when things go as planned especially when that's what the whole point of it is. What do you do now that it's hanging there? If you can't do the digging what can you still do?

NYE: Well, there's a lot of chemistry they're going to do. You are going to do everything but drill. You try drilling anyway, see what happens.

CAMEROTA: Wasn't that the whole point to drill down and gather some of the material?

NYE: That was one of the points. Yes, one of the points was the engineering success of getting close enough to the comet to even pull it off.

PEREIRA: Wish they did. NYE: Now, you guys, if you like to worry about things.

PEREIRA: Yes, we do.

NYE: I know your viewers do. If the earth ever got hit with one of these things that's it earth wise. There's no evidence that the ancient dinosaurs had a space program. If they had, maybe they'd still be running the show here so if the earth were ever to get hit with one of these objects we're done.

CAMEROTA: How is what we're doing up there avoid that?

NYE: We're learning how to catch up with one so we could give it a nudge.

PEREIRA: We would give it a nudge how?

NYE: So did I mention the Planetary Society we encourage you all to follow.

CUOMO: Is that what that pin is?

NYE: Yes, this is The Planetary Society, the world's largest non- governmental space interest organization advancing space science and exploration so that people everywhere will know and appreciate our place in the cosmos.

PEREIRA: To my point.

NYE: So what you would probably want to do because these things are tumbling and because of the drilling and attaching problem you probably want to buzz it with lasers except it's in outer space so there's no sound, just with lasers.

PEREIRA: Which is probably not that far-fetched given what we just accomplished yesterday, the landing on so this isn't so outside the realm of possibility there.

NYE: At the planetary center, we support basic research where people zapping rocks with lasers and vacuums to see how much oblated material, the burned off stuff has much momentum it has. This is rocket science.

PEREIRA: This is heavy stuff.

NYE: How big do you think the NASA budget is? It's a fraction of the U.S. federal budget.

CAMEROTA: Tell us.

CUOMO: Smaller than it used to be, that's for sure.

NYE: People perceive it's 10 percent. We're talking about the United States. This is European Space Agency, Philae, fantastic mission. It's 0.4 percent. Planetary science is in turn 9 percent of that. In other words the part of the budget where the new, cool, exciting amazing stuff like this mission is done is 0.036 percent of the federal budget. We could increase that just a little and we could, dare I say it, change the world. So this is what --

CUOMO: At least get the harpoons to work.

NYE: You would do that throwing more money at it and having more testing. You guys, this is an amazing thing that the European Space Agency did just because they know it would advance space science, advance engineering.

PEREIRA: Absolutely.

NYE: There's the practical application someday we may want to deflect these comets. The interesting thing is this discovery just for example of the sound. People have all kinds of immediate ideas of where it came from, but it was unexpected.

And that's what happens when you explore and so people want to justify all sorts of space missions on the basis of the science they'll bring back and I'm the science guy.

I just want to recommend to everybody explore to see what's going on out there because we are made of the same stuff as the solar system. Where did we come from? Are we alone in the universe? If you want answer to the questions you have to explore space.

CUOMO: We cannot do it now, Bill Nye. You are testing our curiosity too much. We must move on.

CAMEROTA: Great to see you so excited about it. Thanks for spending the time with us.

NYE: Change the world.

CUOMO: Speaking of ways to change the world, Syria's president is now seen as part of the problem in making the world a safer place from ISIS. Now we've heard this before, then we heard no, he's not really that important. Now he seems to be back in the crosshairs. What is the deal? We have the latest reporting on it for you.

CAMEROTA: And new provocations from Russia, Moscow getting set to deploy long range bombers over the Atlantic and the Pacific near American waters. We have the latest on that and spiking tensions in Ukraine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)