Latest Breaking News On - Richard davy - Page 1 : vimarsana.com

Transcripts For MSNBCW Jose Diaz-Balart 20141017

there are new concerns surrounding pham's colleague, amber, who is being treated for ebola at emery university hospital in atlanta. the cdc is scrambling this morning to identify hundreds of other air passengers who might have had some kind of exposure to vincent. flew from dallas to cleveland may have had ebola symptoms earlier than they thought. there's some high anxiety on the ic. a lab supervisor who may have handled the late thomas duncan's bodily fluids is being isolated aboard the carnival cruise ship. she has shown no signs of ebola. dallas county judge is asking any hospital worker who had contact with duncan to voluntarily agree not to fly or use public transportation or to go to public areas where people congregati congregate. calling for a ban on travel from west africa ebola hot zones, president obama, for the first time, said he's open to the idea as well as a possible ebola czar. once again, we're staying on top of all of these fast moving parts from maryland to atlanta to making sure caution doesn't turn into hysteria. let's get the latest from luke ru ru ru russert in maryland. nina pham is there. how is she doing? tell us about her treatment. >> reporter: nina pham arrived around 10:35 last night. you saw the hero sendoff she received. another funny thing we saw on video wasn't included in the runup. she said to her friend who were treating her. everyone should come to maryland. she seemed to be in good spirits or as good spirits as you can be. she's here at nih. one of four hospitals that has a special bio containment unit that is specially set up to treat people with infectious diseases like ebola. she will get the best type of treatment she possibly could get. that is why she is here at nih. she'll have clinical specialists specifically for ebola. and on top of that, we expect her to be here for the reminder while she's infected. we heard from hospital officials in terms the length of stay. she'll be here until she gets better. at 10:30 a.m. we expect a press conference from dr. fau kyi. what we can tell you she arrived last night, walked off the plane. seems to be in good spirits. getting the best care she could get. lastly, in terms of the mood around the hospital, jose. people here they're not necessarily that worried about ebola. they think this is a great bio containment unit. security certainly is tight. people going around here it's business as usual. it's not a real fear as we've seen in other parts of the country. >> thank you so much for being with me. let's go to atlanta where nurse amber vincent is being treated. gabe gutierrez joins us live. what is the latest on our condition? >> good morning. her condition at emery university hospital is not updating this morning. we're hearing from her uncle, he released a statement and i'll read from it now. our family has been overwhelmed with support and love for amber and our extended family over the last 72 hours. we thank you for those prayers and well wishes. amber is stable, and we're continuing to work with her doctors as her treatment progresses. doctor chris braiden from the cdc told reporters yesterday she's not very well. you hear her uncle saying she's stable. this morning, as you mentioned, the cdc is scrambling to identify any commercial airline passengers that might have come into contact with amber vincent. the cdc said they cannot rule out she may have had ebola symptoms as early as friday. that is earlier than they first thought. you may recall she flew on friday from dallas to ohio to visit her family and plan a wedding and flew back to dallas on monday. she did call the cdc on monday and self-reported that temperature of 99.5 degrees. but it did not meet the risk threshold of 100.4 degrees. her family is saying she followed all protocols. jose? >> gabe ambiguityi igutierrez, much. doctor, good morning. thank you very being with me. there's a lot of anxiety around the country surrounding ebola including your neck of the woods where nurse amber vincent recently visited. let me play something from peter alexander. >> the ohio bridal shop that amber vincent saturday closed. a nearby elementary school shut down because a student's mom spent time with vincent even though vincent had no contact with the nurse's daughter. near san diego word a student's sister was hospitalized with flu-like symptoms. >> how do you walk the fine line between caution and panic here? >> it really is a fine line. first and foremost, i understand abundance of caution is what i've been hearing a lot of. this is scary. from a public health standpoint, from a medical standpoint we have to remain calm and follow appropriate guidelines. the number of people exposed to the nurse who would be in contact with bodily fluids while she was sick is very small. it's not zero, but it is it's very small. i understand there was a fine line between panic and hysteria. we've got to make sure we're following the appropriate guidelines and trusting that the public health officials whether it's the cdc from the federal government or county colleagues here or in the mm community are following scientifically based guidelines. i understand why people are fearful. i think you have to look at other numbers. when mr. duncan came to dallas he took four aircraft to get there. he was in contact with dozens of people in dallas before he was hospitalized. none of those people have gotten ill. so the numbers we have to keep an eye and try to stay as calm as we can. >> true, but here is -- this is just me thinking out loud. mr. duncan, when he took the four flights had no fever. the fever came in later when he was already in dallas. and then this nurse who flew to cleveland already had a fever and apparently some possible symptoms. is there a difference there? >> there is a difference. and come back to my foundation. we have to follow the guidelines. you're exactly right. when you get a fever and the constitutional symptoms such as headache as you progress to maybe vomiting or other symptoms that's when you're contagious. that's what the cdc has to figure out. when did she have symptoms? who was in close proximity. how do we track the people down to make sure she's safe? that's the public health question. >> that's important to keep in mind. when you see a sister of a brother of someone on the flight causing schools to close down. it seems as that's overreaction. doctor, talk about possible overreaction or not. calls are being -- you hear them louder and louder for travel ban. what are the pros and cons. what would that entail? >> that would be so hard to implement. right. i understand why and i'm not smart enough -- if that's the right trigger. there would be less patients potentially coming here from west africa that would expose other people. i heard the media say they fly to brusselss that would come here. i think we have to use common sense public health issues. that's good screening, that's good isolation and containment of potential patients, and i think the president is right when he say we have to make sure we're helping west africa as much as the world can. not just an american response but an international response. we have to continue to take care of that outbreak. that's going to affect us here in america. >> yeah. and again we aren't expert on the flight issue. if there are no direct flights from west africa to united states of america, the calls may be for barring people from a specific country from coming into the country in the united states? i mean, it just it's just so much, you know, out there and so little focus on things that we can and should be doing specifically to avoid this issue. doctor, daniel varga testified on capitol hill yesterday saying they were, quote, deeply sorry for mistakes his hospital made. put yourself in his shoes. what is it like for this hospital to basically be used as a wake-up call for the country. >> it is. i think a lot of hospitals across the country have, unfortunately, learned lessons from what went wrong. are we screening and identifying patients appropriately? are we isolating them if we think they're high risk? are we taking measures as much as we can to protect our hb workers. that's got to be first and foremost. are we getting patients the appropriate lev of care. i was glad to hear the appropriate level of care was transferring them to cdc, nih, and the facility of nebraska who have been preparing decades in the containment unit. it must be very difficult to be in their shoes. i'm emphatic. we as a health care system and university hospitals have learned lessons from this, unfortunately. >> i can't thank you enough for being with me. thank you so much. i want to take you live right now to the state department secretary of state john kerry delivering remarks. >> now i know you don't need me to tell you what we're up against. i'm sure you've heard it from your own capitals every time you turn on the television or radio. you hear or see gripping scenes that tell us in real terms about the challenge. there's no way to describe the scenes from west africa other than just heart wrenching, gut wrenching, and images of a pregnant woman being turned away from a hospital and she's on the verge of collapse. or men and women dying on the streets. their children orphaned. and lot of hopeful nations working to plant the seeds of prosperity and open societies now suddenly battling a brutal epidemic. it's not just the suffering we see or the risks that make this a different kind of crisis for us as diplomats. we live in a world of a lot of close calls. tough decisions on a daily basis difficult and contentious issues where you can have an honest disagreement about what the best course of action is or the facts or the result the of your decision may be. ebola is not one of them. it should not be contentious with respect to the facts or what is needed or how we proceed. we know the risks. we know the science. we know the medical certainties. we know what is required to beat back this epidemic. right now we know it's a time for nothing less than brutal honesty with each other about what we need. >> secretary of state john kerry live in the state department talking about ebola and the reality. the real crude situation that is happening in west africa where bodies are literally being thrown into the streets after suffering from ebola. that is a reality going on in that part of the world that is very real. now we're waiting for a 10:30 news conference from the nih on the ebola crisis as we continue to separate fact from fiction. a live look at the pentagon. a briefing underway right now on the international military fight against isis. it's called operation inherit resolve. commander of u.s. central command general lloyd austin is speaking about the campaign that involves more than 20 countries. we're going to continue to monitor this and bring you any developments. take a look at this image. it was released by nasa. it's hurricane gonzalo. a massive storm system bearing down on bermuda. we'll go there live in minutes. stay with us. a lot of breaking news this morning. we'll have it for you in minutes. i lost my sight in afghanistan, but it doesn't hold me back. i go through periods where it's hard to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. non-24 is a circadian rhythm disorder that affects up to 70% of people who are totally blind. talk to your doctor about your symptoms and learn more by calling 844-844-2424. or visit my24info.com. fifteen percent or more fifon car insurance.d save you everybody knows that. well, did you know certain cartoon characters should never have an energy drink? action! blah-becht-blah- blublublub-blah!!! geico®. introducing the birds of america collection. fifty stunning, hand-painted plates, commemorating the state birds of our proud nation. blah-becht-blah- blublublub-blah!!! geico®. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. there's breaking news coming out of the white house. chris jansing is there. >> for the first time last night president obama suggested he be willing to appoint an ebola czar. he said when he was ready to tell us a name he would. there's been no official announcement. cnbc is announcing it's ron clehane. he served as staff for al gore and vice president biden. but left a few years ago. there was talk he would replace rahm emanuel but decided to go into the private sector which is where he has been for the last several years. he's a lawyer. he has somebody who has clerked for supreme court justices. in fact, his claim to hollywood fame is he was played by kevin spacey in the movie recount about the 2000 election. when pressed at the white house briefing josh earnest said there was no need right now for one person to oversee everything. there's been a lot of pressure on the white house especially among democrats running for election or re-election are concerned about what the ebola has done to their chances. we have seen republican put ebola in their campaign ads. feeling the pressure but recognizing that the folks who have been out there, especially the head the cdc and the nih who have big jobs to do they didn't have one person overseeing this as a coordinator. i think it's important to point something that out that the united states has been without a surgeon general. and part of the question is do we need a surgeon general? that is a figure head position. that is has besomebody who servs a spokesman. who would be used as a person to get out administratiofacts. this ranges from the state department and department of defense to the national institute for health and centers for disease control and preventi prevention. so again, i came running out here to see. and it looks like, yes, we have conformation ron klain will be the ebola czar. >> that's what we call live breaking news on television. and, chris, thank you. i want to pick your brain a little bit on the situation with isis. as a matter of fact, the pentagon is right now speaking -- i think we can go to the video right now live. the pentagon is still speaking about this operation to fight isis. there you see it. chris, i'm wondering there seems to be more and more talk about allies joining in. turkey is wishy washy as far as what they will or will not do. tell us about the isis. it's taking back burner to the celebration on ebo situation on ebola. it's a real war. >> it is. and the president continues to work on and have a series of meeting about. we saw yesterday chuck hagel was here at the white house. one of the few things he had on the formal schedule before they added the late day ebola meeting. was with the defense secretary. yes, that is a priority of the president. he's continuing to work with the phones, for example, both on the ebola crisis but also expanding the coalition. there are a lot of similarities in these two things. the united states is leading but clearly they want other countries on board. they've had some success in both areas but not as much they would admit as they would like. on the isis front they continue to have meetings. there's going to be a situation room meeting today, as i understand. but they continue to develop strategy, continue to look for what kind of help they can get. you're right. turkey is a perfect example of some place they've been pushing hard but haven't gotten everything they wanted, jose. >> the great chris jansing. thank you so much for being with me and breaking important news on this broadcast. the president has decided who the ebola czar will be. chris, thank you so much. i show you the news conference that we're expecting in about nine minutes. there you see the live shot from the nih conference that we expect on the ebola crisis. we've got a lot of other stories for you with this hour. bermuda is right now bracing for a major hurricane. this morning hurricane gonzalo is packing wind up to 145 miles per hour. coming up we'll have a live report from the island. an update on the pacific storm. also, a flash back friday on the west coast. the bay area is marking 25 years since the earthquake. 6.9 magnitude quake killed 63 people. it was most destructive earthquake since the 1906 quake and fire. travis i we'll be back with more. this one into right! the giants win! rt attack. but i did. i'm mike, and i'm very much alive. now my doctor recommends a bayer aspirin regimen to help prevent another heart attack. be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. into one you'll never forget. earn triple points when you book with the expedia app. expedia plus rewards. what are you doing? the dishes are clean. i just gotta scrape the rest of the food off them. ew. dish issues? cascade platinum powers through your toughest messes better than the competition the first time. cascade. now that's clean. of warm nestlé love thtoll house cookies? taste well with new nestlé toll house frozen cookie dough, you can bake as few or as many as you please. whenever your sweet tooth comes calling, they're frozen and ready to bake. find them in the frozen aisle. bake some love™. hurricane gone is zzalo is category four storm. set to slam the island chain of bermuda around 6:00 tonight. winds weakened slightly from 150 to 130 miles per hour. it's a major hurricane. let's go to nbc meteorologist dillon dreyer. >> we're keeping a close eye on this storm. because i'm on the western side of the island right now. and just about 20 to 50 miles from where i'm standing that's where the center of the storm is expected to track. now it's running into a less favorable environment. that mean it is should weaken to a category three storm. that still produces winds up to 115 miles per hour. now this island is naturally defended against the hurricanes because of the sheer nature of the way it was developed. there are reeves that surround the island that protect us from the really huge storm surge that you see in hurricanes in the gulf or down through florida. the water is not being snowpl snowplowed up on to land. in addition, the elevation is fairly high here in bermuda. we'll no doubt see coastal flooding, you don't have the flooding shutting down roads and interior areas because the water can't get that high. that being said, elevation kind of works against you. when you factor in the winds. we're looking for sustained winds for perhaps three to five hour period of around 115 miles per hour. those will make their way on shore. but you go u higher in elevation it's going to tack on a few miles per hour to the winds. on top of that we could see g t gusts 130 to 150 miles per hour. the structures here are built of solid cement. they can handle the winds. they have a deep foundation. the structures are the safest place to be as this storm hits. but we're looking at one of our major concerns as the causeway to the airport. the lifeline for this island to get to the airport. it's the only way in and out. in 2003, hurricane fabian knocked out the entire bridge. this time around, this is the first category three hurricane that the island has seen since fabian. we'll see how it holds up. right now it's shut down. in the meantime everyone said they're going to hunker down, stay with their family, and pray as the storm hits the peak this afternoon. >> you be careful as well. thank you so much for being with me this morning. meantime, in the pacific governor neil declared a state of emergency in hawaii as tropical storm anna bears down. heavy rains expected with the possibility of flooding and mud slides. officials closed schools and evaluation shelters are being opened to help residents and tourists alike. we'll bring you the latest as the storms develop. coming up more on the hour's breaking news. the white house will be naming ron klain as the ebola czar. mark potter who got back from dallas will join me after the break. we'll take you to the nih presser. it's all happening in just moments. n and energy. but the energy bp produces up here n and energy. creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america. ring ring! progresso! i can't believe i'm eating bacon and rich creamy cheese before my sister's wedding well it's only 100 calories, so you'll be ready for that dress uh-huh... you don't love the dress? i love my sister... 40 flavors. 100 calories or less. you would need like a bunch of those to clean this mess. [ kc ] you're probably right. hi, cascade kitchen counselor. 1 pac of cascade complete cleans tough food better than 6 pacs of the bargain brand combined. cascade. beyond clean and shine. every time. yeah. it's in the shop. it's going to cost me an arm and a leg. that's hilarious. i'm sorry. you shoulda taken it to midas. get some of that midas touch. they'll tell you what stuff needs fixing, and what stuff can wait. all right. next time i'm going to midas. high-five! arg! did not see that coming. [ male announcer ] get the midas touch maintenance package including an oil change for only $24.99. and here's a deal, use your midas credit card and get a rebate of $25. oil. tires. brakes. everything. trust the midas touch. breaking news. we learned moments ago that president obama will select an ebola czar. nbc senior white house correspondent chris jansing confirming ron klain will be appointed as the ebola czar. let's go right to the nih presser happening as we speak. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. i'm dr. now cfoou chi. doctor h clifford lain, and dr. richard davy the director of the special clinical studies unit here. i'm going to describe what just happened last night and i'm going have the doctor take a minute to tell you a bit about the building and we'll take questions and i'll direct the questions to each of the appropriate people. last night at 11: 54 nina pham, the 26-year-old nurse from dallas, texas, who the press has referred to as nurse number one was transferred and taken by ambulance in a special, secure environment here to the national institute of health to be admitted to our commerciadmit ed to special clinical studies unit. she's here with us, as i mentioned this morning. her condition is fair. she's stable, and she's resting comfortably. in this unit, we have a group of highly skilled, well trained staff. i particularly point out the extraordinary capability of the training, experience, and dedication much our nurses and physicians who are taking care of her right now. i would be happy to answer any questions that you have but before we do, let me have john take one minute to describe this particular place, which some of you may not be familiar with and i'll field questions, if i can answer them. i will. if not i will have my colleagues do that. >> good morning. i'm the director of the clinical center. welcome to this building, which is the largest hospital in the world totally dedicated to clinical research. our patients call this place the house of hope. our nurses say there's no other hospital like it. and why is that? it's because of our mission to -- >> wait for a second. i don't think there's are you okay? go. go. start over. >> if you could speak louder. >> okay. our patients like to call this place the house of hope, our nurses say there's no other hospital like it. why? because of our mission, our special mission to combine research, excellent patient care, and training. we feel very humbled and fortunate to be in a position to work on this international disaster ebola and to try to develop some new preventive and treatment strategies. thank you very much. >> i would be happy to take any questions. yes? right. no. she's not deteriorating. i cannot tell you at this particular time why we have said fair. because the patient confidentiality. >> we don't know how long we'll get her here. we'll get her here until she's well and clear of virus. [ inaudible ] we don't know. we never make those kinds of predictions. this is a serious infection. she's getting the optimal care. it would not be appropriate to make a prediction when she'll get out. she'll get out when she's well enough and free of virus. she has the care of physicians and nurses and technicians with extensive training, experience, and knowledge of infectious diseases and infectious disease control. there are two things that are happening. she's getting optimum intensive care, if needed, therapy, it's being done with the optimal protection of our health care workers. [ inaudible question ] >> reporter: talk about what we saw in the video she looks like -- >> i'm not sure what you saw. i was waiting for the patient in the lobby. what was it that you saw that you want me to describe? [ inaudible ] >> she also seemed very frail. >> okay. all right. so i didn't see the video. i can tell you she had a long trip. a trip that was quite tiring, as you can see. we assisted her. she was in a stretcher with a tent over it. it's the kind of thing that is optimum protection for the people in the ambulance and we had with her one of our intensive care physicians dressed in the appropriate protective equipment, which brought her out. when she came out, she went from the plane and she had to walk off the plane because they wouldn't get her. but when we took her from the ambulance to the room we had her on a stretcher and we wheeled her in and put her in bed. >> the video from texas hospital released last night showed her in bed, you know, just in her environment. >> right. >> at this stage of her virus, how is she doing? >> it is impossible to say how she's doing compared to others. this is an individual patient that treats each individual patient as an individual patient. that's what we're interested. not how she's doing compared to others. we will take care of this patient. >> is she interacting with her care givers, the doctors, nurses? is she sitting up? >> she certainly is sittin ting. she was examined by dr. davy. we saw her this morning. rick, would you like to just give whatever information you can give without violating any patient confidentiality? >> sure. as the doctor said she's resting comfortably, she's interactive with the staff. she's eating. she is able to interact freely and really think she's doing. >> talk more about the specifics on how you're caring for her. [ inaudible ] i'm not going to compare this hospital with other hospitals but i can tell you what we have in this hospital we have intensivists we have infectious disease experts, on a daily basis notwithstanding ebola take care of the sickest possible patient patients we have individuals there and nurses f s who are hi trained, highly prepared, and highly experienced. that makes a difference. [ inaudible ] >> wait a second. >> can you talk about how the special needs you may have? >> there are two shifts right now. 12-hour shifts. rick, why don't you give the details of the number. i believe there's four and one five? >> right. currently we have five nurses assigned in a shift to her in the room with her at any time. when nursing necessary si for that. on a given week we estimate an ill patient of this type may have up to 20 nurses assigned in the week's time. [ inaudible ] i cannot answer that. we have been prepared. we had a special unit study in 2011 for the purpose being able to accept patients who have anything that has to do with emerging infectious disease. we stood ready to accept the patient. when we were asked to accept the patient we accepted the patient. i cannot answer why. i believe it is pretty obvious the man was sick in dallas and he went to the emergency room and then to the clinic at texas presbyterian. you have to be careful. there are are more than one places that can take care of people with ebola. i wouldn't say this is a best possible place. i can tell you it's a very good plac place. >> when you're dealing with a patient -- what is her understanding of her fate? [ inaudible ] >> i said she was in fair condition. which implies she does still have some symptoms. she is in good spirits. she's a highly intelligent aware person who knows exactly what is going on. she's a really terrific person. >> i understasince the crisis b >> i don't want to comment. let me make it clear on comparing dallas to here. she's here. we're responsible for her. that's our job. >> there are a lot of people watching this in dallas. >> when you say recoverable, in the sense of recovering? absolutely. we fully intend to have this patient walk out of this hospital and we'll do everything we possibly can to make that happen. [ inaudible question ] >> first of all, let me talk about this particular. i'm going to restrict my remarks to the national institute of health special clinical studies unit. here this is a research hospital. the primary purpose we always put is the patient's welfare associated with that. we do whatever research to teach us more to help other patients. altogether she's on a research protocol. our main concern is the health and recovery of nina. >> i can tell you again. i'm sorry. she came here at 11: 54. we haven't learned a lot about the virus yet. we're taking care of the patient. will she be getting any experimental drugs or anything like that? >> i think everything is on the table to be able to consider. this will always be done. we do it at all times with all of our patients whenever an experimental drug is given it's given with the express consent of the patient if it, in fact, turns out that way. that's not a question i want to answer right now. again, i'm sorry but i want to tell you what we do here. we don't -- this is what we do. right. >> is it fair to say you're treating symptoms and not the ebola virus? >> there's no specific treatment for the ebola virus. we're giving her the best possible care on a symptomatic and systemic basis. [ inaudible question ] >> yes. the question is, does taking blood from dr. brantly and transfusing it into this patient could it make a difference? the answer is absolutely yes, it could make a difference. dr. brantly has within his plasma anti-bodies against the ebola virus. it is theoretically and possibly likely practically true that anti-body had a role. but we don't know that. and i think that's one of the things i want to emphasize about this particular institution. not donneonly do we have the patient's welfare first, but we need to learn things for other patients. we're going to try as best as we can to learn something. the theoretical answer to your question, it certainly could have made a difference. [ inaudible question ] >> yeah. well, as you know, and as you have heard, there are a variety of symptoms that have to do with ebola. there's diarrhea, there's vomiting, there's fever, there's rash, and there's sometimes organ system dysfunction. whatever those we deal with we take care of it. there's no specific therapy that has been proven to be effective against ebola. that's why excellent medical care is critical. >> has she been able to give you any indent how she contracted the virus? >> we're trying to work it out now. there will be more on that later. right now we want to make her comfortable and take care of her. then when we get further information, if appropriate, we'll make it known. >> the answer is now. we made ourselves available. when we were called upon we accepted the responsibility. when you get a patient in you evaluate them, doctor davy was primarily involved in that. there were things we saw that we wanted to make sure we were not missing anything. we're meticulous about that. you may start seeing a change in the status. so stay tuned. we'll give you updates as much as we possibly can. no, again i want to tell you that she came in, she is stable. when we give a level it's based on what we see and we take care of it. it is highly likely that will change. but she came into the middle of the night and for us that was starting that point as soon as she got into the door. she's very fatigued. this virus wreaks havoc on you. you can come in and be getting better. you can have decrease in diarrhea but you're very tired. this virus knocks you out. we cannot predict this. it is a very unpredictable situation. we never make predictions until we have the patient walking out and talking to you and you can ask her that question. we don't do that. [ inaudible ] right. i don't know exactly what is meant by a czar. we will certainly follow the lead of the president and follow the lead of secretary burwell. i take care of patients and do my job. other people do their job. [ inaudible ] there is no evidence whatsoever this virus is airborne transmitted. everything we know about this virus is direct contact with bodily fluids. you know them, we mentioned them many times. vomit, diarrhea, blood, other body fluids. direct contact. if you look at the protection we have with. aers -- everything it would include that. we're not doing it for that reason we think it's respiratory. we don't. we do it for complete covering so there's no part of our doctors, nurses, or technician's body a this is exposed when they see the patient. we have a very strict system of getting dressed with someone watching you, going in, coming out, getting undressed with someone watching you. we have a limited amount of time when the person can be in the room so they don't get fatigued. that's what keeps our health care workers safe. two more questions. >> you have to remember, as said, she's been under our care for less than 12 hours. we're taking a very conservative assessment at this point. as said, if the situation changes or if we have more time to evaluate her that situation may be upgraded. >> absolutely. [ inaudible ] i'm going tell you something about ebola and i'm not going to specifically answer your question about who went where on what transportation. if a person is aasymptomatic tht doesn't have bodily fluids the person is not infected. our person is in isolation because she has a confirmed diagnosis of ebola. she's not only in isolation, you don't want to equate isolation of an ebola person and putting someone who is not got ebola that you're observing. those are two different concepts. she is where she is because she's sick and she needs care. [ inaudible ] this is a research hospital, and i'm going to give -- everything is free. why don't you explain this. >> when i said there's no other hospital like it, we never bill the patient for anything. we will travel them here, if they need money, we'll house them or their family when they're here for free. we never send a bill. so this patient will never be charged for anything. the public pays $402 million a year to run this hospital for the generosity of the taxes. and we manage that budget. >> yes? [ inaudible ] >> okay. first of all, let's be correct. she's in isolation but she has almost continual person to person contact. we have nurses going in, doctors going in, a screen where the nurses can speak to her. she has her ipad, her all the things she's got person-to-person. when we say isolation let me be clear. it's not an torture chamber. it's an individual being constantly cared for, cheered up. our nurses are spectacular. they do that all the time. >> has she expressed any fear about her condition? we know that -- >> she's a trooper. she's very brave. ting would be unrealistic that someone would not be worried if they had ebola. one more question. [ inaudible ] >> john? >> yeah. her mother and her sister are in the area. >> i'm sorry. we have to go upstairs for another print meeting. thank you for being here. we appreciate it. thank you. a live press conference. you have been witnessing from the nih on the first and foremost condition of nina pham. she is in fair condition. the doctor described her as being stable with some symptoms but resting comfortably. mark potter, who is just back from dallas is with me right now. mark, let's first talk about the ebola czar now that the president has just named. why the need for that? >> i think there is a need for control and there's a need to reassure the public that the government is in control. for the two weeks i was in dallas there was a sense things were spiraling out of control. things we were told in the morning were corrected in the afternoon. we were told the protocols were followed then there was allegations they weren't. then an apology from the hospital. we were told that the health care workers who took care of mr. duncan were corralled. they were being monitored. everything was being fine. then we learned one flew half way across the country and back and one took a cruise. one checked with the cdc before making the flight. it seemed that things were going out of control. it's being done to reassure the public we're on this and aware of this and bringing -- reigning this in. >> as you said you were at dallas. now the nurse pham's condition went from good to fair. from dallas good to maryland fair. >> a different set of doctors evaluating her after a long flight. she might have been tired. they might be changing that quickly. we're hopping that means back up wartd. it sounds like that's the first condition report that we got. but there is more to come. that may not necessarily mean an important downturn in her condition. we'll have to wait to see. >> do you think now this situation with the ebola czar it may have an impact on, for example, the cdc? >> well, they'll have somebody else to answer to. there's been a concern. i'll have to tell you from the reporters in dallas. we would hear things and then they would be corrected. sometimes one organization was saying something different than the other. i think that, again, reigning this in. bringing this under control is what we're talking about here. and the public has been frightened by this. it's angry about this. i know, the white house has been hearing it. the president was going it go on political trips. he stopped that. and he's back talking about this. this has everybody's attention. finally. and i think this was the obvious next step. >> and now the hospital in dallas, essentially, is free from any patients with ebola. but we don't know what may happen in the next days. >> we don't. and the doctors have always said don't be surprised if we have another patient. the good news is the people near mr. duncan before he went in the hospital they have a couple of days to go before they're free. >> it's getting close to the 21-day period. most appear before? >> long before. the news for them is quite good. it looks like the chances of any of them being infected is very low. now we're watching the health care workers who have now been asked to sign an agreement in dallas, by the way, they will voluntarily -- it's believed they will follow that. they will not do any traveling and go into places in public where there's a lot of people. now there are rules. there need to be rules. and they're being established. at the top of that, now is a new ebola czar. and i think this is all part of just trying to bring this in. it was going everywhere. and people were very, very nervous about who was in charge now we know. >> mark potter. thank you so much. good to see you. that's the latest for us. but this continues with breaking news. tamron hall is with "newsnation." she starts off with a latest news. >> hey, jose. thank you so much. good morning, everyone. i'm tamron hall. in is "newsnation." we continue the breaking news we're following on msnbc. president obama just named an ebola czar. that man is ron klain. let's get to nbc chris jansing. the announcement came down a few minutes ago. we heard from the president late yesterday evening quick response some might say in finding ron klain. it seems perhaps the administration had him in mind last night even when the president was speaking. >> yeah. it's hard to believe they got it together in a matter of hours. it was less than 24 hours ago that the spokesman for the white house saying there was no plan for an ebola czar. here you have it. ron klain a well-known here in washington. long time democratic insider. served as chief of staff to two vice presidents, both al gore and most recently to joe biden. there was talk he was gng to replace rahm emanuel then he went on to work for aol steve case in the investment. part is health care. that's not his main area of expertise. he's going to be somebody who is going to take all of these different differententies, look at who is involved in dadealing with the crisis. the centers for disease control and prevention and department of homeland security to department of defense. he's somebody who is going to oversee everything and presumably also who will serve as a singular spokesman. one of the things we've looked at is the number of people who have spoken for the administration. i think at last count it was seven or eight different people. they were looking for one clear focus. there's also a political component to this. it's increasing pressure from members of congress who are out in their districts that are seeing many campaign ads by the republicans who have been using

Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Americas Newsroom 20141017

we're learning another dallas health care worker is actually on a carnival cruise ship right now, self-quarantined in the caribbean right now after handling specimens from thomas duncan, the original patient who was found to be with the virus. jonathan serrie live live from e cdc. there is a new story every day on this. what do we know first of all, jonathan, about nina pham's condition? >> reporter: nina pham is actually set to be in good condition. in that youtube video you just saw you can see her smiling. she appears alert. she is even joking, making jokes with her attending physician before leaving texas health presbyterian hospital in dallas. public health officials say the decision to move her to the national institutes of health is not a reflection on any change in her condition but they want to take some of the burden off of her dallas hospital where many of the medical staff are now out of service as they undergo active monitoring after treating now deceased ebola patient thomas duncan. public health officials also say they want to give pham state of the art care. nih of course runs one of the nation's four biocontainment units with equipment and staff dedicating, dedicated to patients with infectious and highly dangerous diseases, martha? martha: we also mentioned a person on the cruise ship at the beginning of the show today, jonathan. what's that all about? >> reporter: well the person on the cruise ship is also an employee of that hospital in texas. while she did not have direct contact with thomas may have handled blood specimens or other specimens from the patient who eventually died from ebola. now she and her husband went on that cruise at a time that the cdc was only requiring medical workers to do self-monitoring. the agency has since upgraded its policy to require active monitoring. the ship's doctor verified this woman and her husband remain healthy 11 days after her last possible exposure to ebola. remember, martha, the maximum incubation period for this virus is 21 days. so she is just two days shy of that. however, out of an abundance of caution, she and her husband agreed to isolate themselves inside their cabin. the state department says it is working on bringing them back safely to the united states. martha? martha: what a situation. jonathan, thank you very much. bill: this scare, ebola scare, causing an "high school" to shut its doors for two days now. we're told parent of student attending this elementary school in akron, ohio, had contact with the latest ebola patient. on caution the school closing down and student and her mother are under watch for possible symptoms. a bridal shop shutting down. infected nurse amber vinson, planning her wedding, part of the reason she went to the city to and employees show no sign of any illness. martha: lawmakers on capitol hill sounding off against the cdc direct dr. thomas frieden, over missteps handling the ebola in the united states. frieden and other officials facing a contentious congressional panel with questions how prepared we are at our nation's hospitals for ebola, whether we should institute a travel ban. >> if you were involved in conversations with the white house about a travel bandied they rule it out, are they still considering it. >> from the cdc's perspective we will consider anything that -- >> are you going to answer the question about conversations with white house? is the white house considering a travel ban? >> i can't speak for the white house. >> do you know if they ruled out a travel ban? >> i can't speak for the white house. >> have you had conversations with them with about it? >> we discussed issues of travel. martha: tough questions and criticism. nonef the lawmakers on the committee are suggesting that dr. frieden step down. bill: the president also weighing in on a travel ban, late last night talking while huddling with his cabinet. the white house saying he is not opposed to it, that being a travel ban, he says it he has been told it is not a good idea. >> if we institute a travel ban instead of the protocals that we put in place now, history shows that there is likelihood of increased avoidance. people do not readily disclose their information. bill: well the president however opening, is open, rather to appointing a so-called ebola czar. what about that? chris stirewalt, fox news digital politics editor. good morning to you. a czar too far? you say we also have an ebola czar? what do you mean by that? >> we have plenty of people, by the way, infectious disease and weaponnization of infectious disease that our enemies would want to use infectious diseases against us, i'm sure they still do, that was a big consideration in the bush era. set up new offices, set up new funding. we increased funding dramatically for the organizations. there are lots of people, lots of individuals who the president could say, i'm making this person the one who is in charge of the ebola response. which he has essentially done with dr. frieden at the cdc. when he talks about appointing a ebola czar, not talking about creating a new position because we need a new position, what he is talking about frieden lost public confidence in rather dramatic way. everybody they put forward to try to instill calm in the public has instead further panicked and alarmed because they have been wrong. so they're looking for a new face. bill: got it. from what i understand, about 150 people every day fly into the u.s. from these three affected countries. >> yeah. bill: the travel ban seems to be in play as of last night. you heard the president talk about that. will that happen? >> well we're starting to hear from him the same thing we heard from him about isis and bombing and syria which is, no, and then the crawfishing begins. as the polls show what they're showing, pressure increases on the administrat way the botch about we've got, the cdc made some rather lavish promises being able to contain what is going on. we know that they failed. that having happened, public pressure being what it is, the president says he is not opposed to a travel ban, just you couldn't really enforce it and it really wouldn't work. we enforce travel bans all the time, every day. steve hayes. bill: he was on the no-fly list. you see the pattern of backtracking on big decisions and seeing it happen again with this ebola case. that is the point you're making. >> absolutely. this is the crawfish presidency. this is very reactive presidency. they make bold, audacious claims and audacious statements what they will do, when political pressure change, so do their attitude. bill: chris stirewalt. thank you, in washington. should the president appoint a ebola czar? send us a tweet @billhemmer, @marthamaccallum. we'll talk to you on twitter next couple hours. my best guess, 4hours we've seen a new case. if we don't see anymore cases going forward, it wouldn't happy. if we get another one in all likelihood you will see a ban on travel. martha: if we get a new person, another thomas duncan, somebody been in the country 10 or 12 days we don't know about yet is possibility. we hope that doesn't happen. to this huge story as well. the u.s.-led coalition stepping up airstrikes on militants in the syria border town of kobani under siege by isis more than a month now but could there now be progress in pushing isis back? greg palkot live near the syria-turkey border with the very latest for us once again this morning. welcome back, greg. >> reporter: martha, for the last few minutes we've been hearing u.s. jet fighters overhead and we've been hearing blasts like that behind us. i will ask my cameraman mal james to show you some activity. that smoke, the white smoke you're seeing is right on the border between kobani and turkey. that is where the isis terrorists have been targeting in the last few hours. they would very much like to control the border crossing between these two places. turkey does not want that to happen but they are still not doing anything. even though we've seen shells coming from isis right into turkey territory. turkey not doing anything. they don't want to be a part of this fight. all this day we've been watching spore rad tick street fights throughout the town between isis terrorists and kurdish defenders. artillery mortar, we believe that was a mortar right there. our sources tell us in fact there have been more airstrikes overnight against isis in kobani as well. we're been hearing activity in the last few minutes. they tell us in fact these strikes have been hitting various positions across town. more than 60 us airere have strikes against isis in kobani since monday. and by our reckoning and that of other experts, that has been the falling into the hand of terrorists and the kurdish defenders still hanging on to it very bravely. isis is active here and also active about 120 miles to the east along the turkey-syria border. just outside of aleppo some other very disturbing news today. they occupy a syrian airbase there, the isis terrorists, and according to a valuable source of ours, a ex-iraqi air force pilot, are training isis fighters how to fly mig aircraft. they have even done a couple of runs over that airbase. they're not in action yet but i think that is the last thing we need right now. dogfights between u.s. fighter jets and some isis-run mig fighters. back to you, martha. martha: that would be a big and bad development. greg, breaking news there. thank you very much. bill: who wins that battle, right? no doubt. vice president joe biden's youngest son hunter has been discharged from the navy. it happened a while ago. we're learning of it just today. we'll tell you why in a moment. martha: there ace major hurricane out there set to slam a section of paradise right below the eye of the storm. we're tracking that. bill: president obama says you can trust the government to handle ebola in america but can we considering the track record. not everyone is confident, remember this. >> you're saying no corruption, none? >> there were some, there were some bone ned headed decisions. >> bone med headed decisions not mass corruption. not mass corruption. not even a smidgen of corruption. martha: hunter biden is the youngest son of vice president joe biden and he was reportedly kicked out of navy reserve after he failed a drug test. the navy says that the 44-year-old was discharged back in february, less than a year after being selected for the part-time post as public affairs officer. biden saying in statement that he respects the navy decision and is moving forward with his family's love and support. >> fox news alert now. that is live look at kobani, northern syria. greg palkot, moments ago telling us the tide in that battle may be turning. but the pentagon, press secretary rear admiral john kirby saying air power alone will not be enough to get the job done. >> what makes kobani significant that isil wants it. the more they want it and more resources they apply to it, mortar gets available for us to hit there. i said yesterday and keep saying it, kobani could still fall. our military participation is in the air and air only right now. we've all been honest about the fact that air power alone will not be able to save any town in particular. bill: let's talk about that with general jack keane, chairman of institute for study of war, fox news military analyst and welcome, sir, to "america's newsroom." >> good to see you, bill. bill: the point he makes. kobani could still fall. this is not a done deal. why is it for the past 10 days has the administration changed course and gone after isis in that town? >> initially when the airstrikes began on 23 september, they were hitting strategic targets, base camps, command-and-control stations and this attack began a few days prior to. that when media put spotlight on it and recognized there was particular humanitarian crisis unfolding before their eyes and they began focus on it t was clearly the right decision to make and it became a priority target for us. we're getting positive results because one, we have tough, courageous fighters from the kurds. a few miles from them are their wives and children. they're literally fighting for them and their homes. number two, we're coordinating with the force. they're telling us where in the town and what neighborhood and buildings are the isis fighters are located, so that airstrikes are very effective. bill: so without the kurds in the town now, we don't know where the targets are? >> no, we would have great difficulty finding those targets. we fly isr over there, drones and high altitude isr. bill: isr is? >> is surveillance aircraft. we would be able to get some sense of it but have the kind of precision targeting going on right now, we know, what blocks they're in, what buildings they're in. that is why it is so effective. we'll see how long the battle takes. ultimately let's win it. meantime to the east, "washington post," front page cover, a lot of people will start picking up on this story, sir. to ask you is what is next. it is pretty obvious, the baghdad battle is starting now. explain. >> yeah. i think the battle for baghdad is beginning. we're not going to see a mosul, fallujah, or kobani-like ground attack because we would be able to destroy that if that took place. the fact of the matter is, they're occupying and penetrating the suburbs around baghdad. abu ghraib. bill: other towns, north and south and east and in from those suburbs they will conduct terrorist at activities in baghdad. they will increase in level of violence. their purpose will be the to undermined this fledgling government, bill. and deny its capability to service its population, to provide the kind of direction and guidance it needs. in other words, reduce their governing of iraq to garrison baghdad. focus inward and become defensive and cripple the government itself, based on the level of violence they will be able to achieve. that i think, it will take some sometime to achieve that but i think it's beginning. bill: general, thank you. four-star general, chairman of institute of study of war and fox news military analyst. jack keane. >> good talking to you, bill. martha: isis to the midterms the other big story we're watching. 18 days to go to the election, with control of the senate hanging very much in the balance at this point, why this battle may extend well beyond the early days of november. the latest on some really tight races out there. we've got brand new numbers plus this. >> he hits one into right! the giants win the pennant. bill: that was the 9th inning, deep into the san francisco night last night, with that the world series for 2014 is set. like new spicy siriacha shrimp, or parmesan shrimp scampi. as much as you like, any way you like. but it won't last long, so hurry in today. and sea food differently. who works from the coffee shop and uses the free wi-fi. marie works from there too. she's an identity thief who used a small device to grab his wi-fi signal. then stole enough personal information to hijack and drain his bank accounts. every year, millions of americans learn all it may take to devastate your life is a little personal information in the wrong hands. this is identity theft, and no one helps stop it better than lifelock. lifelock's 24/7 proactive protection could have alerted carl in time to help him protect his money. lifelock has the most comprehensive identity theft protection available, guarding your social security number, your money, your credit, even the equity in your home. don't wait until you become the next victim! call the number on your screen and use promo code wi-fi for 60 days of lifelock identity theft protection and get a document shredder free. call the number on your screen or go to lifelock.com/wi-fi. bill: fox news alert we were watching every detail on the ebola story. we're awaiting maryland governor martin o'malley. he is at the state health department and talk about the ebola and the dallas nurse late last night flown from dallas, texas, to the national institutes of health at a facility in maryland. she arrived last night. we had videotape of her inside of her hospital room and along with a doctor and another person taking care of her and we'll share that a bit later. waiting on the governor of maryland on "america's newsroom." martha: latest on high-stakes battle for control of the united states senate in iowa, senate candidates faced off in a contentious debate last night. they had a few of these. it became clear that president obama's policies as far as this debate goes will be on the ballot. >> i don't support obamacare however, the congressman voted for obamacare and continues to defend it today. >> it is not perfect but we need to fix it and improve it instead of doing what you would do which is vote 50 times to repeal it. martha: that is not the last of that conversation. just one of several races that are very, very, tight right now. there is a chance that runoff elections could keep the midterm battles going until january. you may not have an answer to who control the senate. john roberts lace it out from atlanta this morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, martha. real chance we may not who controls the senate on november this who controls the senate. in two races the candidate has to hit 50%. in louisiana mary landrieu in tight race with republican bill cassidy and a tea party candidate rob man necessary. in, georgia, republican candidate david perdue head-to-head with michelle nunn and libertarian candidate getting 5% of the vote. there is good chance none of them will hit 50% election night. here is where it gets interesting. the runoff for louisiana is month later, is december 6th. look at this, runoff for georgia is not two months later, january 6th. that is three days after the 114th congress begins. here is possible scenario. we end up on november fifth or maybe a little after because it will take a while to count alaska's votes. with republicans say with 50 seats? the senate. democrats at 48. what happens then? listen to joe trippi? >> if we have runoffs in louisiana or georgia or both, and the senate, balance in the senate is on the line, it is going to be a donnybrook beyond anything we've ever seen. i mean, i think it could get into the hundreds of millions of dollars in huge fights. >> reporter: now who would have the advantage, natural advantage if these races go to runoff. here is karl rove's take. >> the bad news for the democrats is, that these states have historically been better for republicans in runoffs and the kind of people who turnout in runoffs tend to be more conservative and more an older and more republican oriented. >> reporter: carl rove beliefs advantage republicans. what is likelihood of a runoff, martha. senator landrieu's seat went to one in 2000. the open seat when saks bichambliss ran for it in 2008, that went to runoff as well. the republican prevailed obviously. martha: some of the things to look for. any other signals which way it might go if runoff scenario goes into play? >> reporter: in louisiana, for example, if combined vote of bill cassidy and rob maness 50%, likely he will prevail on that rainoff on december the 6th. look in georgia calculations are more difficult. if perdue were to be leading, went to runoff, karl rove beliefs perdue probably would prevail. you never know, so much money and so much focus will be attached to these races they could go either way. martha: very interesting. john, thank you very much. bill: 100 million in north carolina. 100 million in kentucky so far. you get a runoff, whole country will be throwing their money in there. martha: that is the scenario. if both sides don't try to invest that money now and try to get over the 50% mark and save themselves money later, that will be next couple of weeks. bill: then of course none of this may happen. and that is why we watch the first tuesday in november. we're just getting a response from carnival cruise lines. there is a passenger on board, one of their ships in the caribbean, who may have come into contact with the ebola patient in dallas, texas. we'll tell you what they're saying. >> happy cruising, right? plus president obama telling everybody to relax a bit on the ebola issue. he says, you know we've got this. we'll keep this in check. the president has promised things before though that did not pan out. many are saying -- >> if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. [applause] if you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan, period. [applause] but there are no bra? 24/7 it's just i'm a little reluctant to try new things. what's wrong with trying new things? feel that in your muscles? yeah... i do... try a new way to bank, where no branches equals great rates. bill: carnival cruise lines, we mentioned, putting out a statement, texas medical worker on cruise ships at sea in caribbean. the worker handled samples from ebola infected patient in dallas in early october and boarded carnival magic before being notified bit cdc before being needed to self-monitor for symptoms. that is what we belief the facts of story are now. carnival saying in part, deemed by cdc to be very low risk at this time. the guest remains isolation on board the ship and not deemed to be a risk to any guests or crew. the ship is due back in galveston, texas sunday. statement by carnival cruise. martha: president obama saying that the government has the ebola situation under control. critics of the president say given the administration's track record, americans may not rely necessarily on those words. here is george will. >> the president keeps saying trust us. a little late in the game to do. that the president is saying, trust us, is the one who said, an internet video caused benghazi attack. the president says trust us, that there is not a smidgen of corruption on the irs. the president said if you like your health care plan you can keep it period. it gets late in the game to try to hermetically seal one portion of the government that people are going to trust. martha: we'll see what these guys think about. that juan williams, fox news political analyst. mary catherine ham, hotair.com and fox news contributor. welcome to you both. good morning. >> good morning. martha: juan, let me start with you. george will says the president trust us. he said it on a number of issues and people of the united states have found they couldn't do that. what do you make about that analogy? >> well, i don't know where to start. i will say this, the curtain has risen on the political theater of the ebola crisis at this moment. i think with the hearings yesterday in congress and you see republicans trying to undermined confidence in the president and in the administration's ability to deal with the ebola crisis i think is part of a larger theme which is, you can't trust this president. well, i mean the list that george will went through, i think is controversial. obviously we have no evidence of what went wrong in benghazi except that we have dead people and we've been trying to figure out how to handle it and we've had congressional hearings, health care seems to be working at moment. i could go on but larger point here is i think there is republican effort to simply say that in advance of the election, the no reason to trust this president and democrats. martha: mary catherine what do you think? is george will's comment fair? >> yeah, i look, i think americans first of all, are concerned about this. a lot of people like, don't panic, don't panic! i think completely rational to be concerned about it and look, juan, go past the politics of it, past any of those specific promises that were broken or things that went wrong, and talk about the confidence of what happened in this specific case in which among other things the cdc has allowed a woman with a fever who later tested possibly for ebola, we're all praying for her, amber vinson to, get on a flight to ohio. one possibly exposed person on a cruise ship. it feels like, no, i don't think you guys have this under control and that is perfectly rational conclusion because the promises from the president when he spoke at cdc, this is not going to get to our shores. we have screening processes take care of. that when it was in texas, certainly has to do with the hospital as well as cdc, we have protocols that will take care of this. i think there has not been a ton of evidence that those protocols have been clearly communicated, that folks have been trained and something people are in the right to worry about and this administration over and over again says, gives sort of excuses for its own incompetence. we didn't know about that. the federal government is pretty big. who can control it all. those are not encouraging signs. martha: a little bit of sound from the president that you're referring to. >> i want people to understand that the dangers of you contracting ebola, the dangers of pa serious outbreak are extraordinarily low but we are taking this very seriously at the highest levels of government. martha: i don't know how reassuring that is, highest levels of government are taking this really serious i. i go back to the families -- >> always says that, martha. martha: it is. go back to families of these two nurses, juan. put yourselves in their shoes, ask the question, was the leadership properly assigned to this issue? because we were told from the president and from the cdc there was next to zero chance that anybody was going to get this in this country and indeed they did. >> right. i couldn't agree more about it way with what mary catherine said earlier. if you look at specifics of this case it would cause you to have your fait seems like the cdc, i guess by extension president obama and administration said they really had this under control. not that nobody was ever going to get it but there was no chance it was going to once identified and tracked, spread and now we have these two nurses in this situation. so, yeah, people are asking more questions. i think the scrutiny level has been ramped up. the point, yes, there is reason to say, you know what? you guys have to be held accountable. this is a tough situation. martha: that is what he always says, juan. ebb everybody says, we'll hold ourselves accountable, we'll hold the people who did this accountable. heard it in the va situation. heard it in. irs situation you can't deny a fact number of times we've been told including benghazi, we'll get to the bottom of this. we'll find out exactly what happened here, the credibility issue is a real one. it is a real one. >> i don't think so. >> how could it not be? put up the poll, please. put up the poll. >> sure, go ahead. martha: 68% of the americans, how are things going, going to hell in a hand basket. 58%? >> you ask that question anytime over the decade, right track, wrong track. it has been higher after iraq and katrina, it was higher. so that is not, you put it in isolation, looks like oh, the sky is falling. martha: let me ask you something, juan, i want to get back to mary catherine. when you talk to people out there, juan, do they feel like there is unease in the country. >> of course. everything from the economy, you know, to a larger sense of concern about the middle east. that anxiety is real but to suddenly try to feed it in this way about you know, the failures of the cdc and then the political argument, the democrats say you shouldn't have cut budget, republicans say these people are incompetent. martha: it is in my opinion it is what it is. you look at the facts. >> human beings dealing with a tough situation. martha: absolutely. but you have the cdc admitting they didn't handle it well. mary catherine, i want to put the headline out there. the world health organization admits botching attempts to stop the ebola outbreak in west africa. you have another admission of a failed attempt from the world health organization. mary catherine. >> yeah, i think people are going to make mistakes and i think there is some allowance for that. not every failure is political failure and that we should capitalize on that but as i said perfectly rational to question the federal government in this case. when you hear the president who always says we have this under control, we'll get to the bottom, people will be held accountable. holding account, usually happens 3 1/2 years later and slow-walked an investigation and something that was a scandal become as phony scandal. there is a real question to question when he makes those promises if they are real especially in this case, when you see the cdc, hey, you have a fever, go ahead and get on a flight. that doesn't make people feel good. >> that was wrong. martha: the administration's job give reassures in something based real and they are assured things are being handled. that is not what we're seeing in the polls. >> competence is the greatest way to get trust and respect. martha: thank you very much, juan, mary catherine. >> have a good weekend. martha: you too. bill: fox news alert. bermuda is getting ready for a powerful hurricane names gonzalo. the g man, is bearing down packing winds of 130 miles per hour. they say they're ready in bermuda. only days after tropical storm fay caused widespread damage there. meteorologist maria molina in fox weather center. rare you get two storms in place like this almost back-to-back. how does it look? >> that's right, bill. fay and gonzalo packing storms in bermuda in very short time. gonzalo is very strong storm. the national hurricane center saying this is strong statement. life-threatening storm surge with this storm and very destructive waves. that is what we're looking at impacts in bermuda. the big he concern is also the wind. this is a category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds at 130 miles per hour. there could be a little bit of weakening happening over next couple hours before the system makes landfall. the storm keeping bonds saul low away from the u.s.-gonzalo. the trough is pushing the system toward the east. dry air working its way. it is still a healthy storm. right there in the last couple of scans, that is burst of convection. we're still looking at a very powerful storm system. here is timing with center of the storm coming on shore possibly overbermuda today, 10:00 p.m. friday. this will last several hours. tropical storm conditions possible as early as later this morning or early this afternoon. hurricane conditions should be arriving by this evening and lasting again for several hours. here's a quick look at the forecast track, bill. take a look at that. cat-3 forecast. a little bit of weakening cat 3, cat 4, very, very dangerous for the island of bermuda. bill: maria, thanks. they tell you that they're ready for it. they build stuff on the island for cases like this. the best of luck to the folks out there in the atlantic. martha: maybe it will turn in the cone a little bit to help them out. we're learning a little bit more about the death of comedienne joan rivers. the official cause of death is now public in her case. we'll tell you what we now know. bill: a health worker in a self-imposed quarantine on board a cruise ship who had contact in dallas with thomas duncan. how much of a risk is this person to the others on board that boat? >> texas presbyterian is really dealing with a difficult situation. they're working very hard because of the events of the past week, they are now dealing with at least 50 health care workers who may potentially have been exposed. i'm only in my 60's... i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, it could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call now to request your free decision guide. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and virtually no referrals needed. see why millions of people have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. don't wait. call now. woman: everyone in the nicu -- all the nurses wanted to watch him when he was there 118 days. everything that you thought was important to you changes in light of having a child that needs you every moment. i wouldn't trade him for the world. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. if you're caring for a child with special needs, our innovative special care program offers strategies that can help. martha: being an nhl goalie is easily one of the toughest jobs in sports but the goalie for the boston bruins faced additional challenge in last night's game in montreal. watch this. >> that fool out to be thrown out of the building for life. this is a ridiculous thing to do in a game which the puck can travel 100 miles per hour. martha: i hope nobody gets ahold of that situation. a great boston bruins goalie, a laser pointed at him. that is a huge mistake. he claims it did not affect his play but left the game in the third period after giving up five goals. this is the latest in disturbing trend of people pointing lasers during sporting events. really, people? including a detroit man used a laser pointer against a player from the buffalo bills. we have to scan people for lasers as they walk in the door? do the right thing, folks. >> we need a plan to treat those who are sick, to train health care workers to safely provide care, to stop the spread of this disease here at home and at its source in africa. bill: so this morning we're learning that from the hearing yesterday about a dallas health worker who handled samples from ebola infected patient aboard a cruise ship. worker on texas on board a carnival cruise ship about cdc requirement to actively self-monitor. we have a former chief of staff at nova fairfax medical campus in virginia and good morning, to you, doctor. thank you for your expertise and your time today. we're told this person on board the ship is not showing any symptoms so far but, i mean what should we know about this? you're at sea? you're self-quarantined. how is this possible? >> hi, bill, good morning, thank you for having me. i am proud of her for quarantining herself. at this point in time it appears 19 days after her exposure. she is doing the right thing. there are, the cruise ships are actually very prepared for contagious diseases after norwalk. bill: are they? >> well, because of their norwalk scare. so they are used and prepped for doing cleaning procedures. i am proud of her for keeping herself in a quarantined or socially isolated situation until she can be cleared. bill: okay. do you expect her to be evacuated? because the ship right now is not due back in dock for another three days. >> well the damage has already been done. if she is asymptomatic at 19 days, nobody knows the answer to that question. might be socially conscious right thing to do for rest of the people on the ship, particularly if this ship wants to give them a little peace of mind. we certainly wouldn't want her in the next 48 hours on the ship, to get fever, get symptoms of ebola and have to have a ship docked at a medical facility quarantined and treat her. bill: she left galveston on the 12th of october which was five days ago. you had vinson travel two days prior to that on october 10th. as you put the timeline together did the cdc screw this up in notification? >> i believe there was some mismanagement. people were not talking. people weren't thinking this through. one of the problems is that the cdc does not have operational control over hospitals and there was a real disjoint in communication. it is my friehling that a senior leadership position, to help get all of the stakeholders together, for getter communication, and better operational management is direly needed. bill: sounds like a czar. do i hear that correctly? >> yes. bill: do you support that? >> i support that. i wrote that on a piece of paper before i heard that discuss it yesterday. bill: really? how come? >> what i see happening here you have a lost stakeholders without a primary management person. the cdc is great at surveillance and keeping track of people along with the health departments. they have their role. there's a communications piece lacking that is extremely important for communicating the public the facts, communicating the hospital the facts, coordinating with the health care association and societies. the hospital associations. and informing the public of the correct information and seth protocols. bill: we were told in the beginning that every hospital in america can handle this and now we have found out otherwise. really calls into question of confidence as to what we're being told. dr. mary schmidt, thank you for your time. >> thank you, bill. bill: out of washington, d.c. with us. you bet. thank you. martha. martha: outrage this morning after local police purposely released suspected criminals who are illegal immigrants, rather than deporting them. why this move is hitting taxpayers where it hurts. bill: also this mysterious event closely turning night in day in the skies over this town. what do you think that is, maccallum? will that be all, sir? thank you. ordering chinese food is a very predictable experience. i order b14. i get b14. no surprises. buying business internet, on the other hand, can be a roller coaster white knuckle thrill ride. you're promised one speed. but do you consistently get it? you do with comcast business. and often even more. it's reliable. just like kung pao fish. thank you, ping. reliably fast internet starts at $89.95 a month. comcast business. built for business. martha: recent court filings prompting more counties and cities to release criminal aliens on purpose rather than hold them for federal deportation. that costs u.s. taxpayers a lot of money. william la jeunesse with more on the story for us in los angeles. hey, william. >> well, martha, one congressman calls this a jailbreak. police arrest a guy. records show he is here illegally. feds ask for 48 hour hold to deport him. instead locals let him go, forcing agents to find him again. >> he is convicted aggravated felon. national from mexico. documented gang member. >> reporter: agents hunt for the worst of the worst while jails across the countryy catch and release. >> law enforcement agencies not honoring detainers that undermines our authorities and mission. >> reporter: undermine because 275 county jails have decided to ignore federal requests to hold criminal aliens for deportations. >> statistics show that of these convicted felons 75% of them are going to reoaf phoned. -- reoffend. if we get them into the jails before they get the opportunity to reoffend and create more victims, for us it is just a win-win situation. >> see your hands. >> reporter: the change forces agents to recapture criminals. >> thought it was patrol, not i.c.e. >> reporter: local police jailed this man on a prior robbery conviction but let him go. with three prior drug convictions and deportation and a felon convicted with a assault with a deadly weapon. >> they're have a dragnet with catches up u.s. citizens and lawful immigrants accused of crimes only and who have done nothing wrong. >> reporter: fearing lawsuits counties rejected retainers, releasing nine thousand criminal aliens this year. 62%, i.c.e. claims, were a threat to public safety. >> the notion that if these counties don't honor i.c.e. detainers there are somehow putting people at risk is simply a fiction. >> reporter: in fact i.c.e. says at least two fatalities were committed upon release of these immigrants. this is political, martha. court rulings say locals can crop with the feds and are not required to and most big democratic cities they simply don't. back to you. >> william, thank you. bill: just getting word there wasn't news conference in 30 minutes from the national institutes of health in bethesda, maryland. that is where the first nurse infected with ebola, the first confirmed case here in the u.s., nina pham was transferred to late last night. we'll be there live in a moment. we'll carry the news conference live and let you know what you need to know about her case and others. 10:30 a.m. eastern time. back after this. ♪ [ female announcer ] we love our smartphones. and now telcos using hp big data solutions are feeling the love, too. by offering things like on-the-spot data upgrades -- an idea that reduced overcharge complaints by 98%. no matter how fast your business needs to adapt, if hp big data solutions can keep wireless customers smiling, imagine what they can do for yours. make it matter. martha: we are awaiting new details on the first dallas nurse diagnosed with ebola. the national institutes of health will hold a news conference about 30 minutes from now, transported to that federal isolation unit last night. that's the video she made as president obama faces fresh fire for the handling of this crisis. brand new hour of "america's newsroom," i'm martha maccallum. bill: and i'm bill hemmer. a third hospital worker from dallas who handled some form of ebola material from the now-deceased tom duncan is now on board a cruise ship in the caribbean. but nurse nina pham shown here talking to her doctor right before her transfer from dallas, texas, to maryland late last night. >> thanks for, thanks for -- [inaudible] martha: she is so sweet and, obviously,o emotionally connected to her story, having pulled her through the worst of it, it appears. casey steegal live in dallas, catherine herridge outside the nih which is where we begin this morning. catherine, what can you tell us from there? >> reporter: well, martha, thank you, and good morning. nurse nina pham arrived here late last night, and as you mentioned, that thank you video was released. i want you to take another look at that video because you can see pham is doing fairly well, but you can also see the deep psychological impact of this isolation these patients feel as you see her medical team fully clothed in that hazmat style. she was flown to the suburban washington area and then traveled via ambulance to the nih where she's being treat inside a high hi specialized biocontainment facility. the head of the nih testified here this week that they have very limited capacity. >> condition is stable, and she seems to be doing reasonably well. but i have to verify that myself when my team goes over. >> and if other people come to dallas, somewhere else, will they also be transferred to nih? >> we have a limited capacity of beds of being able to do this type of high level care and containment. our total right now is two beds. she will occupy one of them. >> reporter: based on our research here at fox, martha, what we know is there are less than two dozen beds that have that high level of care, and with pham coming here to the nih, their capacity has now been reduced by 50%. martha: it has. so what are we learning about this virus as we get further into this, catherine? >> reporter: well, martha, one of the things that's really under the microscope here at the nih is whether the ebola virus is mutating. if the virus mutates, that is an indicator that the method of transmission may change. so far what we've heard universeally from members of the nih as well as the cdc, that the two nurses -- amber vinson and thee that pham -- nina pham, both had close contact with the bodily fluids of that victim. again, they will be looking very closely at the nih for any mutations in that virus. >> we are confident this is not airborne transmission. these nurses were working very hard, they were working with a patient who was very ill who was having lots of vomiting, lots of diarrhea. there was a lot of infectious material, and the investigation is ongoing, but we immediately implemented a series of measures to increase the level of safety. >> reporter: what's so concerning to health care professionals here at the nih is the trajectory of this virus. when you look at previous outbreaks going back to 1976, about 200, 250 people died in each of those outbreaks. this, as you know, is well over 2500, so it's on a very upward trajectory. what we're hoping to hear at this news conference from dr. fauci and members of his infectious diseases team is what they are learning about pham, her condition, and any mutations of this virus, martha. martha: yeah. that's essential to understanding this going forward. catherine, thank you. bill: also this morning we're learning a bit more about a dallas hospital worker who right now is onboard a carnival cruise ship in the caribbean. casey steegal picks up that story live back there in dallas. we got some information from the cruise line itself, and what are they telling us about this person onboard? >> reporter: yeah, bill, we did. in fact, i just got off the phone with carnival cruise line, and they tell me the ship is off the coast of belize as we speak and, basically, it left out of galveston, texas, on october the 12th which was this past sunday. it was also before the cdc changed its active monitoring program for medical workers at texas health presbyterian hospital who had some form of contact with thomas eric duncan while he was a patient here. the u.s. state department telling us the individual on this cruise ship is an employee of this hospital and may have handled a lab specimen from duncan. but this woman is not showing symptoms and is not in any sickness. she is in voluntary isolation aboard the carnival magic as we speak. carnival also released a written statement to us as well. it reads in part, i'm quoting: all guests staling with us -- sailing with us -- >> r eporter: the state department says it's currently working on how to get the woman off of that ship. bill: so we know one of the infected nurses traveled by air, and what is the airline doing now that we can report, casey? >> reporter: yeah. amber vinson, as you recall, hopped on a frontier airlines plane from dallas to cleveland to plan her wedding and then came back to dallas all before she was diagnosed. he claims the cdc gave her clearance to travel by commercial air, but now the cdc is saying the 29-year-old nurse was not entirely forthcoming about how she was feeling and when her symptoms exactly started. that has now prompted frontier airlines to reach out to some 750 passengers not just those onboard the two planes with her, but onboard the planes that traveled to other cities as they continued their routes before they were pulled out of service. bill: casey steegal back live there in dallas, texas, with us today. martha: what about the question of an ebola vaccine? is there one on the horizon? greta van suggestion ran sat down -- suggestion remember sat down with doctors from walter reed. >> we have data from use in nonhuman primates, but at times it doesn't necessarily predict what's going to happen to real people. martha: even if they do find a cure, doctor cans say procedures have to be followed to mass produce a vaccine, and while they're not talking years, those things do take time. bill: senator rand paul slamming the government's response for initially downplaying the virus saying it's more contagious, in his view, than aids. >> they have gone on and on and on telling you don't worry, it's not that contagious. has to be direct contact, and you have to exchange bodily fluids. what does that sound like? the first thing i think when they tell me that, that sounds like aids. but do you know how they define direct contact? being within three feet of someone. this thing is incredibly contagious. people are getting it fully gowned, masked and must be getting a very tiny amount, and they're still getting it. bill: senator paul went on to talk about that, a medical degree, you may recall. he made those remarks while campaigning for scott brown in new hampshire. martha: so president obama applauding his team handling the ebola crisis, now saying that an ebola czar is something that he is considering, that that may be needed to coordinate the efforts here. this after two nurses contracted ebola despite the safety precautions, as we just heard. joined now by byron york, fox news contributor. good morning to you. >> good morning, martha. martha: do we need an ebola czar in this case? >> well, the president seems to be kinda, sorta coming around to it. he said kind of casually last night he'll let us know. but i think the bigger question is not whether an office is created, but whether anyone is actually in charge of the government's response to the ebola crisis. i think what we saw on wednesday was something really interesting at the white house briefing. the spokesman, josh earnest, said that lisa monaco, who is the president's national security adviser, was, quote, integrating the government's response. so reporters said, okay, so she's in charge? he said, no, no, no, there's the department of defense, health and human services, there's the center for disease control, agency for international development. so the reporter said is there any one potential who is in charge -- person who is in charge, and he didn't answer that. i think that's why the next day you saw the president come out, invite cameras into his cabinet meetings, speak to reporters and sort of present himself as the man who is this charge of the government's response. martha: yeah. i find it unbelievable, you know, when you look at the entities that are already in place, byron, you've got an hhs headed by sylvia burwell, jay johnson at homeland security, cdc, you've also got the surgeon general who is an acting surgeon general right now, a rear admiral. i look at his biography, he has a masters in public health from harvard, he has been on hhs, cdc, fda handling counterterrorism, hurricane katrina, anthrax, i mean, why on earth with all -- he has 6800 people under him who, you know, who he is involved with who are public health officials across the country. why on earth would we need another person in charge when we've already paid and hired for all these people who were supposed to be in charge? >> well said. the government has a lot of people. the question is, is the president going to delegate the authority to one of them to do all of this? but the big questions i think everybody thinks are going to be decided by the president. will there be a travel ban? the white house continues to be dead set opposed to that. the president said he's not philosophically opposed, but he believes it would not work. so these questions, i think, everybody knows will be decided by the president. but has he put authority in the hands of one person who's already, as you said, a government employee? no, he hasn't done that. martha: yeah. a czar may be somebody to push the blame onto in this situation. already plenty of people who are well qualified, one of them perhaps could step up and coordinate this with the president. byron, thank you very much. >> thank you, martha. martha: you bet. bill: two big national, really international stories happening side by side. this is john kerry now at the state department. he is briefing employees of the diplomatic corps at the department of state about ebola, so we're watching that, and he's letting them know about the u.s. response thus far. um, cross reference that with what's happening at the pentagon now, this is an update by the pentagon on what's happening with regard to isis in the town of coe ban any. -- kobani. rear admiral john kirby yesterday saying there is progress on the ground, but nothing will take back that town unless you have forces on the ground. what does that mean? can the kurds do that? or will they need more? apparently, the coordination between the u.s. airstrikes and the kurdish fighters who know where the terrorists are in that town have proved reasonably successful so far. yet isis still rules about a third if not more of the town of kobani. and also there is the threat on baghdad. we're waiting for headlines from both of these events. in the national institutes of health, by the way, they will briefer in 20 minutes, and we'll take that live in maryland. martha: while we were talking, there may have been an ebola czar appointed. we haven't confirmed that yet. you may find this interesting when you learn the name being passed around here. the cdc calling for a travel ban from lawmakers battling ebola. >> we need to stop the entry of individuals into this country until we get it under control, and restricting those visas, doing a quarantine center there if you want to exit this hot zone, then you spend 21 days in quarantine before you exit. martha: congresswoman marsha blackburn is on deck with more on how her plan wouldng up. bill: also, nurses on the front lines calling for action to keep them safe. the head of their national union is here live today on what their asking the president to do about it. martha: and 18 days to go until the midterm elections, and from ebola to isis, the bad news has piled up for the president in recent months, and by extension, for democrats as well. what will the impact be? we've got a great panel coming up on the home stretch to election day. ♪searching with devotion ♪for a snack that isn't lame ♪but this... ♪takes my breath away ♪ ♪ >> why we're still allowing folks to come over here, and why is there in quarantine? >> our fundamental mission is to protect americans. right now we're able to track everyone who comes in -- >> but you're not stopping them from being around other people, doctor. i understand that, and i have a high respect for you, but even so, they're not limited from travel. they're not quarantined for 21 days. martha: cdc director tom frieden facing repeated questions from lawmakers on why he does not believe that a travel ban is necessary on flights to and from thewet african countries that are -- west african countries that are battling ebola. marsha blackburn is the vice chair of the house energy and commerce committee. she was in that subcommittee hearing yesterday, and she joins us now. good morning, congresswoman, good to have you with us. so you believe that there should be, as we played before, a quarantine that takes place in these countries in west africa before people are allowed to even board the plane in the beginning. explain how that would work. >> absolutely. we're going to send our military over there, martha, 700 of my constituents from fort campbell are going over. what they need to do first is set up something similar to a forward operating base, an fob. and individuals that want to exit those countries, guinea, sierra leone, liberia, should subject themselves and voluntarily go into a 21-day quarantine. if they're clear on day 22, they can proceed. with their travel plans. but we need to quarantine them there. and dr. frieden has been consistent in his remarks that we need to dress this there -- address this there, that we these to take care of it right there at the genesis. and this would be a way to help do that. martha: so are you in favor or not in favor of a travel ban which would prevent flights coming in from those areas and also, i would assume, prevent people who have those pass bolters and might be coming -- passports and might be coming from other countries. >> that's right. i would prefer a travel ban. but if he's not going to do that as i have asked dr. frieden would he support a quarantine there, if he continues to say we need to address it there, then let's quarantine there before people can exit that country either to come to us or any other country. and, you know, i really think that the world health organizations and other countries that have implemented a travel ban would support doing this. having a quarantine there. martha: yeah. the world health organization said just moments ago that they botched the handling of this. and it's very interesting when you look at why they say it was botched. they talk about the politicalization, really, of the health officials in the african countries in terms of the way they approached their job and they're not really doing their job. what dueck about that? >> well, and they're right about that, and that is part of the concern, is that politics is into this. we don't want to offend anybody. but we have to keep the american people safe. and we are here to work with the cdc and make certain that the american people are safe. but, martha a, look at what happens with one individual coming into the hospital. two now that have contracted the disease, dozens being watched, hundreds inconvenienced. and what we have to do is say, all right, we have to stop this. martha: yeah. >> what's the best way to stop it? a travel ban. and if you're not going to do a travel ban, do a quarantine there. hold people there before they exit the country. martha: all right. quickly, before i let you go here, a czar, an ebola czar looks like it may be in the works from the white house today. we're working to confirm the name right now. is that what's needed, or can some of these people who already hold these jobs at these agencies take control? >> it needs to be someone with experience in public health, emergency response and not a communications person who is going to spin this. martha: well, there are literally thousands of people on the payroll in all of these different health agencies that already work for the government and for the american people. we'll see if they can find one of them to coordinate all of this. thank you very much, congresswoman. >> thank you. bill: ten minutes away from the news conference at the national institutes of health, we'll watch it live with you. in the meantime, a dangerous hurricane is bearing down. where hurricane gonzalo is heading as preparations for its arrival swing into high gear. martha: and why a national icon is getting a close inspection. what engineers are looking for. ♪ ♪ ♪ there it is... this is where i met your grandpa. right under this tree. ♪ (man) some things are worth holding onto. they're hugging the tree. (man) that's why we got a subaru. or was it that tree? (man) introducing the all-new subaru outback. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. martha: workers in st. louis 630 feet ie air rappeling down the city's iconic gateway arch. this is not for people with fear of heights, obviously. they're searching for seams as part of this repair project. the monument symbolizes expansion and st. louis' role as both a deaths nation and a gateway to the -- destination and a gateway to the west. bill: hurricane gonzalo heading straight for bermuda. second storm in about seven days. jonathan hunt's live in our newsroom here in new york. the clock is ticking. >> reporter: very much on the way, bill. it will be hitting bermuda in the next few hours, and this, officials say, is a very dangerous storm. currently a category four, likely to bring a rise in sea levels of 5-40 feet -- 35-40 feet and what officials say will be a life threatening storm surge. so nobody on that island of about 70,000 people is taking any chances. listen here. >> this one here or you pray to lord. >> looks like it's going to hit us right on the nose. >> reporter: fabian was in 2003, so everybody's getting ready. these pictures, by the way, from some friends of mine, u.s. citizens who live on the island, jimmy and carrie thatcher. that's their beautiful little home boarded up like everybody else, and they tell me they are ready for this to get, quote, very scary. bill: if anybody's ready, it's bermuda, right? they were hit last week too. what came of that? >> reporter: that was tropical storm faye that did a great deal of damage. there are 1500 homes that are still without power. these are some pictures from darlene mccarthy balmfield who writes a blog. so they are taking a double whammy here when gonzalo hits late today. but take a look at one last picture i i want to show you. this, again, from my friends jimmy and carrie, of the last supper as they are calling it. this was outside their house last night. bermudian fashion, all done by candlelight because, as i say, they were still without power. they've all got a pretty good attitude, bill, but they know this is a very serious storm. it has already, for instance, killed one person in the island of st. martin, has caused a lot of damage in the anyone can republic, etc., so they know there is trouble ahead. bill: yeah. our best to your friends there and everybody else. jonathan hunt from our newsroom in new york. martha: a couple minutes away from a press conference from the national institutes of health. we expect to hear from the doctors that are in charge of nina pham who has been wrought there, and they're -- brought there, and they're trying to figure out her condition and whether or not this virus has mutated. three minutes away, we'll bring you that live as soon as it begins. ♪ i found a better deal on prescriptions. we found lower co-pays... ...and a free wellness visit. new plan...same doctor. i'm happy. it's medicare open enrollment. have you compared plans yet? it's easy at medicare.gov. or you can call 1-800-medicare. medicare open enrollment. you'll never know unless you go. i did it. you can too. ♪ it's one of the fastest growing crimes in america. there's a new victim of identity theft every three seconds. makes you wonder -- "am i next?" one weak password could be all it takes -- or trusting someone you shouldn't. over 70 million records with personal information were compromised in recent security breaches. you think checking your credit cards or credit report protects you? of course, lifelock can do that for you. but lifelock also helps protect you from more serious fraud, like attempts to get a mortgage in your name. take over your bank accounts, or even drain your investment accounts. lifelock offers the most comprehensive identity theft protection available. alerting you to threats by text, phone or email. ♪ your response helps stop thieves before they do damage, with three layers of protection, detecting threats to your finances, alerting you to potential danger. and if there's a problem, your resolution expert helps restore your identity. ♪ banks and credit cards alone can't offer protection like that. plus, it's backed by a $1 million service guarantee. if your identity is compromised, lifelock will spend up to $1 million on experts to help restore it. try lifelock risk free for 60 days. enter promo code ll5. act now and get this convenient multi-device charger to charge all your devices at the same time -- a $30 value free! call 800-416-4631 or go to lifelock.com/ll5. try the most comprehensive identity theft protection available risk free for 60 days with promo code ll5. plus get a multi-device charger free. call 800-416-4631 or go to lifelock.com/ll5. ♪ martha: as we mentioned moments ago, it is now confirmed that president obama has named an ebola czar, and that person is ron klean who is described as an insider. he worked for al gore, he's been around for a long time. also worked as chief of staff, i believe, for vice president joe biden. there's going to be a lot of questions. he's a lawyer and he is, as i said, a longtime inside the beltway political person here. so a lot of questions are going to be raised by this. we talked about why we would need a czar when you have a health and human services department, you have a cdc, you have a homeland security department, you have a surgeon general, you have an fda, i mean, the thousands of people in this country who are employed by the government to oversee emergency health issues, help training in this country? the list goes on and on including the surgeon general, as i mentioned who, you know, appears on paper to be extremely well qualified to step into this position but, apparently, these folks who are already paid by the taxpayer have not been tapped. we're going to have a panel discussion on it, perhaps get carl cameron in the loop as well. bill: in the meantime, national institutes of health in bethesda, maryland, that is where nina pham is now resting and, hopefully, recovering. she's the 26-year-old nurse out of dallas that was flown to the nih late last night. and this -- yeah, we're about to get under way. dr. anthony fauci, he's the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, he will start it off and, clearly, there are other doctors behind him. this should be very latest on what americans need to know. let's drop in right now, dr. fauci. >> dr. richard davy, director of the special clinical studies unit here. i'm going to describe what just happened last night, and then i'm going to have the there take a minute to tell you about this building, and then we'll take questions, and i'll direct them to each of the appropriate people. last night at 11:54, nina pham, the 26-year-old nurse from dallas, texas, who the press has referred to as nurse number one, was transferred by airvac and taken by ambulance in a special, secure environment here to the national institutes of health to be admitted to our special clinical studies unit. she is now here with us, as i mentioned this morning in a release. her condition is fair. she is stable, and she is resting comfortably. in this unit we have a group of highly skilled, well trained and experienced physicians, technicians and nurses. i particularly point out the extraordinary capability of the training, the experience and the dedication of our nurses and physicians who are taking care of her right now. i'd be happy to ask -- answer any questions that you have, but before with we do, let me just have john gallon take one minute to describe this particular place which some of you may not be familiar with, and then i'll field questions. if i can answer them, i will. if not, i will have my colleagues do that. i think something happened with the sound. >> good morning. i'm john gallon, i'm the director of the clinical center. welcome to this building which is the largest hospital in the world, totally dedicated to clinical research. our patients call this place the house of hope, and our nurses say there's no other hospital like it. and why is that? it's because of our mission to combine -- >> hold on for a second. i think there's not mics there. >> you talking about the speaker? [inaudible conversations] >> if you can speak louder, it'd be great. >> our patients like to call this place the house of hope. our nurses say there's no other hospital like it. why? it's because of our mission, our special mission to combine research, excellent patient care and training. we feel very humbled and fortunate to be in a position to work on this international disaster ebola and to try to develop some new preventive and treatment strategies. thank you very much. >> so i'd be happy to take any questions. >> dr. fauci, her condition is fair, you said? >> yes. right. >> has she deteriorated at all? >> no, she's not. i cannot tell you at this particular time why we have said fair, but she is quite stable and resting comfortably. >> any idea how long she might be here? >> we can to not know how long we will get her here -- we will get her here until she is well and clear of virus. >> any idea how long she might be -- >> we don't know. we never make these kinds of predictions. this is a serious infection. she's getting the optimum care, and it would be not appropriate to make a prediction of when she will get out. she will get out when she's well enough and free of virus. >> what is optimum care? can you describe what -- >> yes. well, she has the care of physicians and nurses and technicians with extensive training, experience and knowledge of infectious diseases and infectious disease control. so there are two things that are happening. she's getting optimum intensive care if needed therapy, but it's also being done with the optimum protection of our health care workers. >> dr. fauci, i'm not sure a layperson has ever seen video of someone -- >> right. >> -- in this phase of this virus. is her presentation right now typical for this point many her virus -- in her virus? we talk about what we saw on the video last night, what she looks like. >> i'm not so sure what you saw, so i was waiting for the patient in the lobby. what was it that you want me to describe? >> you know, awake, good spirits, seemingly, you know, obviously people -- >> she also seemed very frail -- [inaudible] >> okay. all right. so i didn't see the video, but i can tell you that she had a long trip, a trip that was quite tiring. as you can see, we assisted her. she was in a stretcher with a tent over it. it's the kind of thing that is optimum protection for the people in the ambulance, and we had with her one of our intensive care physicians dressed in the appropriate protective equipment which brought her out. when she came out, she went from the plane, and she had to walk off the plane because they wouldn't get her, but when we took her from the ambulance to the room, we had her on a stretcher, and we wheeled her in and put her right in bed. >> i guess i was asking, the video that the texas hospital released last night -- >> right. >> he said, you know, just in her environment. >> right. >> at this stage in her virus, wow is she doing compared to other people -- >> it is impossible to say how she's doing compared to others. this is an individual patient that you treat each individual patient as an individual patient. and that's what we're interested, not how she's doing compared to others. we will take care of this patient. [inaudible conversations] >> you talk about how she's interacting with her caregivers, the doctors, the nurses, is she sitting up? what is she doing? >> she certainly is sitting up. she was examined by dr. davy. we saw her this morning. rick, would you like to just give whatever information you can give without violating any patient confidentiality? >> sure. as dr. fauci said, she's resting comfortably, interactive with the staff, she's eating, and she is able to interact freely and really think she's doing quite well compared to what we were told about her status at the other hospital. >> dr. davy or dr. fauci, can you talk more about specifics like how many people are caring for her and a little bit more why this hospital is such a good place to be treated for this kind of disease given the special training as compared to -- [inaudible] >> i'm not going to compare this hospital with other hospitals, but i can tell you what we have in this hospital. we have intensivists, we have infectious diseases experts who on a daily basis, notwithstanding ebola, take care of the sickest possible patients. we have a specific attention to infectious disease control because the unit of which she is in is a special studies unit. rick davy, myself, dr. happy and dr. gallin are board certified in infectious diseases and in internal medicine. she also has intensive care individuals there and nurses who are highly trained, highly prepared and highly experienced. that makes a difference. [inaudible conversations] >> why did it take so long -- >> wait a second. excuse me. i'll get back to you. >> can you talk about -- [inaudible] and talk about the special equipment the facility may have? >> well, there are two, there are two shifts right now, 12-hour shifts. rick, why don't you give the details of the number. i believe there's four in one, five -- would you? >> right. currently, we have five nurses assigned on a hit -- on a shift, two are in the room with her at any time when there's a nursing necessity for that. on a given can week, we estimate an ill patient of this type may have up to 20 nurses assigned in that week's time. >> doctor, why did it take this long for you guys to get the first ebola patient? in other words, why didn't thomas duncan come to you right away? >> you know, i cannot answer that. we have been prepared. we had a special studies unit which was started in 2011 for the explicit purpose of being able to accept patients who have anything that has to do with either bioterror or emerging infectious diseases. we stood ready to accept patient when we were asked to accept the patient, we accepted the patient. key not answer why -- i cannot answer why. i believe it's pretty obvious the man was sick in dallas, and he went to the emergency room and then to the clinic at texas presbyterian. >> do you believe once he was diagnosed we with ebola he shoud have come to the best possible place right away? >> well, again, you've got to be careful. there are more than one place that can well take care of people with ebola, so i wouldn't say this is the best possible place. i can just tell you this is a very, very good place. >> and right now -- >> dr. a few think? >> anything you may have learned even if it's just in public perception since this ebola crisis unfolded? and when you're dealing with a patient who is herself a nurse, what is her own understanding of the illness that she's experiencing, and is she still currently symptomatic? >> i said she was in fair condition which implies that she does still have some symptoms. she is in good spirits. she's a highly intelligent, aware person who knows exactsly what's going on -- exactly what's going on, and she's a really terrific person. >> dr. fauci -- >> since this whole crisis began that might be -- [inaudible] because of what happened in dallas. >> you know, i don't want to comment, so let me just make it clear on comparing dallas to hear. to here. she's here, we're responsible for her, and that's our job. >> watching this in dallas too, is this recoverable for her? >> when you say "recoverable," in the sense of recovering? absolutely. we fully intend to have this patient walk out of this hospital, and we'll do everything we possibly can to make that happen. >> one of the objectives here to study the virus to see if there has been changes that effect the method of transmission, and can you also speak to the capacity to handle patients like nina pham here in the u.s.? she understands -- we understand there are less than two dozen beds to handle patients like this. >> well, first of all, let me talk about this particular. again, i'm going to, i'm going to restrict my remarks to national institutes of health special clinical studies unit. here this is a research hospital. the primary purpose that we always put is the patient's welfare. associated with that, we do whatever research to teach us more to help other patients. so although she's on a research protocol, our main concern is the health and recovery of nina. >> have you learned anything about the virus which is indicating to you that there has been mutation or changes -- >> right. >> -- that account for the very steep trajectory of the virusesome. >> okay. so i can tell you, again, i'm sorry, she came here 11:54. all of us will be up all night. we haven't learned a lot about the virus yet. we're taking care of the patient. >> dr. fauci, do you expect she'll be getting any experimental drugs, and will there be anything like that at this point as part of her care? >> i think everything is on the table to be able to consider. this will always be done, and we do this at all times with all of our patients, that whenever an experimental drug is given, it's given with the express consent of patient if, in fact, it turns out that way. >> dr. fauci, do you feel like there should be an ebola czar? is. >> that's not a question i want to answer right now. again, i'm sorry, but i want to tell you what we do here. we don't -- this is what we do. >> and at this point is it fair to say you're screening victims and the -- >> there is no specific treatment for the ebola virus, so we are giving her the best possible care on a symptomatic and systemic basis. >> dr. fauci, in the past we've heard that taking blood from the doctors who did survive ebola could be -- [inaudible] could you explain that to us? >> yes. the question is does taking blood from dr. brantley and transfusing it into this patient, could that make a difference? the answer is absolutely, yes, it could make a difference. because dr. brantley has within his plasma antibodies against the ebola virus. it is theoretically and possibly likely, pact create through that -- practically true that that antibody had a role, but we don't know that. i think that's one of the things i want to emphasize about this particular institution. not only do we have the patient's welfare first, but we need to learn things for other patients, so we're going to try it best as we possibly can to learn something. but the theoretical answer to your question, it certainly could have made a difference. >> you talked about there being no treatment for the ebola virus yourself. what does that involve? [inaudible] that sort of thing given fluids and that sort of thing? >> yeah. well, as you know and you've all heard, already a variety of symptoms that have to do with ebola. there's diarrhea, there's vomiting, there's fever, there's rash, and there sometimes is organ system dysfunction. whatever those, we deal with, we take care of it. but there is no specific therapy that has been proven to be effective of against ebola, and that's why excellent medical care is critical. >> has she been able to give her any insight as to how she contracted the virus in terms of any practical moment he might recall? >> we are trying to work that out now because that is part of the issue of kinds of things we might want to learn. right now we just wanted to make her comfortable and take care of her, and when we get further information -- if appropriate -- we'll make it known. >> dr. fauci, did you guys have a role in suggesting to texas health presbyterian that she should come here? were you urging the hospital to release her? >> the answer is, no. we made ourselves available, and we accepted the responsibility. >> a lot of people are wondering she left dallas in good condition, mow yawr saying -- now you're saying she's in fair condition. >> when you get a patient and evaluate them, dr. davy was premarely involved in that, there were things we saw that we ed to make sure we didn't miss anything. you may start seeing a change in the status, so say tuned, we'll give you updates -- >> is that a precautionary move while you're still evaluating her, or has she deteriorated? >> no. again, i want to tell you that she came in, she's stable. when we give a level, it's based on what we see, and we take care of it. it is highly likely that that will change. but she came in in the middle of the night, and for us, that was ground -- starting that point, as soon as she got into the door. >> good can spirits, can you talk about her symptoms right now? fever, anything else? >> she's very fatigued. this is a virus that really wreaks havoc on you. you can come in and be getting better, you can have decrease in diarrhea, decrease in vomiting, but you're still very, very tired. this virus knocks you out. >> would you say at this point, dr. fauci, she's sort of at the other end of virus? >> right. >> in an improvement stage or -- >> we cannot predict that. this is a very unpredictable situation. we never make predictions until we have the patient walking out and talking to you, and you can all ask her that question. we don't do that. yes. >> i know you said you want to stick with the national institutes of health, so let me ask you this, we've learned the president will nominate ron -- [inaudible] to be the ebola czar. as the person here at national institutes of health, do you know him, and what do you think about potentially having someone else now to report to in this whole effort? >> you know, i don't know exactly what is moment by a czar, but we willinly follow the lead of the president and follow the lead of secretary burwell. >> so you don't mind having someone else to report to? >> i take care of patients, and i do my job. other people do their job. >> speculation in the medical community that this could become airborne, so your precautions here, do they include that possibility? >> there is no evidence whatsoever that this virus is airborne transmitted. everything we know about this virus is that it is direct contact with bodily fluids. you know them, we've mentioned them many times; vomit, diarrhea, blood, other body fluids. direct contact. >> while there is no evidence do some of your precautions include that possibility? >> if you look at the protection that we have with papers and -- pappers and everything, it would include that. but we're not doing it for that reason that we think it's respiratory. we don't. we're doing that for complete covering so there is no part of our doctors, nurses or technicians' body that is exposed when they go this and see the patient. we have a very strict system of getting dressed with someone watching you, going in, coming out, getting undressed with someone watching you. we have a limited amount of time when the person can be in the room so that they don't get fatigued. that's what keeps our health care workers safe. >> two more questions. >> dr. davy, can you be more specific about why -- [inaudible] confidentiality, why she's labeled as -- [inaudible] in fair condition at this point? >> well, you have to remember, as dr. fauci said, she's been under our care for less than 12 hours, so we are just taking a very conservative assessment at this point. dr. fauci said the situation changes or if we have more time to evaluate her, that situation may be upgraded. we'll see. >> doctor, is she considered in isolation right now in. >> oh, absolutely. >> if i can ask you this, so if she's in isolation and amber vinson is in isolation, now we hear about this third texas health care worker on a cruise ship near belize that's now been isolated, it seems as though two of the three health care workers that are in isolation took public transportation in the last couple of days, one's on a cruise ship, one was on an airplane. from your perspective, sir, with your decades of experience, for americans who may look at that and be taken aback or seem frustrated that they were allowed to take public transportation, what would you say, and would you have allowed that to happen? >> well, i'm going to tell you something about ebola, and i'm not going to specifically answer your question about who went where on what transportation. if a person is asymptomatic and doesn't have body fluids that someone can come into contact with, that person is not infected. our person is in isolation because she has a confirmed diagnosis of ebola. she's not only in isolation, you don't want to equate isolation of an ebola person and putting someone who has not got ebola that you're observing. those are two different concepts. she is where she is because she is sick, and she needs care. >> [inaudible] how much does it cost to take care of her and what is like -- [inaudible] >> okay. this is a research hospital, and i've been at the microphone, i'm going to give dr. galli, in the chance. everything is free -- john, why don't you explain this. >> so when i said that there's no other hospital like it, we've never billed patient for anything. we will travel them here if they need money, we will house them or their family when they're here for free. and we never send a bill. so this patient will never be charged for anything. [inaudible conversations] >> the public pays $402 million a year to run this hospital through the generous the city of the taxes. generosity of the taxes. and we manage that budget. >> dr. fauci? >> yes. [inaudible conversations] bill: so we have now the latest information on nina pham there at that press conference. large hospital in the world, well enough -- she will stay there until she's well enough and free of the virus, dr. fauci says. this is the video released last night before she was transferred out of dallas to bethesda, maryland. she's resting, she's interactive, fatigued -- dr. fauci said that repeatedly -- after a long trip from dallas. not in good condition, but in fair condition according to the doctors. martha: wish her well. in the meantime, breaking news from the white house as president obama has named ron klain who was a former chief of staff to vice president joe biden, and he will be the new so-called ebola czar. carl cameron joins us with more on the background of mr. klain. >> reporter: for 25 years he has had inside roles in a number of administrations. he was the president's senior adviser here at the white house until recently. he was also the chief of staff of vice president joe biden. mr. klain is a lawyer, he's got -- he's got a practice here in d.c. prior to being in the obama administration, he served in the clinton administration as then-vice president al gore's chief of staff and before that for attorney general janet reno. ron klain is a partisan and a policy wonk. he is known as a real political intellectual. went to harvard and got the highest grades in the class of 1985 and is something of a partisan. so he'll take over not as the czar. he is the -- excuse me, ebola response coordinator. the president got criticized early in his first term for aponting all sorts of czars -- appointing all sorts of czars and delegating, in many minds, too much of the responsibilities of the white house to outsiders. this is one where people on capitol hill were suggesting the president needs more help, and the public's worried the government can't handle the ebola crisis. so ron klain will come in as the ebola response coordinator, not the czar, even though folks like new york senator chuck schumer have congratulated him and said he's just the guy for the job. until this time the president had been relying principally on lisa monaco, one of his aides on counterterrorism here at the white house. mr. klain will answer to her as well as cheryl mills, but he will coordinate all of this national and, indeed, international e ebola response. martha: yeah. well, a lot of response already flying around twitter, folks asking what qualifies him to have this role. clearly, he's well connected in politics, and we'll see where it goes. thanks for the background -- >> reporter: well, martha, it's worth noting that lisa monaco didn't have a lot of health care or health security experience, but he does know how to work the levers in complex issues. martha: thank you very much. more in a moment. we'll be right back. that's why we switched to charmin ultra mega roll. charmin ultra mega roll is 75% more absorbent so you can use less with every go. plus it even lasts longer than the leading thousand sheet brand. charmin ultra mega roll. i'my body doesn't work the way it used to. past my prime? i'm a victim of a slowing metabolism? i don't think so. great grains protein blend. protein from natural ingredients like seeds and nuts. it helps support a healthy metabolism. great grains protein blend. when folks think about wthey think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america. bill: one of the big critical questions if all of this is putting dates together. a week ago nina pham had a fever, right? following day she tested positive for ebola. on sunday the announcement was made publicly she was a patient, she was infected. so on that friday, that is the day the nurse flew from dallas to cleveland. on that sunday is the day the other nurse got on board the cruise ship and went on out to the caribbean. >> martha: we knew there was a problem at that point. bill: real time happening. martha: no clamp down on travel given all the information. "happening now" starts right now. see you monday. jon: on that score, with this fox news alert. president obama finally ready to name a so-called ebola czar, ron klain, former vice-presidential chief of staff. that is "happening now." heather: i'm heather nauert in for jenna lee. fox news learning the president will appoint ron klain as the nation's point person to handle the ebola crisis. klain is a former chief of staff to two vice presidents, al gore and joe biden. political in nature certainly. we'll talk more about tha

The Inaugural Davy Cup: Jamaica College vs Wolmer's at True Blue Weekend

Rural Utopia exhibition showcases artist residencies in rural WA | Farm Weekly

Massive Undersea Water Reservoir Discovered – Could Explain New Zealand's Mysterious Earthquakes

A significant water reservoir discovered beneath the ocean floor near New Zealand may offer insights into the mechanics of slow slip earthquakes and tectonic activity. Researchers have discovered a sea’s worth of water locked within the sediment and rock of a lost volcanic plateau that’s now deep

Stephanie Korney, Author at Jamaicans.com

The Arctic is heating up nearly four times faster than the whole planet, study finds

The Arctic is very sensitive to climate change. In the last 40 years, the region has warmed much more rapidly than the Earth as a whole, a new study finds.

The Arctic is heating up nearly four times faster than the whole planet, study finds - Environment - NPR News

The Arctic is heating up nearly four times faster than the whole planet, study finds

The Arctic is heating up nearly four times faster than the whole planet, study finds

The Arctic is heating up nearly four times faster than the rest of Earth, study finds

The Arctic is very sensitive to climate change. In the last 40 years, the region has warmed much more rapidly than the Earth as a whole, a new study finds.