my name is dr. tom frieden. i'm trained as a physician, trained in internal medicine, and infection diseases, i completed the cdc training, and i have worked in the control of diseases -- communicable diseases and others since 1990. ebola spreads only by direct contact with the patient who is sick with the disease or has died from it, or with their body fluids. ebola is not new, although it is new to the u.s. we know how to control ebola. even in this period, even in nigeria, we have been able to contain the outbreak. we do that by tried and true measures of finding the patients promptly. isolating them effectively. identifying their contacts, ensuring that if any contact becomes ill, they are rapidly identified, isolated, and their contacts are identified. but there are no shortcuts in the control of ebola, and it is not easy to control it. to protect the united states, we have to stop it at the source. there is a lot of fear of ebola, and i will tell you, as the director of cdc, one of the things i fear about

i want to now go to dr. frieden. dr. frieden, as dr. varga just stated, health care personnel were following cdc protocols while treating mr. duncan. which includes the use of pce, personal protective equipment. do the cdc guidelines, your guidelines, on the use of p.p.e. mirror current international standards that, by the way, are being adhered to, those international standards, in west africa in those three countries, sierra leone, gunea and liberia? >> the international standards are something that evolve and change. we use different p.c.e. in different settings. there's no single right answer, and this is something we're looking at very closely. our current guidelines are kent with recommendations from the world health organization. >> i would think there would need to be, dr. frieden, and i commend you for the job that you are doing, and i know these are tough times for all of us, butt we need, and that brings me to my next question and my last question. again, it's to you, dr. frieden. this issue of elevated temperature, you know,

dr. frieden, i've got some questions for you and dr. varga for you and i appreciate yes or no answers because i have a lot to move through and only a short amount of time. dr. frieden, in the spring of 2014, ebola began spreading through west africa causing increasing concern within the international public health community, correct? >> correct. >> ebola has an incubation period of about 21 days and is not contagious until the person with the virus begins to be symptomatic, beginning often with a fever, correct? >> between two and 21 days, yes. >> ebola is transmitted through contact with a patient's bodily fluids including vom police, blood, feces and saliva and concentrates heavily as the patient becomes sicker presenting increasingly greater risk to those who may come in contact with 24ethem, contract? >> correct. the cdc has developed guide loans if patients present with symptoms of ebola and distributed them to hospitals around the country in the summer of 2014, correct? >> correct. >> now, dr. varga, can you hear me? >> yes, ma'am

with that dr. frieden. i hand the lineback over to you. >> thank you very much, and thank you for all the team is doing there in texas. it's an slept working relationship and we value it greatly. before we turn to questions we'll comment that the situation is fluid and we'll continue to update you as we get more information. >> doctor, you spoke about the possibility of further infections. is that because there is a known safety procedure or protocol that perhaps was not followed. and my follow-up question is if you cannot pin point a breach in protocol how do you move forward in fortification. >> if we knew the single incident, such as a needle stick, then we could narrow down the exposure. since we do know what the exposure was, then we have to cast the net more widely and see in terms of monitoring--monitor a larger proportion of the health wear workers and in terms of infection control protocols or procedures improve every aspect of those procedures every time we see something that could be improved. so

and dr. frieden, lastly. you know, there again, i'm speaking on behalf of my constituents and every american in this country. i don't believe it is acceptable that the quote you have given us. we won't be able to track them as the reasoning for why we should not implement travel restrictions. i do believe we can. and, mr. wagner, as far as our customs and border patrol, do you believe there's a way that we can implement tracking? >> tracking? >> tracking of individuals. >> yeah, we have ways to determine a person's itinerary and travel. it's easier when they're coming on a direct ticket from those -- >> true. true. but as you pointed out, they're coming from -- thank you, mr. chairman. i thank you for indulging my overtime. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate you holding this hearing. and i want to thank all of the panelists for coming and participating. and i've talked to arm in of health care professionals, as well. and listening to the panel, as well. i want to join in instituting a travel ban until s

as dr. frieden noted. it was positive. it was appropriate, the amount of virus in her blood it came back. it is a positive. it's our responsibility to get with this individual and the family. healthcare worker who is willing to compassionately care for mr. duncan and was involved with him. we are working to prevent this. we are refining it now. as dr. frieden noted, the 48 original continued to be monitored and doing well. we have this one healthcare worker now, these am, as dr. frieden noted, we are going to have to continue to monitor healthcare workers, stepping that up to make sure that that healthcare worker that has any fever or any other symptoms will be identified as was this individual and, we will make sure the infection control practices are performed at the hospital and at the highest standards and figure out exactly what happened and how this individual was infected. we have brought in more public health officials, staff, epidemiologist did to make sure that we have things we need to e evaluate the situation.

dr. frieden, how many nonu.s. military commercial flights are are going into the affected countries? >> i don't have the exact numbers. >> does anyone on the panel know how much commercial flights are going into these areas? >> from the united states or from anywhere? >> from the united states. >> there are no direct commercial flights from those three affected areas into the united states. >> into the area? into west africa? >> there are flights into west africa. >> how many? >> that i don't have offhand. >> anybody on the panel know how many? how many coming back into the united states? >> there are no commercial flights coming directly into the united states from those three areas. >> what about europe? >> there's hundreds of flights coming from there. >> people traveling from west africa to europe to here? >> that's generally how they would get here. >> 94% screening? how many flights are required daily every other day or weekly to get the supplies and personnel to the affected areas? >> the quantity of suppli

are you understanding that, dr. frieden? therefore -- therefore well, the federal government has to keep ebola victims out of public arena. that means, and i'm speaking slowly for the doctor, no people from the epidemic area should be admitted to the usa. something frieden opposes, but is absolutely the correct thing to do. >> we need a plan to treat those who are sick, to train health care workers to safely provide care and to stop the spread of this disease here at home and at the source in africa. this includes travel restrictions or bans from that region beginning today. >> even president obama's acolytes are saying that. >> i think the substantive actions have to be taken and they may involve, you know, flight restrictions. >> not only flight restrictions. no admittance to any person holing passports from the ebola epidemic areas. i mean, you could fly to montreal and drive in so the no admittance until we get things sorted out is the right thing on do. finally, i have nothing personally against dr. frieden, but his per

frieden. the next speaker is dr. david lakey who is the commissioner of the texas department of state health services. dr. lakey can. >> good afternoon, this is david lakey and the commissioner of health in the state of texas the. i want to thank dr. frieden for the support of the cdc work gin on this effort right now. it is one effort and one team. as i start off, i want to say that my thoughts and prayers and our thoughts and prayers are with the patient right now. obviously, he is critically ill, but also with the family as they are going through the event, and the contacts that have been identify identified that are obviously have concern about what is going on with them right now. and also with the hospital workers caring for the ill patient right now. now, as i said earlier, we are doing our work in partnership with the cdc and our local health department here in the state of texas. a lot of very important hard work is taking place right here in texas, in dallas to ensure that the people of dallas are safe. now

dr. frieden indicated that if -- that this protects the health and safety of the american public. there are other ways in which this has happened as well. you know, we have adapted to

here withrt off dr. frieden. a second nurse infected with ebola took a flight to cleveland after she registered a fever. that says shert contacted the cdc and was told she could fly. call the krbdt and ask for -- the cdc and ask for guidance on boarding a flight?al >> my understanding is she did contact cdc and we discussed her her reported symptoms. >> were you part of that conversation? not., i was >> was there a plan suggesting limiting her contact with persons? movement andol for monitoring of people potentially to ebola identifies as high risk someone who did not appropriate personal protective equipment during the time they cared for a patient ebola. on -- >> let me ask you this then. what specifically did she tell you? we know mr. duncan, the medical same -- waser the not under the same observation hevel restrictions as people came into contact with. what specifically did she tell you her symptoms were? the have not seen transcript of the conversation. my understanding is that she reported no symptoms to u

we call usda, and dr. frieden, they said that would be cdc. i understand all of your reasons why i don't agree with them completely. i understand the concerns about humanitarianism, et cetera. but don't you think we ought to at least restrict travel of dogs? is. >> we'll follow-up in terms of what's possible and indicate it. >> mr. yar dsz mouth, for five minutes. >> thank you. i would like to submit for the record an article entitled "will america's fragmented public health system meet the ebola challenge?" mark rothstein who is head of the bio -- >> i'm gretchen carlson. welcome to the abriefated version of "the real story." has this entire hearing gone to the dogs? as you just heard, that last question from one of the members of congress asking the cdc director tom frieden what about dogs? can dogs carry the virus? can dogs get the virus? can dogs give the virus to humans? didn't get the full answer on that, but we've been watching this for the last couple of hours. we're going to continue to watch this, but we're going to step out of it fo

dr. frieden is vowing that won't happen again. people with ebola won't be able to jump on a commercial plane. this latest patient success transported today to atlanta to emory university hospital there, emory is one of four hospitals in the united states certified to treat ebola patients, and also where three ebola patients have been treated. meantime back to the white house, president obama is actually postponing his campaign trips today to both new jersey and connecticut in order to stay put to meet this next hour with high level government agencies who are coordinating the government's response here to ebola. so let's get right to dallas to kick this coverage off to elizabeth cohen. as i mentioned, lots of moving parts on this story right now. let's begin with this 29-year-old health care worker there from the hospital in front of where you stand, who is she. how did this happen? >> reporter: her name is amber vincent. as you said she's a 29-year-old nurse, brooke. we don't know much more than that except we do know she's movin

i want to go to dr. frieden. just stated, health-care personnel were following cdc protocols while treating mr. duncan, which include the use of so-called ppe, personal protective equipment. do the cdc guidelines on the use of ppe mirror current international standards that, by the way, are being adhered to, those international standards, in west africa in those three countries -- sierra leone, guinea, and liberia? >> the international standards are something that evolved and changed. we use different ppe in different settings. there is no single right answer and there's -- this is something we're looking at closely. our current guidelines are consistent with the world health organization is my understanding. >> i would think there need to be, dr. frieden -- and i commend you for the job you are doing. i know these are tough times for all of us. but i think some consistency is what we need. and that brings me to my next , andion, my last question again it is to you, dr. frieden. the issue of elevated temperature.

i want to go to dr. frieden. just stated, health-care personnel were following cdc protocols while treating mr. duncan, which include the use of so-called ppe, personal protective equipment. do the cdc guidelines on the use of ppe mirror current international standards that, by the way, are being adhered to, those international standards, in west africa in those three countries -- sierra leone, guinea, and liberia? >> the international standards are something that evolved and changed. we use different ppe in different settings. there is no single right answer and there's -- this is something we're looking at closely. our current guidelines are consistent with the world health organization is my understanding. >> i would think there need to be, dr. frieden -- and i commend you for the job you are doing. i know these are tough times for all of us. but i think some consistency is what we need. and that brings me to my next , andion, my last question again it is to you, dr. frieden. the issue of elevated temperature.

dr. frieden said they're going to have somebody there monitoring. but he also told me you don't need pursuant to the cdc's existing guidelines you don't need head cover, don't need double gloved and don't need to cover your shoes. yet he dressed up like that when he went to liberia. but he doesn't think you need to do it here. your thoughts on that? >> well, we need to start listening to the registered nurses in the hospital throughout the united states. when the registered nurses are telling you that you don't have protocols in place for us to follow nor do we have the proper equipment, then that needs to be taken care of. when we look to either nebraska or people transporting these patients or even the people who are dealing with the waste from these patients, they're all wearing full protective gear, they're wearing respiratory protection. and they are covered head to toe. so that's what we want. nurses who are going to risk our lives to take care of these patients want nothing less than full protection in order to do so. >> the head of the cdc t

and with that, dr. frieden, i hand the line back over to you. thanks. >> thank you very much, dr. lakey, and thank you for all what the team is doing there in texas. it's an excellent working relationship and we value it greatly. before turning to questions, i will say that the situation is fluid and we'll continue to update you as we get more information. >> doctor, you spoke about the possibility of further infections. is that because there's a known safety procedure or protocol that was not followed? and if you cannot pinpoint the breach in protocol, how do you move forward with education? >> if we knew that there was a specific incident, such as a needle stick, that would indicate that we could narrow it down the health care workers at risk for those who had that specific exposure. since we don't know what the exposure was but know there was an exposure, we have to cast the net more widely and see in terms of monitoring, monitor a larger proportion of the health care workers and make sure the procedures and protocol improve every aspect of those procedures every time we see so

dr. leahy, anything you'd like to add to this? >> i don't think so, dr. frieden. again, the patient has been working with the team, looking at the procedure. there's no specific error that has been identified. i think they were looking closely at the protocols and how we can maximize the ability to contain the virus. there's been no identify ed item at this time. thank you. >> thank you. next question on the phone. >> the next question comes from alice park with "time," you may ask your question. >> you mentioned that -- >> let me bring in now, an infectious disease and public health specialist and senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. great to have you both with us here. we heard from dr. frieden there from the cdc, and he made additional points about what the cdc is doing now in light of what happened with thomas duncan, the ebola patient who died and now nina fam, this nurse who has contracted the virus after caring for duncan. i want to go to elizabeth cohen first to talk about this. dr. frieden broke down some numbers for us, elizabeth. and something

i would echo dr. frieden's remark. this has been a collective effort across the administration to respond to this outbreak of ebola in west africa. the individual customs border protection officers will not be wears masks. that has been the medical assessment of the need right now. thank you. >> are there quarantine stations in each of these airports? >> yes, there are quarantine stations in each of these airports. >> hi. jonathan cohen from the repup lick. can you speak to a second for the state of the international response? what is the situation there? what needs to stop the outbreak there that isn't happening already? >> we're seeing a surge of resources into the country, into each of the three countries and what the cdc is doing now is surging out to each of the districts within the countries. these are three countries that have three different epidemics. liberia has had the most extensive epidemic so far. there have been in some areas of liberia some decreases in recent weeks, but we don't know whether those will

i was on the phone with dr. frieden yesterday. and i said, please let us know if we need to do something. i'm sure there will be widespread bipartisan cooperation to work with the administration to come up with solutions here. there are several areas we are concerned about. we don't know if hospitals are equipped let alone trained at this time. when i've talked to some hospital administrators, they say, quite frankly, we don't know what we would do. we don't think there's adequate transportation mechanisms set up for patients who do have ebola, bringing them from overseas. so we want to know what are the plans in the works coming up, too, dealing with the united states and in africa. >> what would you like to hear from the president of the united states? he's convening top members of his cabinet within the next hour or so to deal with this crisis. >> well, it is one of the important things. what are we going to do about travel? do we restrict all travel from west africa at this point? are the screenings going to be adequate? i don

should the cdc director, dr. tom frieden, be fired? he told us october 2nd essentially any hospital in the country can take care of ebola. he went on to explain all you need is a private room, hospitals they have training, there's little risk to the population. any advanced hospital has the capacity to isolate a patient. they just need a room and a private bathroom. should he be fired? >> take a combat leader out in the middle of a fight is outrageous. it is absolutely irresponsible. >> combat leader? he's a combat loser. >> not only did he do that, he blamed the nurses. >> let me finish my point. not only should he not be fired, we need a surgeon general in the united states. why don't we have a surgeon general? if the president's nominee is unacceptable, what the president has to do is appoint an ebola czar right now. tom frieden, head of one agriculture dealing with this, is not sufficient. you need an ebola czar. the man we should appoint is lieutenant general russell henri who headed up the united states army, big run one. he brou

>> this is the worst case scenario, the president, dr. frieden and dr. fauci, they need to pipe down. they need a czar to do the messaging. it's one step forward and two steps back. they need a czar. >> is there anybody in particular? >> absolutely. harold bench. he's from green county, springfield, missouri. he has a 30-year history in public health. he knows. and if asked, he will do it. >> i'm almost afraid to ask you this question because you were so right in your predictions when other people were even attacking you for suggesting that it was going to be much worse than the government was telling us. for those that don't remember dr. mobley put on a full hazmat suit, goggles, full gear and had on the back the cdc's lying and you walks through hartsfield airport in atlanta. i'm a little hesitant to ask you what you see coming next? >> i don't know what's keeping this out of every third world countries in the world. and don't forget we live in one of the biggest third world countries in the world. >> you're talking about new mexico. >> absolutely. it'

i would echo dr. frieden's remark. this has been a collective effort across the administration to respond to this outbreak of ebola in west africa. the individual customs and border protection officers will not be wearing masks. that has been the medical assessment of the need right now. thank you. [ inaudible question ]. >> yes, there are irnt quarantine stations at each of the airports. >> can you speak to a second for the state of the international response. what is the resource situation there. what needs to stop the outbreak there that isn't happening already? >> we're seeing surging of resources into the country. into each of the three countries. now cdc is now surging out to the counties and districts in the countries. these are three ufrnt countries with three different epidemics. liberia has had most extensive epidemics so far. in serre leone we are seeing increases and new guinea we are seeing increases. we are monitoring that greatly. we are seeing great response from the world health organization and other

i want to know go to dr. frieden. dr. frieden, as dr. varga just stated, health care personnel were following cdc protocols while treating mr. duncan, which include the use of so-called ppe, personal protective equipment. do the cdc guidelines, your guidelines on the use of ppe mirror current international standards that, by the way, are being adhered to, those international standards in west africa in those three countries, sierra leone, guinea and liberia? >> the international standards are something that evolve and change. we use different ppe in different settings. there's no single right answer. and this is something we're looking at very closely. our current guidelines are consistent with recommendations from the world health organization, is my understanding. >> yeah. i would think that there would need to be a, dr. frieden, i commend you for the job you're doing. and i know these are tough times for all of us, but i think some consistency is what we need. and that brings me to my next question. and my last question. and, again, t

already all right, dr. many, you also, great minds think alike, call form%b dr. frieden to resign. why? everything that's been happening with this ebola outbreak and the way that the cdc has been handling. dr. frieden said that this was a problem in west africa put all the resources, cdc and the web site said august 6th in two or three months have things under control. quote: well, it's two or three months later. we don't have everything under control. we have patients coming over here. we have people coming through the border. one case in dallas has created chaos. is he criticizing protocols. what protocols. it's his protocols now that is he going to revise one more time. we are not equipped to handle ebola patients in general. you feel his stewardship has failed? >> completely. >> reason i'm down on dr. frieden is he continues to put out the myth that stopping west africans from coming in here to the united states is somehow going to diminish fight the disease in africa. that's false. we can charter people in that's the way they should go anyway watch them closely when they come

thank you very much, dr. frieden and dr. frieden will stay with us during the question and answer period and with that we'd like to turn to questions from the media. yes. >> can you speak a little louder? [ inaudible ]. >> yeah, i'll give you as much information as i have. as i said at the outset this is an evolving situation in which we are still interviewing people including talking to the patient and i'll echo what everyone else has said that we are all -- our main focus, of course, on the recovery of that patient. s bowling ailingly was called the gutter bowling alley. the patient went with friends there and he did bowl while he was there according to our understanding of events. the patient was not feeling, you know, although he reported fatigue, he was not symptomatic. he had no fever and as dr. frieden has explained, we are very clear that people become contagious as they become sick. so his first fever, in fact, was today earlier this -- in the late morning today. and he did have a fever for -- or did not have a feve

dr. tom frieden also saying the first person diagnosed with ebola in the u.s. is, quote, fighting for his life in a dallas hospital. this is coming after the liberian nationals condition was downgraded from serious to critical. that happening just yesterday. brian has the latest now from our new york newsroom. >> hi. thomas eric duncan remains in isolation in dallas where he's been for a week. today dr. frieden, the head of the centers for disease control said duncan is not being treated with experimental medication at this time. frieden said while experimental pred sin is promising there's certain it can initially make someone sicker. the four family members who shared an apartment with duncan are still in quarantine in a prouft home in dallas. they have shown no 1i789s. a hazmat team decontaminated the apartment. the cdc is confident they will stop the ebola virus in dallas thanks in large part to their ability to track everybody who may have been in contact with duncan. 48 people are being checked for fevers over the course of 21 days. 10 of those people def

new york, o'reilly, i watched dr. frieden on kelly as you requested inday. tip of the i think he's a weasel. i wanted to reach out and wring his neck. you were ans er about frieden, answered with sweet sounding nonanswers. he should be the white house press secretary. juan luiz rodriguez, the state of texas should sue thomas duncan's estate for the costsin cured from h s lying. i disagree with charles krauthammer. at some point african-americans must put reality over racial solidarity. why? why would they do that? much of the president's support remains emot likely to stay that way. charles is right. anne marie, greer -- i'll get it. anne marie, forest lake, minnesota. o'reilly, do not argue with charles. he is the windshield, you are the bug. that's a nice vision, anne marie. thank you for writing. carol, westchester, pennsylvania. bill, are you planning to write a kids version of "killing patton." yes, it will be out early next year. meantime continues to be the best selling nonfiction book in the world. half million copies sold in about three weeks and we

something dr. frieden said is d disturbing. they're telling the hospital to appoint a supervise to supervise the safety of these workers and i've been here for weeks and assumed it had already been done. >> news flash. not so much. >> it's disturbing that it sounds like there wasn't someone who was appointed to do that. another aspect of this is that other hospitals, hospitals in africa and hospitals here for other diseases, have a buddy system. buddy systems are a proven way of preventing infection. when you go in, when you put on that gear, your buddy watches you. when you do the procedure with the infectious patient, your buddy is there coaching you through it making sure you're not doing anything wrong. your buddy watches you as you take the gear off. it's not just lay person. it's another healthcare worker. we don't know that they were doing that here. >> so there are assumptions and then there are realities and now there are fixes. i know cdc is telling these hospitals think ebola. what does that mean, elizabeth? >> what

. >> thank you very much, dr. frieden. the department of homeland security is focused on protecting the air traveling public and is taking steps to ensure that passengers with communicable diseases like ebola are screened, isolated and safely and quickly referred to medical personnel. we have implemented a range of measures to ensure a layered approach. to date, the existing measures in place include issuing do not board to airlines and cdc if it is determined that the passenger is a risk to the traveling public. two, providing information and guidance about ebola to the airlines. three, posting notices at airports to raise awareness about ebola and, fourth, providing a health notice commonly referred to as a care fleet to travelers entering the united states that have traveled from or transited through the infected countries. with information and instructions should there be concern of possible infection. we are announcing -- we have announced today enhanced measures. specifically, the enhanced screening will consist of t

you've got dr. frieden, and then all of a sudden sylvia bolwell replaced kathleen sbil yous. it seems they're now trying to eclipse dr. frieden even as they say full confidence based on some of those statements they're bringing in all kinds of other officials to show a leadership role. but in the end that could be problematic as well if you don't have one top official who's really taking the responsibility. >> ed henry at the white house tonight. thank you. while the cdc reviews hospital protocols for treating ebola patients, dallas nurses are revealing that there was no set system in place when thomas eric duncan arrived in the emergency room. now, according to a nurses union statement duncan was left in an open area for hours and health care workers treated him without proper protective gear. now, members of national nurses united held a conference call with reporters today demanding action be taken to protect the health care workers that are fighting on the front lines of ebola. >> this is outrageous that this is our responsibility. this is the responsibility of our electe

and dr. frieden was not even certain of that. >> she was not properly gowned. nurses have made clear they don't believe she was. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> my next guest supports the cdc director. he's known as an international expert in patient safety and served in a leadership role at the united nations world health organization. doctor, good to see you tonight. so when i had the doctor on my program on tuesday, i said to him i get that your heart is in the right place. i get you've devoted your life to try to protect the american people from things like this. but how do we get anywhere towards shoring up the system without identifying the flaws and owning them? that's the piece we have yet to hear from the cdc. >> you're absolutely right, megyn. we need to learn from the mistakes that have been made. and i think tom frieden, he's a good guy, i've met with him. he's conscientious. hospitals can be messy when it comes to protocols. basically we've had a string of communication breakdowns at many different levels. and that's unfortunately part o

dr. frieden indicated that if -- that this protects the health and safety of the american public. there are other ways in which this has happened as well. you know, we have adapted to circumstances by beefing up airport screenings, for example, that into place at 5 airports across the country. . these are airports that cover essentially 95% of the arrivals of travellers from -- that started out in west africa. those improved or strengthened screening measures are indicative of our commitment to constantly evaluating our policies and where possible, putting ins place measures that would strengthen them. >> why do so many americans feel, first of all, that there is a real risk of an epidemic in this country, and that federal government is not doing enough to stop it? i mean, in the latest poll, abc news/"washington post" two-thirds of americans think the federal government is just not doing enough on this? are they wrong? >> well, let me say this about that, the -- a significant portion of the american population agrees with dr. frieden that even one transmission of the ebola virus

he had no fever, and as dr. frieden has explained, we are very clear that people become contagious as they become sick. so his first fever, in fact, was today earlier this -- in the late morning today, and he did not have a fever for the whole time since he left guinea until this morning. my understanding is that out of an abundance of caution that the bowling alley has closed and we, of course, will be sending health department staff on site

thomas frieden, the head of the cdc because he opposes that last night on the kelly file dr. frieden was almost incoherent. >> why not put a travel ban in place until we have shorn up the system? >> above all do no harm. if we do things that are going to make it harder to stop the epidemic there, it's going to spread to other parts. >> how is it going to make it harder to stop it over there. >> because you can't get people in and out? >> why can't we have charter flights. >> you know are charter flights don't do the same thing commercial airliner does? >> what do you they fly in and y out. >> if we isolate these countries what's not going to happen is disease spreading there we will be at higher risk. >> does that make any sense to anybody? anybody? it is just ridiculous. the man is spouting nonsense. >> his explanation, like previous ones that have been given for the reason for not imposing a travel ban in order to keep people from those infected areas out of this country for the time being i thought makes no sense. >> and there could be even a more frightening scenario on t

you said dr. frieden's job is like being on a battlefield. what do you mean by that? >> this security and health are now intertwined in the 21st century. we saw it with aids and anthrax and again with ebola. our security as a nation, our family security, our community's security, our international security is all tightly intertwined now. i think that what i've seen in those years starting with hiv and going through sars and anthrax and now is that there's no turning back. it's a battlefield. we're every day battling infectious diseases of one kind or another and they pop up ugly heads and impact us in a big way. >> i remember sars and the fears of the masks and could i get it and how does that happen and of course aids. you think of aids and anthrax. all of those the nation, the h word, hysteria. hysteria. what did you learn from that this administration should bring to the table? >> public health isn't just about being right. it's being right and also having the faith in people that you're serving. i think that you'll notice tony fauci is often on television. he's a

dr. frieden will brief the president on ebola today. good morning to you. >> good morning, matt. >> do you have any updates on mr. duncan's condition in texas? >> nothing beyond what you've said. our hopes and prayers are with him. and we recognize that this is a critical time for him and for his family. and, as you said earlier, this is the time when we're particularly looking at the contacts that he had. 10 contacts who definitely had contact with him and 38 others who might have had contact. every single one of those 48 people was monitored yesterday. their temperatures were taken. none of them had symptoms or fever. the key here is to keep doing that every single day, as texas is doing excellently. and isolate them. >> when you say isolate them, i

thank you very much, dr. frieden, and dr. frieden will stay with us during the question and answer period and with that we'd like to turn to questions from the media. yes. [ inaudible ] >> can you speak a little louder? >> yeah. [ inaudible ] [ inaudible ] >> yeah, i'll give you as much information as i have. as i have said at the outset, this is an evolving situation in which we are still interviewing people including talking to the patient, and i'll echo what everyone else has said that we are all -- our main focus, of course, is on the recovery of that patient. the bowling alley was in the williamsburg section of brooklyn. it's called the gutter bowling alley. the patient went there with friends there, and he did bowl while he was there according to our understanding of events. the patient was not feeling -- you know, although he reported fatigue, he was not symptomatic. he had no fever, and as dr. frieden has explained, we are very clear that people become contagious as they become sick. so his first fever, in fact, was t

and something else we haven't heard about in several weeks, dr. frieden, that experimental serum given to two of the patients. is there any more on that? is there anything promising? >> we don't know if it works but there's no more of it now. the company is working hard to make a few more doses. it's hard to make. it takes a long time. we have learned how important management is. rehydration of patients can be life saving. that's something we're taking back to africa to try to improve the care there, to improve the rehydration of patients. we are seeing signs of progress. cdc has trained more than 4,000 health workers in africa. we're training health workers in

. >> thank you, dr. frieden. next speaker is dr. david lakey, who is the commissioner of the texas departments of state health services. dr. lakey. >> good afternoon. this is david lakey, the commissioner of health from the state of texas. i want to thank dr. frieden for the support of the cdc as we are working on this overt right now. it's one effort and one team. as i started off, i again want to say that my thoughts and prayers and our thoughts and prayers are with the patient right now and obviously, he's critically ill but also with the family as they are going through this event and the contacts that have been identified that are obviously have concern about what's going on with them right now. and request the hospital workers that athat are caring for this ilpatient right now. as i said earlier, we are doing our work in pirp with the cdc and our local health department here in the state of texas. a lot of very important hard work is taking place right here in texas and dallas to ensure that the people of dallas are safe the g

lou: perhaps we should introduce dr. sacra to dr. frieden. john roberts, always productive to hear your reporting. thank you for your excellent job as always. thank you so much. >> reporter: thanks, lou, appreciate it. lou: president obama has attended only 42% of daily intelligence briefings. joining us fox news strategic analyst colonel ralph peters. what do you make of a president who only, and i have to say this, i don't know what percentage of daily briefings previous presidents we tried to find that number week couldn't, but 42% seems awfully low for a country in global terror, does it to you? >> it is. on any given day the most important briefing any president will get is the president daily brief, the pdb from the intelligence community. that alerts him to what's going on in the world. the presidents were hungry for intelligence. even bill clinton. and the curious thing about obama who clearly is an intelligent man lacks curiosity overall. he doesn't do his homework. he pleas hooky from school. he likes the perks of being president bu

dr. frieden, he's a good friend of mine, he's an empathetic person. you heard him say it was misinterpreted. in no way is he mistaking anyone? >> it is on us, we jump on any little thing. we are always looking for scandals and mistakes, but we should also be accurate and careful in what we report. >> in your experience, is the cdc being proactive enough with the hospitals around the country? does more training need to be done? >> they have been work on this for years. the cdc has been work hard ever since going back to bird flu really at the turn of the century, hard, steady work. that said, it's difficult. it's one on one training of furss and technicians. ebola gives you no measure for error and i think that's why it's showing up here now. but it's something that everyone has been working on very steadily, clearly, more work is needed. >> when the cdc briefing began about the success in nigeria in containing it, what is the difference on infrastructure, perhaps, in preparation from nigeria to liberia? >> it was containing it because they did contact

but as dr. frieden noted, we do have one health care worker. the health care worker that had extensive contact with our initial patient who did what was appropriate with the early symptoms that came in to be checked. and we facilitated getting the blood tests done. that test came back at 9:30 last night and, as dr. frieden noted, was positive. the controls were appropriate. the amount of virus in her blood was less than what was there when they first index case came back, but it is a positive test. so our hearts really do go out to this individual and the family who is with us. health care worker who is willing to compassionately care for mr. duncan. again, our thoughts and prayer res with them. we have been preparing for events such as this. putting in contingency plans. we're refining those plans and a lot of work is taking place right now. as dr. frieden noted, the 48 original contacts continue to be monitored and they continue to do well. we have this one health care worker that now needs our care. and so, as dr. frieden noted, we have been