Against the west. The money lead, theyre coveted by advertisers and they make up an estimated 45 of the nfls fan base. But have the leagues abuse scandals alienated women fans . Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the lead. We begin with the national lead. President obama set to speak in moments from the centers for Disease Control in atlanta where he will reveal u. S. Steps to stop the spread of ebola, the deadly disease that has already killed at least 2,400 people. So how will this plan help stem the outbreak . Joining me now, our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, and cnn white house correspondent, Michelle Kosinski. Michelle, lets start with you. Break down what the president s strategy will be this afternoon . Reporter this is an unprecedented outbreak michelle, president obama is coming out right now. Were going to start. Tom and his team just gave me an update on the Ebola Outbreak in west africa. Our efforts to help mobilize the International Community to fight it and the steps that were taking to keep people here at home safe. Tom and his team are doing outstanding work, between the specialists they have on the ground in west africa and here at headquarters, theyve got hundreds of professionals who are working tirelessly on this issue. This is the Largest International response in the history of the cdc. After this, ill be meeting with some of these men and women including some who recently returned from the front lines of the outbreak. And they represent Public Service at its very best. So i just want them to know how much the American People appreciate them. Many of them are serving far away from home, away from their families. They are doing heroic work and serving in some unbelievably challenging conditions, working through exhaustion day and night. And many have volunteered to go back. So we are very, very proud of them. Their work an our efforts across the government is an example of what happens when america leads in confronting some major global challenges. Faced with this outbreak, the world is looking to us, the United States. And its a responsibility that we embrace. Were prepared to take leadership on this to provide the kinds of capabilities that only america has and to mobilize the world in ways that only america can do. Thats what were doing as we speak. First and foremost, i want the American People to know that our experts here at the cdc and across our government agree that the chances of an Ebola Outbreak here in the United States are extremely low. Weve been taking the necessary precautions, including working with countries in west africa to increase screening at airports so that someone with the virus doesnt get on a plane for the United States. In the unlikely event that someone with ebola does reach our shores, weve taken new measures so that were prepared here at home. Were working to help flight crews identify people who are sick and more labs across our country now have the capacity to quickly test for the virus. Were working with hospitals to make sure that they are prepared and to ensure that our doctors, our nurses and our medical staff are trained, are ready and are able to deal with a possible case safely. And here ive got to commend everybody at Emory University hospital. I just had the opportunity to meet with members of the team here and the nurses who sorry, doctors, having been in hospitals, i know theyre the ones really doing the work. And i had a chance to really thank them for their extraordinary efforts in helping to provide care for the First Americans who recently contracted the disease in africa. The first two of those patients were released last month and continue to improve. And its a reminder for the American People that should any cases appear in the United States, we have world class facilities and professionals ready to respond and we have effective surveillance mechanisms in place. I should mention, by the way, that i had a chance to see dr. Brantly in the oval office this morning. Although he is still having to gain back some weight, he looks great. He looks strong. And we are incredibly grateful to him and his family for the service that he has rendered to people who are a lot less lucky than all of us. As we all know, however, west africa is facing a very different situation. Especially in the hardesthit countries. Liberia, sierra leone and in guinea. Tom and others recently returned from the region and the scenes that they describe are just horrific. More than 2,400 men, women and children are known to have died. And we strongly suspect that the actual death toll is higher than that. Hospitals, clinics and the few Treatment Centers that do exist have been completely overwhelmed. An already very weak Public Health system is near collapse in these countries. Patients are being turned away and people are literally dying in the streets. Heres the hard truth. In west africa, ebola is now an epidemic of the likes that we have not seen before. Its spiraling out of control. It is getting worse. Its spreading faster and exponentially. Today thousands of people in west africa are infected. That number could rapidly grow to tens of thousands. And if the outbreak is not stopped now, we could be looking at hundreds of thousands of people infected with profound political and economic and security implications for all of us. So this is an epidemic that is not just a threat to regional security, its a potential threat to Global Security if these countries break down, if their economies break down, if people panic. That has profound effects on all of us even if we are not directly contracting the disease. And thats why two months ago i directed my team to make this a National Security priority. Were working this across our entire government, which is why today im joined by leaders throughout my administration including from my National Security team. And weve devoted significant resources in support of our strategy with four goals in mind. Number one, to control the outbreak. Number two, to address the ripple effects of local economies and communities to prevent a truly massive humanitarian disaster. Number three, to coordinate a broader global response. And number four, to urgently build up a Public Health system in these countries for the future. Not just in west africa, but in countries that dont have a lot of resources generally. This is a daunting task, but heres what gives us hope. The world knows how to fight this disease. Its not a mystery. We know the science. We know how to prevent it from spreading. We know how to care for those who contract it. We know that if we take the proper steps, we can save lives. But we have to act fast. We cant dawdle on this one. We have to move with force and make sure that we are catching this as best we can given that it has already broken out in ways that we have not seen before. So today im announcing a major increase in our response. At the request of the liberian government, were going to establish a military command center in liberia to support civilian efforts across the region, similar to our response after the haiti earthquake. Its going to be commanded by Major General darryl williams, a commander of our army forces in africa. He just arrived today and is now on the ground in liberia. And our forces are going to bring their expertise in command and control, in logistics, in engineering. And our department of defense is better at that, our Armed Services are better at that than any organization on earth. Were going to create an air bridge to get Health Workers and medical supplies into west africa faster. Were going to establish a staging area in senegal to help distribute personnel and aid on the ground more quickly. We are going to create a new training site to train thousands of Health Workers so they can effectively and safely care for more patients. Personnel from the u. S. Public Health Service will deploy to the new field hospitals that were setting up in liberia. And usaid will join in a community compare campaign to distribute supplies and information kits to hundreds of thousands of families so they can better protect themselves. Were also going to build additional treatment units including new isolation spaces and more than 1,000 beds. And in all our efforts, the safety of our personnel will remain a top priority. Meanwhile, our scientists continue their Urgent Research in the hope of finding new treatments and perhaps vaccines. And today im calling on congress to approve the funding that weve requested so that we can carry on with all these critical efforts. Today the United States is doing even more. But this is a global threat and demands a truly global response. International organizations just have to move faster than they have up until this point. More nations need to contribute experienced personnel, supplies and funding thats needed. And they need to deliver on what they pledge quickly. Charities and individual fla philanthropists have given genero generously. And they can make a big difference. So were not restricting these efforts to governmental organizations. We also need ngos and private philanthropies to maximize the impact of our response. Th next week, ill join u. S. Secretarygeneral ban kimoon to continue mobilizing the International Community around this effort. And then at the white house, were going to bring more nations together to strengthen our Global Health security to help prevent and respond to future outbreaks before they become epidemics. This is actually something that we had announced several months ago at the g7 meeting. We determined that this has to be a top priority. This was before the Ebola Outbreak. We anticipated the fact that in many of these countries with a weak Public Health system, if we dont have more effective surveillance, more effective facilities on the ground and are not helping poor countries in developing their ability to catch these things quickly, that there was at least the potential of seeing these kinds of outbreaks. And sadly we now see that our predictions were correct, it gives more urgency to this effort, a Global Health initiative that we have been pushing internationally. Let me just close by saying this. The scenes that were witnessing in west africa today are absolutely gutwrenching. In one account over the weekend, we read about a family in liberia, the disease had already killed the father. The mother was cradling a sick and listless 5yearold son. Her other son, 10 years old, was dying, too. They finally reached a Treatment Center but they couldnt get in. Said a relative, were just sitting. These men and women and children are just sitting, waiting to die. Right now. And it doesnt have to be this way. The reality is that this epidemic is going to get worse before it gets better. But right now, the world still has an opportunity to save countless lives. Right now, the world has a responsibility to act, to step up and to do more. The United States of america intends to do more. We are going to keep leading in this effort. Were going to do our part and were going to continue to make sure that the world understands the need for them to step alongside us as well in order for us to not just save the lives of families like the one i just discussed but ultimately to make sure that this doesnt have the kinds of spillover effects that become even more difficult to control. So thank you very much to the entire team thats already doing this work. And please know that youve got your president and commander in chief behind you. Thank you. President obama speaking at the centers for Disease Control and prevention in atlanta, georgia, talking about the ebola crisis, trying to tell the American People that he did not think that the chances of an outbreak in the United States were strong but that what is going on in africa, especially western africa, could be dire, talking about potentially hundreds of thousands of africans being infected. Right now, we know 2,400 africans have died from the disease, saying if that were to happen, it could create create, political and economic problems difficult to solve. Lets go to elisabeth cohzabeth Michelle Kosinski to digest all this. The president said the world knows how to fight this disease. Is that true, elizabeth . What Public Health experts tell me is we knew how to fight the earlier Ebola Outbreaks that were in remote and rural areas. You go in, isolate the sick people. You do that cycle over and over again. This is in many ways a different disease. Yes, its the same virus. But it has gotten so out of control, there are so many people who are sick. This Contact Tracing process has broken down in many areas that fighting this disease is very different than the ebola that we knew how to fight in the past. Certainly americans are as he said are up to this challenge. But it is a different disease in many ways than the ones that weve been successful against in the past. Michelle kosinski at the white house, lets talk about exactly what president obama announced he was going to be doing. First of all, there is this command center in liberia that will be headed by the commander of sent. Com, major darryl williams. What else is the president proposing . Reporter you heard him lay it out there. There are many, many components to this new expanded plan. But to put in it broad and practical strokes, supply these countries with what theyre severity lacking right now, money, personnel, training and facilities. These 3,000 military personnel will be based in africa and theyll coordinate not only the u. S. Effort to supply those needed things but the International Aid effort as well. Theyre going to build a hospital. Theyre going to be building Treatment Centers that will supply more than 1,000 beds which are badly needed. Just to add to what elizabeth was saying, we just heard a Senate Subcommittee hearing on this subject. And it was fascinating. They had some updated numbers and they were talking about how u. S. Officials and World Health Officials have been able to contain ebola pretty well in various outbreaks over the last several decades. They were talking about in east africa there was one outbreak that was contained to one single person. So there has been success. Its just that this has been so unprecedented and so big, they were talking about the latest numbers now are just under 5,000 diagnosed cases and about half of those were just reported in the last three weeks, jake. Thats stunning. Michelle kosinski at the white house, Elizabeth Cohen at the cdc in atlanta, thank you so much. We want to continue with this conversation with dr. Alexander van tullikan, former with doctors of the world and the world health organization. Doctor, thank you so much for joining us. Lets talk about why this is such a problem in western africa in particular. I heard from i was reading something in vanity fair, an author who was talking about how the communication breakdowns in the region slowed the International Response that there would all of a sudden be these Health Workers coming into a town and the people didnt trust them, didnt know who they were. Do you think u. S. Troops are a solution to this problem . I think actually the president s plan is really impressive. And i think the u. S. Ordinarily what he laid out is difficult for other countries and other organizations to stomach. But hes right. The u. S. Military is the only organization in the world that can deliver these kinds of resources. But this is a region ravaged by war. And people have a very wellfounded distrust of men in uniform with guns. And its really important this is not perceived as a security crisis in liberia but as a Public Health crisis. On the one hand, yes, the president s plan for a big logistics operation to deliver equipment and supplies is essential. But on the other hand, this is also about education and behavior change. Lets talk about the behavior change. One of the things that i just became aware of that is a problem in this region is that apparently its not uncommon for once somebody has died, for not just an open casket funeral but for people to lay arms on this person who has died. And in that process many individuals are thought to have contracted this disease because it can be it can come from bodily fluids such as sweat. Is that one of the problems . What are some of the other behaviors that need to change . Id say that west africa is such a different region to almost the entire u. S. That its hard to conceive the differences. There is really no functioning Health Care System that can deliver anything the care these people need. There are certain rituals that would expose you to bodily fluids. But literacy rates in sol regions will be close to zero. So you have a population that are hard to educate about things like handwashing, the germ theory of dis