Transcripts For CSPAN 20141016

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Use us on facebook, follow on twitter. Cspan will have cdc director tom frieden and Anthony Fauci o nih testifying live. Some background on ebola from this mornings washington journal. Susan ferrechio. Warn journal continues. Host joining us now, Susan Ferrechio with the with a examiner. Theres a hearing today on the ebola crisis. What do legislatures want to learn . I think were going to see lawmakers do a couple thing its. They want to show theyre getting involved and not sitting back and doing nothing when it looks like the public is becoming increasingly concerned about ebola in the United States. This is the energy and commerce committee. They will be interviewing people from the cdc about what theyre doing to try to control this. And i think what were going to hear is probably eight lot of what we already her about new protocols they want to put in place, increased staffing at hospitals where there are ebola patients, and additional efforts to keep the Health Care Workers protected. And i also think youre going to hear a lot of talk about how the virus is passed or not passed, about whether or not there should be a travel ban, whether or not there should be other methods of quarantining people who come in from other countries that are afflicted by ebola, all of these things are going to be part of the discussion. Forget you got to go through each lawmaker, theyre all going to have questions and theyre he getting questions from people back in their districts who are calling them up, saying hey, whats going on . Just listening to your callers, thats what theyre hearing, too. Theyre going to went to get these answers from the cdc and other experts to find out what should we be doing here . Congress is out of session right now, wont be back until november 12. Its important for them to look like, you know, congress with a low Approval Rating they dont want to lack like theyre just sitting back on their hell heels this happen. They need to get them in front of them at the table, ask lots of questions and thats what were going to hear today. Host the man in the hot seat is tom frieden . Guest thats correct. Tom frieden has been there since 2009. Hes been relatively lowkey. You dont hear much about the cdc until theres Something Like this that occurs. And i think well hear him again explain the new protocols that they announced earlier this week to protect Health Care Workers and to limit or stop the spread of this to Health Care Workers who treat ebola patients. I think youll hear him talk about regrets about the way the initial case was handled in dallas, about not having cdc staff on the ground more quickly, and in gritter numbers. I think youre going to hear him talk about whatever shortcomings they think may have happened in the first case versus what theyre doing now to deal with the two Health Care Workers who have been diagnosed, and also about the really interesting isolation hospitals, places where they can treat patients with contagious diseases and specialized isolation units, one of them is at Emory University in atlanta, they moved a Second Health care worker there yesterday to treat her at that hospital. I think youre going to hear him talk more about that today and the possibility of using those hospitals more, if there are additional cases diagnosed in the coming days. I think thats going to be a big part of it. You will hear him talk about travel ban. Weve already heard the cdc director say hes not a big fan of a trial ban, doesnt think it will do good. He thinks it will do harm. A lot of people disagree with that. Theres likely to be back and forth with limb and lawmakers who disagree about whether or not there should be a travel ban. Host we heard from some lawmakers already calling for his ouster. Whats the likelihood youll hear some of that talk during this hearing today . Guest you may hear that. There has been just a few people who have been calling for that. Its not the gavel lynch of people calling for resignations. I know Pete Sessions of texas called for his resignation. Hes a relatively highranking republican in the house. A few others have, as well, talked about that, because they feel like the cdc did not act quickly enough to begin with. I think you may hear a little bit of that today. I dont think its going to be widespread at this point. People calling for his resignation. Hes under a lot of criticism, no question. I think he will be criticized, i think people will question what hes doing. And but i think hes got another chance at this point. I dont feel like its the end of the line for the cdc director. Hes got some time here to get this thing under control. Of course, that could change if, say, in the course of the day we hear about another diagnosis, if we hear more about maybe transmission from the Second Health care worker who boarded an airplane. There could be more of that just to add to the sense of outrage that some lawmakers are expressing about why the cdc did not take more action to make sure these Health Care Workers werent moving around during a period when they might be contagious. Host again, that hearing is at noon today, featuring the cdc director and others. Watch it on cspan, listen to it on cspan radio. You can see it there. Our guests joining us to talk about the congressional response and the white house response to the Ebola Outbreak in the United States. Susan ferrechio is with the washington examiner. She is their chief congressional correspondent. The first call comes from donald in maryland, democrats line. Donald, go ahead. Youre on. Caller good morning. I think Everybody Needs to look at this as a national crisis, and quit making it political. You know, this is a disease that can touch any and everyone of us. We must work as americans and come together as a whole. This nation needs us all to come together and this is the time that we must come together. We got to stop the foolishness. Second point is, were independent of each other, and what happened to the waist when it gets to the Treatment Plant for those people working those Treatment Plants, how are they working or anybody looking at the water Treatment Plant and saying you know, when the sludge comes in, this disease is in that splodge, these people just looking at Health Care Workers. We got to look at the water system, because its interdependent. It gets to the Treatment Plant. Were looking at those people that far down the road. Host thanks. Guest interesting the caller mentioned politics. I think politics is part of this now, because congress is not in session but we are a couple weeks out from a big mid term election, two, three weeks away. So its important for everybodys position themselves running, to look as though they are taking action. I think the caller is right, politics is certainly being injected into this by everybody. The president is looking wants to look like hes being author tait i have on this. Congress, the same. Republicans would love to paint democrats as not doing a good enough job handling the crisis, as being in charge of the administration and the cdc. Youll see some of that going on, as well. Certainly you will. But i think even in this case though politics will take a little bit of a back seat to the urgency that everyone feels in trying to find a way to address Something Like this quickly. So i think thats a great point the caller made. The water system issue, you think of all kinds of possibilities here, you know. The person who rode the airplane, took Public Transportation to get to the airplane, who else did you come in contact with, all these questions underscores the difficulty with a disease like this, and it can spread very quickly. I think thats something well hear discussed today at the hearing. Host from sun valley, california, tony up next. Tony is on the independent line. Hi. Caller hi. How is it going . There was a gentleman earlier kind of putting blame on the republicans, you know, throwing in the politics. And mentioned about the Surgeon General, and he was obvious question is what would the is your general general do now. I think he wouldnt just coordinate a response here he would also be able to coordinate a response to the public misinformation. Right now we have a bunch of people that are panicking, not really knowing what to worry about, just fearing for something that they dont have very much information on. I think that thats where the Surgeon General comes in very handy at this moment. I have to blame, you know, inaction and dysfunction in congress, which has been brought on by the wave of freshmen republicans. Guest i think the president really actually best handle might be tom frieden. He got his start treating tuberculosis in new york city, and also in india where it was a huge problem, helped get it under control there. Hes got vast experience dealing with controlling outbreaks. And i think that thats one of the reasons why youre not going to see a medical for him to step down, not yet. Because he probably is in the best position to figure out a way to get this under control. Not only here, but also in africa, which i think the point he made is that the best way to control this here is to stop the outbreak in africa, because if you dont do that, its going do spread around that continent ad may be impossible to keep people out of the United States who might have caught the disease. Surgeon general its true we have an acting Surgeon General. And Surgeon General normally isnt super visible person. Theyre more like a public face of health for the United States. And its certainly underscoring the idea that there should be some kind of czar, somebody in charge of this whole thing who should be the face of this going forward. They are both right. There have been bills to reduce government spending. They are not underfunded by any means. Theyve got an money to deal with ebola. Democrats are right. Many Government Agencies last staffing and lost money. Including other parts of the government because of this thing that we called the sequester. Sequester, that they are trying to undo right now, trying to refund that money. Both sides can claim victory on that one. They have gotten additional money to deal with this. I suspect there could be more money coming when Congress Gets back, depending on how this thing is going. Dont forget, we are also sending troops to africa to help combat this at source, about 4000. It is not as if the government is not spending money on this. For democrats to make that claim, probably not true. , bobby. Rth carolina democrats line. Caller i have a question. I was listening to cspan a few weeks ago and someone called in and said the United States had. Nvented the ebola virus that that the cdc done in did invent some sort of virus in 2010, so why would you invent a disease and not come up with a cure for it as well . If it ever gets out of the laboratories, you could get care find aithout having to cure for it while it is out already. That was my only question. Why would you invent a disease . I think you might be thinking about the origins of ebola, which comes from monkeys in africa. Eventually, its great to humans there. It is possible the cdc would try to replicate a disease to try to find a vaccine. Certainly, their storage of diseases has been controversial. Smallpox, anthrax. There have been cases where lab workers have been accidentally exposed to the disease, has been left unsecured. Certainly some questions about the cdc handling of diseases, but what they try to do is figure out a way to come up with vaccines and that is why they have the diseases at the cdc, to find a way to stop people from catching them. California. Ide, jim. Republican line, go ahead. I think the cdc can contain this. Isis and al qaeda will use this across the southern border. We might be able to contain it. I have heard people express fears about that, too, including some Public Officials who say it is worrisome that maybe someone could harness this virus and use it as a weapon or any virus. Anthrax, remember the capital was gripped in fear, years ago, when anthrax was sent to the capital. There is always a fear of that, that somebody will be able to get ahold of this virus and somehow spread it around. It is definitely something that people on capitol hill are talking about and thinking about. I dont know what plans they had to try to stop Something Like that from happening, but definitely something people are talking about. Host how much of the midterm talk and debate, how much of that will become ebolabased . Guest it is funny that we have these october surprises that comes along before an election and suddenly dominates the campaign trail. This will be part of it. Each side would try to use it to their advantage. Obamans administration, why are they handling this differently . Democrats will say the opposite. There is a poll that just came out where two thirds of respondents said they were concerned about this either mildly or seriously, about what will happen with a bullet in our country, whether it will spread here. It is dominating the news, therefore, it will be talked about on the campaign trail. When people go to vote, is that what they will be thinking about . I think the economy is still the dominant issue that voters will have on their mind when they cast their ballot, foreign policy, what is happening in the middle east and our actions with the islamic terror state. Those are the one and two dominant issues right now. It is hard to know how Something Like this will fit in. We have a few weeks left here, so the cdc can look like they are steering this in the right direction, no more outbreaks, no more people coming into the country, but lets say in a few weeks we have a couple more people arrived and it spreads more, things do not look like they are under control this will not help democrats because we have a democrat in the white house and people naturally blame the president because he is the guy in charge. Host tammy is next from south dakota. You are on with Susan Ferrechio. Go ahead. Guest good morning and thank you for taking my call. Know, if duncan did not come to texas and give the they said that they tested his friend in africa, and he caught it, and then when he came here he was with his family and friends, and they never got it. How is it transmitted, how could that happen . Is a really interesting aspect of the disease. I only came to understand and by listening to tom friedman explained it over and over. Spreads theke it easiest when the person is quite ill and having vomiting and other problems that spreads the disease more easily. If you are just sitting there with a fever, you are not bleeding or throwing up, spreading it is not necessarily going to happen. These nurses caught the disease from handling the viral matter that the duncan was producing when he was very sick. I think that is how you are looking at the transmission at this point. Someone with a fever who is not sneezing, coughing even sneezing which they say will not necessarily spread it. I think that is why his family did not catch it but the Health Care Workers did. James, oxon hill, maryland. Democrats line. Guest thank you for taking my call caller thank you for taking my call. Ago when the africa Health Care Workers contracted this, i called in to cspan for the first time and understood my opposition to that and said why would they bring these people to this country and exposed 300 million human beings to this deadly disease when they could have treated those folk over there . I think these three people were cured, but the situation with mr. Duncan, you will never pointing a that temperature device at somebodys face is supposed to appease someones fear and anger about allowing the people to come here , when every time you do this, you expose the rest of the population. Death does not care about your political persuasion. It is all about killing you. Guest it is interesting listening to the callers. A lot of people saying how worried they are, lets just stop people from coming here. Some think that eventually the administration will impose a travel ban if things do not get under control in sierra leone, where the disease is spreading particularly quickly. Im not sure what they will do. It is hard to say whether they will decide succumbed to this fear that the public has. It would be very controversial if they do. You heard last night the house speaker, john boehner, say that he wanted the president to consider a travel ban from these three nations in western africa. It is out there. It is possible it will happen, im not sure that it will, but hearing the public talk about it, its interesting. People are really concerned about this. Sometimes that will influence the administration to take action. Host as far as the director, tom frieden, has president obama expressed confidence in him, concerns, what has been said about him . Guest he has been neutral. He did that come out and say i have full and complete confidence. The administration said they thought the cdc had exhibited some shortcomings at the start , ande crisis in dallas that they feel things need to change. Theink that is suggested of president sending out a warning signal to the cdc. We do not like how this has gone so far. We are going to watch and see if you can string things out. That is the impression i get from the administration right a little bit on probation right now. They are watching what he is doing and they want to see how things are handled, moving forward, at this point. Host the president canceled trips yesterday and today because of this. Do you see this continuing . Guest it could. We are that close to an election on the public could sour idea of our commander in chief disappearing on the campaign trail to raise money instead of being here in washington to deal with a Health Crisis that people are really afraid of. The administration can be really responsive to that sort of thing. However, if days go by and things seem to be under control, no more outbreaks, the Health Care Workers are improving, no more spread among the 125 people considered most at risk, i think we will see him back out there. They need the money. That is also an important factor for the democrats as we head into november 4. Host Susan Ferrechio with the washington examiner. We are talking about the congressional and white house response, taking questions about their effort. Vivian from pennsylvania. Republican line. Hello. Guest where is rick perry . He is overseeing the department of health and we all know that they have more say so in what is going on in texas. Nowis he in europe right when he should be out there every day giving updates . No one has taken him to task, no one has taken the local department of health. It seems like the media is not asking them the pertinent questions. The cdc only gives recommendations. It is up to the hospitals and the local department of health to follow them. I think that you be more people held responsible other than just barack obama and the cdc. Guest two good points. Rick perry is returning to the events dates immediately, i believe. He has cut short his european tour. Be hiss supposed to attempt to burnish his foreignpolicy expertise as he is a potential 2016 republican president ial candidate. He stopped his tour and is coming back to texas, he announced. I think you will hear from him soon. In fact, i can almost guarantee that he will be out in front of the cameras talking about this. You also bring up the point about who is really responsible for dealing with ebola crisis. Repeatedlyd this from officials and nonmedical experts who say it is the local Health Departments that are primarily in charge of this. Health,s department of the hospitals where the patients are being treated. They need to be the first line of defense against this. I have heard a lot of people say this. So you really have a split right now where there is this idea that the local health apartment is supposed to be doing more to do with this, yet, people are also wondering, should the cdc be the thing in and controlling all of it . I think we are seeing a transition now w biocontainment units. Part of the discussion about