Tom is here and when he is outnumbered on many thoughts on what is happening it ebola. I am with shepherd smith. His video is going viral telling everyone not to worry, it maybe overplayed and too much panic. I am with him. So many questions for americas Top Health Official as we await the start of the hearing. This is how we are learning ho two nurses possibly dbgot infected with the disease. And they are saying two days after the liberian man came to the hospital worked with procedures that changed on the fly and the cdc admitting vincent was allowed to fly across the United States after telling them she had a light fever possibly exposing dozens to the dangers. Angela do you believe we will get muchneeded answers . I am torn on this. It is important to Keep Congress in the loop and they hold the purse strings. There have been a lot of cdc failures. The un came out saying we have 60 days to con ain this. We cannot af two to have or three of thedays spent on a political dog an pony show. My advise because i know you have this on, i want you to make sure you have focused questions to get solution. And freidman better have specific requests so congress can fix whatever is going wrong. This cant turn into a situation where they use the camera for score election points there is no doubt it is going to get fiery and heated good luck. You dont th this will turn into a political standing . The last benghazi hearings didnt. I give credit to trey gowdy. If you start grandstanding, i would tell them im going to come down on all of you when i was in the media people dont have a lot of confidence we are being led through this mess right now. Well they look at what happened in dallas as a prime example of that. The cdc was overseeing the location and when her nurse called into the cdc to see if she should get on a plane and the fact she was treating an ebola patient and who knows if she took something to bring the fever down should have been enough to advise her get o on the plane. I want to mention this, nina pham is going to the National Health center in maryland. She has been speaking through statements to say how she is feeling. They say she is in good conditions. They are moving her, because the chief medical guy in dallas is going to be t the hearing and i would be asked about, the response in dallas and both have been moved. I would love to get your perspective i think i will get political. I think the republicans already are. And the democrats are not . No, because what is their motivation . We have watched ads about how republicans havent funded the cdc and that is why we are in this predicament. That is true. That is false the cdc is up 109 million since 2010. Nih has seen testing cuts. That is absolutely not true. Yes, it is. If that i true, why havent the democrat forked more money . I think they did just ask for more mun even with the money they have today, there is concern about the money they have being spent. I am on team she well as on this. I think it is as a tragedy this happened and we have had a couple cases in the country but i think we are having a lot of hysteria. Should the cdc be held accountable . Yes, but we are not seeing an epidemic or being threatened. I refuse travel restrictions on the people entering the country each month. A month ago obama said ebola reaching our shores is unlikely. Screening and selfreporting in airports have been a demonstrated failure. If the administration continues to advance the failed policy it doesnt make sense especially if pri priorty one is to control the health. They are cutting dies are democracy rather than protecting the health. This shouldnt be presented as an all or none choice. We can make a way to transport whatever goods are needs in africa. We dont have to leave the paths open while ebola is being transferred. The current passenger screening through temperature taking and selfreport is a determined infected traveler can mask the fever with mede or avoid one of the five airports. Let me be clear to all of the federal agencies responding to the outbreak, if resources are needed to st p ebola, tell us in congress because i pledge and the Committee Members pledge to do everything they can to keep it safe. Thank you, mr. Chairman. On monday the director general of the World Health Organization called the Ebola Outbreak quote the most severe, acute Health Emergency unemployi for modern times. The cdc predicts 1. 4 million west african will be affected by ebola and many more will die from treatable illnesses because of the infrastructure falling. This is a moral crisis. Ending the outbreak in africa is the best way to keep ebolau out of the United States. I was alarmed like all of you when Thomas Duncan flew to the united state and even more concerned about him being discharged from the texas hospital after having a fever and then learning two nurses contracted ebola. I know we join in sending thes women and their families their prayers. The Washington Post wrote that the texas ho total had quote learn on the fly how to control the deadly virus and the hospital wasfullye not prepared for ebola. We need to find out why this hospital was unprepared and if others are, too. And we need to make sure the cdc is filling the gaps. We should be concerned about the ebola in the United States and the transmission to two Health Care Workers but we should not panic. We know how to stop Ebola Outbreaks by isolating patients. The United StatesHealth Care System can prevent isolated cases from becoming broader outbreaks. And that is why i am glad this hearing is taking place. It would be an understatement to say the response to first u. S. Based patient with ebola has been mismanaged causing risk to scores of people. I know they will tell us when another pers n shows up at the emergency room with these symptoms. I appreciate andcdc theator custom screenings and they are appropriate. And for those calling to cut off all travel this will not be reasonable to stop anyone with ebola coming into the United States. We dont want to take steps that would put americans in danger by interfering with the efforts in africa. The best way to stop ebola is going to be to stop this virus in africa. Experts from Doctors Without Borders told us a quarantine on travel would have catastrophic affects on w africa. And Francis Collins said if we had funded his agency adequately for over a decade we would have an ebola vaccine. The cuts have hampered the ability to respond to the crisis over the years. Six weeks ago when i asked if the hearing the scope of the problem in africa was coming into the focus. Now the situ ison dire. Let look to end this. With that, i give my time to lewis daily. Our number one priority in combating this disease must be the protection of americans and we have to figure out the best way to do that. My heart goes out to all of those suffering from this horrible epidemic. I am proud o the work done by the american troops, nurses, doctors and others to combat the disease. Congress must come together and put aside partisan differences and stop the outbreak. I look forwahearing to what we are doing to stop the spread of the outbreak. I am concerned the administration didnt act fast enough responding in texas. We need to look at the options available to keep our family safe and move quickly to make changes at the airports. Gentlemens time is expired. We have a lot to do so we will keep going. Okay. Thank you. Now recognize the chairman of the full committee mr. Upton for five minutes. Let me start by thanking our witnesses and all of the republicans and democrats to be here. It is unusual to con vene a hearing in this matter but this capt cant wait. People are scared. We need all hands on deck. We need a st need and we to protect the American People first for foremost. It isnt a drill but the response so far has been unacceptable. As chairman of the committee, we want to tell the witnesses we sport you in any in keeping americans safe but we will hold your feet to one fire getting the job done and getting the job done right. They have failed to put in a strategy fast enough to combat the current outbreak. The cdc admitted more could have been done in texas. Two Health Care Workers have become affected wi ebola even as they suggest protocols are being developed on the fly. And none of us can understand how a nurse ho treated an ebola patient and had a was allowed to fly across the country. We sought de thes for preparedness and Response Plan here at home and it is clear whatever plan was in place was not sufficient but i believe we can and must do better now. We need a plan to treat those who are sick and train Health Care Workers who provide care and stop the disease here at home and in africa. This includes travel restrictions or bans from that region beginning today. S surely we can find other ways to get the countries ttools. We can no longer be reaccount reaccount reaccount reacting to each days situation. America is worried about the troops traveling and how they will be safe t. Isnt just the responsibility of the United States. The Global HealthCommunity Bears the charge to get a head of the threat, develop a strategy, train all of those involved in combating the disease and get rid of the threat. People are scared. It is our responsibility to ensure the government is doing whatever it can to keep the public safe. We are getting together a 21st century Cure Initiative and a lot have been looked into on cancer and diabetes we need the same for the development of treatment for dead leo deadly viruses like ebola. Thank you. I think everybody agrees we must fix this. Americas response is a Public Health crisis and a dire one. We cannot guarantee the safety of our healtworkers on the frontline. It has been known they have the risk in west africa. 56 mortality ra those Health Care Workers who catch this disease. Two nurses have contracted ebola in the United States and we have to learn from the Current Situation in texas and use any information we can gather to better prepare hospitals and protect those on the front line. The Inspector General of Homeland Security issued a report on equipment and anti viral measures and they found they didnt assess a need assessment before purchasing and didnt managstockpile of the equipment and anti viral measures. We have to get this right. I would like to yie ms. O blackburn from tennessee. Thank you. And welcome to your witnesses. Everyone is here to support the men and wome on theng front lines. The screening eagles of the 101st from fort campbell. I will yield back time. I would like to introduce the witnesses no first, mr. Waxman. Thank you. I think we to put all of this in perspective and not panic. Everybody said not panic and then they made statements like we are going to get tough. We are going to do something about it. What do we need to do. We have a problem in africa and this is a serious outbreak that could spiral beyond our control. On tuesday t World Health Organization thatmated soon there could be up to 10,000 ebola cases each week in west africa and t cdc is warning the outbreak could infect as many as 1. 4 million by the end of january. This is a humanitarian crisis in africa. And we have a responsibility to help. If we dont help there, that outbreak is continue to continue and spiral out to other places. Sealing people off in africa isnt going to stop them from travelling. They will go to brussels and then the unistates. We can stop epidemic from spreading in africa and the United States if we isolate the patient and contact contacts of that patient. If we do that, we can stop there and we can stop it here. So in africa we need to know are we moving fast enough, responders have adequate resources, a we affectively coordinateing our efforts. But here people are scared and we should not make them more frightened. We have had three recent cases of ebola in the country. Thomas duncan who entered while harboring ebola and flew through brussels to get her and the two nurses that became ill while caring for m r. Duncan. We should be concern and need to act urgently but we should not panic. We need to learn what we did, the mistakes we made, an not repeat them. We want to find out what happened at the texas hospital and how cdc improve procedures mforward. We should use this as a wakeup call to insure our own adequate safety net. We need to be prepared before the crisis hits not scrambling to respond after the crisis. The ability to Public Health programs and research has declined in the United States. Since 2006, the cdcs budget adjusted for inflation dropped 12 . Funding for the Emergency Health preparedness agreement which provide state and local Health Departments has been cut from 1 billion in the first year of funding in 2002 to 612 million in 2014. They were also subject to the sequestration and those who allowed that to happen by closing the government have to answer to the American People as well. We need to commit Adequate Funding to Public Health infrastructu e and hold the systems accountable for preparedness. Based on what we know it appears that texas health didnt meet those standards but i suggest that several hospitals around the country would struggle with this. We have to solve this problem. I want to acknowledge the Health Care Workers in the United States and those going west africa who are helping during the outbreak. It is a dangerous work they are doing and they are put themselves in danger and deserve our praise. You have our confidence and i appreciate you providing information theow to stop out outbreak in africa and improving the crisis here. I am ending my career thes this year but i have been through so many hearing are people sit and point fingers. We have our fingers to point for cutting the funding. In africa they dont have the budget cuts but we are leaving our severals vulnerable because we cut ours. Dr. Thomas freidman is the director of the cdc. We have the direct of the the cdc. Allergy within the National Institute of health. We have the assistant for the preparedness and response at the cdc. We have the assistant commissioner at the Counter Terrorist food and drug instruction. We have the field operator within Border Protection at the office of homeland. And dr. Daniel varga is here from the texas Health Center joining us on the screen. I will swear in the witnesses. You are aware the committee is holding an investigative hearing and when doing so has the practice of taking testimony under oath. Any objection for taking testimony unoath . No. No. Under the house of the and committee you are entitled to be advised by council. Do any of you advise you would like hat . No. No. Everyone said no. In that case, rise and raise your right hand, do you swear the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth . I do. You are under oath and subject to the penalty set forth in section 18 of the code. Dr. Freidman you are recognized for five minutes. Thank you very much chairman and Ranking Member. I appreciate the opportunity come before you and express the ebola epidemic. I am trained as a physician and i am trained in internal medicine and completed the training and worked in the control of diseases since 1990. Ebola sprout spreads only by direct contact with a patient who is sick from the disease, died from the disease or their body fluids. Ebola isnt new but it is new to the United States. We know how to control ebola even in this period. Even in nigeria we have been able to contain the outbreak. We do it by finding the patients quickly, isolating them, identifying their contact and insuring if any contact becomes ill they are rapid ily identified and put into isolation. There are no short cuts and it isnt easy to control it. To protect the we ed states have to stop it at source. If this could happen, it could be a threat to our health care. Our focus is to work 24 7 to protect americans. In the case of ebola, we do this by a system at multiple levels. In addition to our efforts to control the disease at the source, we h of helped each the affected countries establish exit screening so that every person leaving has their temperature taken. In a two month period of august and september, w identified 74 people are fire. None of them entered the airport or border the plane. As far as we know none of them were diagnosed with ebola. But that was one level of safety. Recently, we have added another level of screening people on arrival to the United States. That identifies anyone with fever here and we work closely with the department of Homeland Security and customs and Border Protection to implement that program and i would be happy to provide further details of it later. We have increased Awareness Among p