Announcer from nbc news in washington, this is meet the press with david gregory. Good sunday morning. Lets show you a live shot of Emory University hospital in atlanta where dr. Kent brantly is in a special isolation ward this morning. He was flown to the u. S. Yesterday and walked into the hospital of his own accord with the assistance of another medical worker. He arrived on a specially equipped plane after contracting the deadly disease while working in liberia. President obama weighed in on the ebola crisis friday saying the u. S. Is taking the grout break of the disease very seriously. Our chief medical editor dr. Nancy sneiderman has the latest and how the u. S. Government plans to respond. Good morning, david. The cdc is issuing an order for 50 people, disease detectives, if you will, to be deployed to west africa to try to start to get this epidemic, this outbreak of ebola under control. But in the meantime they were also at the epicenter of an extraordinary operation. The required coordination of the state department, cdc, white house, fbi, the doctors and nurses at emory, and even patients on the ground, people on the ground, if you will, to get dr. Brantly safely from liberia to the United States and admitted to the hospital. It was a military operation that took every precaution. While the disease continues to ravage parts of west africa, the death toll now over 700 and climbing, chances of an Ebola Outbreak in the United States are slim, but the government says its ready. Here are the three main reasons why. Number one, government on alert. Only the cdc can confirm ebola cases in the United States, and they have 20 quarantine stations at all major points of entry to the country staffed with medical and Public Health officers. If a traveler is sick on a flight, that person would be flagged by the flight crew, isolated, and passengers and crew may be detained to get medical attention upon landing. If necessary, those with the disease can be denied entry into the United States. Number two, our modern Health Care System. A person cant get ebola without direct contact with bodily fluids of someone who already has the disease. Basic hygiene in our Emergency Rooms should prevent the virus from spreading. Number three, command and control. Hospitals in west africa have almost become amplification centers for the disease, meaning unmodern facilities and lack of medical supplies can increase rather than halt the diseases spread. In the United States the government says there are strong systems in place to find people who are sick, isolate them, and give treatment. Having a command and control center gives experts a place to centralize Decision Making and take quick action. The real issue right now is to prevent any further kidney or liver damage, to limit any bleeding, and that is the best way to save dr. Brantlys life. No news yet on an update from emory. We expect that later today. All right, dr. Nancy, thank you so much for your time this morning. You bet. Earlier i spoke with dr. Tom frieden, director of the centers for Disease Control, and i asked him as nancy was just talking about, about the outlook for dr. Brantly at this point. Well, its encouraging. He seems to be improved from the reports we got earlier. Ebola can be deadly, but in people who are healthy, the case fatality rate may be lower than the ones that were usually quoting because people like this doctor are much healthier going in than many of the people who unfortunately are still getting ebola in africa. Right. And he was working in western africa in liberia. When you look at some of the precautions that are taken, especially outfitted plane for him to be contained, the medical units on site from the airport to his transport to emory and then in a containment unit at emory. Is this an unacceptable risk to bring somebody with ebola back . Well, first off, we have to say that he was coming home, and the organization that sent him to africa made the decision to bring him home. Hes an american citizen, and what our role is in Public Health is to make sure if an american is coming home with an Infectious Disease, we protect others so they dont spread it, and thats what we did in transit and when hes here. The head of the World Health Organization has said in the last couple days the following from dr. Margaret chan. This outbreak is moving faster than our efforts to control it. If the situation continues to deteriorate the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives but also severe socioeconomic disruption and a high risk of spread to other countries. What is the u. S. Government doing to respond to that need, to respond to the potential for its spread . It is a very serious condition, and it is currently out of control in africa with a high risk of spreading further in africa. What were doing now at cdc is surging our response. We are going to put at least 50 health Public Health experts in the three countries in the next 30 days because actually we do know how to stop ebola. Its oldfashioned, plain and simple Public Health. Find the patients, make sure they get treated, find their contacts, track them, educate people, do Infection Control in hospitals. You do those things, but tough do them really well, and ebola goes away. People who are looking at the events of the last couple days who are concerned even of the centers of Disease Control mishandling of biochemicals and other agents and diseases at your own labs have to be wondering about the ability of our Health Care System, of the u. S. Government to be able to prevent a spread here, particularly with those affected workers, two in total, who will be back in the United States. What can you say to deal with that concern . I certainly understand that concern. At cdc we had lapses in our laboratories. Fortunately, no one was hurt and nothing was released into the laboratory or environment. However or out of the laboratory and into the environment. But what is so important is if there are patients with possible ebola or confirmed ebola in honts, that doctors and the entire Health Care Team are super careful. They have protocols in place and make sure that every one of those protocols is followed because ebola is really a formidable enemy, and your plan and your execution has to be meticulous to avoid its spread. If you dont do that, you can have spread to workers in the Health Care System or family members. That can happen. You can have some secondary cases if youre not really, really careful. All right. Dr. Frieden, we will certainly send our best wishes to dr. Kent brantly and monitor his progress. Thanks so much for your time this morning. Thank you very much. Im joined by dr. Toby cosgrove, chief executive officer and president of the renowned cleveland clinic, and dr. Cosgrove, great to have you here. I wanted to get some additional perspective from the private sector, from the hospital sector in the United States. First of all, take me inside what this containment unit is like when you have a dr. Brantly, how hes protected, how the workers are protected, how other patients and then the wider public are protected as a result of these efforts. We have to understand how disease spreads and different diseases spread differently. This disease is spread by direct contact or body fluid contact, and so inside these containment areas theres negative pressure, so any air going would go into rather than coming out of that facility, and they are protected the workers are protected by complete covering of their face and all of their body and they are isolated, and so this is much like any other Infectious Disease that we deal with. Interestingly, this is not as highly contagious as many other diseases. For example, more people die in the United States right now from influenza, and that requires hand washing and isolation to prevent that. So we must remember that we are in a global world right, but is it irrational to say, my goodness, these wonderful people helping to stop the spread of iebola in western africa, theyre americans but they shouldnt be allowed to come back to the United States because the risk is too high. You have to understand weve gone to a globalized world now and diseases are globalized as well. Just because its in africa doesnt mean it doesnt affect the entire world. With transportation, this is something we must learn to deal with, and i think the cdc has done a wonderful job being able to isolate these patients, having center that is look for people coming into the United States with disease. I think theyve done a super job. Theres a lot of people who think about a visit to the hospital, which is unpleasant, and they worry about getting sicker than what they came in for being at the hospital. When you have the introduction of a virus like this, is that a compounded fear and is it real . I dont think the fear is real, first of all, because we understand we have the disease, we isolate it, we take tremendous precautions with it, and i dont think that that represents an additional risk. The infection that is occur in the hospital are generally important in terms of people not washing their hands and spreading diseases bacterial diseases that way, not so much diseases doctor viral diseases like this. No known cure for the ebola virus. What do you look for then for dr. Brantly and others who have contracted this disease and who are being cared for now . Were looking for supportive care. You may have renal function failure. You may have failure of liver. You may have respiratory failure. All these could be supportive and thats the real care that these patients get. Better in the United States than anyplace else in the world. As dr. Frieden was saying, younger, healthier, better chance of survival, that dr. Brantley was walking of his own volition is good sign to you as well . I think its a terrific sign. As you know, the incubation period is somewhere between 8 and 21 days, and people spread the disease most when theyre sick, which is a good thing, and it looks to me like he is now either in the recovery phase or has been able to handle it. If you had been over in the area, if you were in western africa in an outbreak area, when would you show symptoms . Somewhere in the 8 to 21day period, and people are coming back to the United States are having their temperature measured every day and quarantined until that 21 days is passed. Before i let you go, theres a Real Health Threat in your neck of the words, in cleveland and toledo, this algae bloom in lake erie making the Drinking Water there toxic. How concerned are you about cleveland . What are they doing to fix this . Well, were concerned about the water supply across lake erie and across the great lakes, in fact, and the runoff from fertilizers from the farms has caused the algae to bloom in the lakes, and that has gotten worse and worse each year as weve gone along, and its now reached critical proportions in the western portion of lake erie and obviously cleveland is right down the lake from that and were concerned as well. All right, dr. Cosgrove, always great to have you here on the program. Thanks so much for your time. Were going to take a break, come back and talk about the big news overseas. The brutal fight between israel and hamas. No end in sight as president obama defends the efforts of his secretary of state john kerry. We shouldnt be a bunch of complaints and second guessing about, well, it hasnt happened yet or nitpicking before hes had a chance to complete his efforts. The question is morning s there any hope of a negotiated solution to the crisis . I will ask diplomats from opposing sides of this conflict coming up next. Announcer meet the press is brought to you by boeing, where the drive to build Something Better inspires us every day. Friday night has alws been all fun and games, here at the harrison household. But one dark, stormy evening. She needed a good meal and a good family. So we gave her purina cat chow complete. Its great because it has the four cornerstones of nutrition. Everything a cat needs for the first step to a healthy, happy life. Purina cat chow complete. Share your rescue story and join us in building better lives. One rescue at a time. In the nation, the safest feature in your car is you. Add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance and get 100 off for every year of safe driving. Which for you, shouldnt be a problem. Just another way we put members first, because we dont have shareholders. Join the nation. Nationwide is on your side. Female announcer youreduring sleep trains triple choice sale. For a limited time, you can choose to save hundreds on beautyrest and posturepedic mattress sets. Or choose 300 in free gifts with sleep trains most popular tempurpedic mattresses. You can even choose 48 months interestfree financing on the new tempurchoice, with headtotoe customization. The triple choice sale ends soon at sleep train. Sleep train your ticket to a better nights sleep were back with a discussion were back with a discussion about the war in the middle east. The conflict between israel and hamas in gaza with diplomatic and cease fire efforts so far unsuccessful. Can a solution be found anytime soon . More israeli shelling killed at least 30 people today. The death toll in gaza now stands at more than 1,700 people. Israel is with drawing and redeploying some troops but Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu says he will keep up the pressure on hamas even after destroying the hamas network of tunnels into israel. Im joined by the permanent observer of palestine to the United Nations, riyad mansour. Ambassador, welcome. Good to have you here. Faw fthank you for having me. On that point on the redeployment and withdrawing of israeli troops, do you see an opening to get to a more durable cease fire . We open the israeli army would withdraw completely from the gaza strip. We have a tragic humanitarian situation in gaza in which as you have indicated more than 1,700 palestinians, most of them civilians, 80 or more, and more than 9,000 have been injured. 80 of them according to u. N. Statistics have been injured. What we need now is to stop this fighting, to address the tragic humanitarian situation in the gaza strip let me stop you on that point. Your anger at israel certainly understandable. The loss of civilians horrific. There is agreement about that. Im wondering though whether youre outraged by the conduct of hamas, starting the conflict by firing rockets, building tunnels to kill and kidnap israeli, being willing to sacrifice palestinian lives by embedding them in their own kind of arsenal and using them as shields. Do you have a level of outrage at hamas. This concept of using Palestinian Civilians as human she would is not right, it is not correct, it is not even, you know, moral. Instead of asking me why dont you bring on the show and let the american public, including the congress, to listen to third parties. For example, Doctors Without Borders hold on one second. Hold on. My question stands old on, sir. Im asking whether youre outraged at the conduct of hamas . I am outraged they fired rockets, they built tunnels for killing and kidnapping israelis, and they do exploit Palestinian Civilians when they know theyre going to be in danger from where theyre firing the rockets and so forth. Do you have any outraged toward hamas . I am outraged at the killing of innocent civilians from any party of any side. Another school of the United Nations was hit. At least ten civilians were killed and possibly 100 injured. These things need to be stopped. And my president , president abbas, is doing more than that. He dispatched yesterday a delegation composed of all palestinian political groups to begin the negotiation with israel through the egyptians to have this cease fire extended more than three days, to have a sustainable cease fire, and to begin the discussion on the root causes but ambassador, im trying we are waiting for the israeli side to come to fair enough, fair enough. And indeed, the reason im pressing this point is not to challenge you about the how horrific the loss of civilians are. As a more moderate palestinian political figure, which is what you are, representing the Palestinian Authority, which there is certainly no love lost between the Palestinian Authority and hamas, im wondering what level of culpability you believe that hamas has for the advancement of the palestinian people, not just in this conflict but more generally . I believe that if we allow for peace to take place, negotiation to take place under the leadership of president Mahmoud Abbas, who is bringing all political elements in the palestinian side, including hamas under his wing in the National Consensus government, if we empower this government, we will be able to move gradually from the situation of confrontation and fighting into the situation of lifting this tragedy and blockade against our people in gaza, giving the people there a hope. 50 of the population in gaza are under 18. If you put them in a continuous situation of fighting and resentment and hate, this is an excellent atmosphere for radicalism, but if you give them hope, you open the borders, you let them go to schools, let them look for good jobs, let them look for moderation, then we will succeed in allowing all of those who want to have peace