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THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER

U.S. Officials Taking More Steps to Contain Ebola Epidemics as U.S. Faces its First Ebola Case; Panel Discuss Containing Ebola in West Africa and U.S.; Protesters In Standoff With Chinese Officials; Fierce Battle With ISIS On Turkish Border

Aired October 1, 2014 - 16:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to THE LEAD.

The world lead -- outside of the medical community, they may play the biggest role in helping to stop the spread of Ebola beyond the borders of West Africa and yet, it seems many airport workers do not have a clue what steps they may be taking to identify possibly infected passengers. In some cases, they're not even screening travelers who admit they've come into contact with someone who has the disease.

CNN aviation correspondent Rene Marsh joins us now with more.

Rene, what about this Dallas patient? Do we know if he was screened or any new information in which airlines he flew?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: So, we know that at that point of him getting on this plane, he did not have any symptoms, so he did not raise any red flags at the airport. As for which airline, well, the CDC has that information and the airline has that information, but the general public -- well, they do not have that information. They're being kept in the dark.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did he mention seeing anyone who was sick, anyone on the plane?

MARSH (voice-over): It's a terrifying plot from the movies, a passenger infected with a deadly disease lands in the U.S. and it spreads. Now, part of that scenario is playing out in real life.

DR. EDWARD GOODMAN, TEXAS HEALTH PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL DALLAS: The federal Centers for Disease Control has confirmed that a patient admitted to this hospital has tested positive for Ebola virus.

MARSH: The passenger left Africa on September 19th and arrived in Dallas on the 20th. The CDC says they alerted the airline but won't publicly reveal which carrier and flight the person was on, since officials say there is zero risk to other passengers.

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, VANDERBILT UNIV. MEDICAL SCHOOL: We have to have contact with the person's bodily fluid -- their blood, their saliva, vomitous, diarrhea. Ebola is communicable, but not easily. You have to do very specific things. So I could have sat next to that person on the plane, no concern.

MARSH: The Liberian government tells CNN the passenger stopped in Brussels, but Brussels Airlines, one of the few carriers that flies to countries with the Ebola outbreak tell CNN they have not been notified the passenger was on their plane. There are no nonstop commercial flights from Brussels to Dallas. That means the infected passenger had to make at least one more stop, but the CDC won't say where. Local governments and Ebola hot spots screen passengers with temperature scanners and look for obvious signs of illness.

THOMAS FRIEDEN, CDC DIRECTOR: We have made sure that every single traveler who leaves that country is tested to see if they have a fever before they get on the plane. If they have a fever they don't get on the plane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Thank you.

MARSH: CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and her crew were checked at the airport as they prepared to leave Liberia and when passengers arrived on U.S. soil, customs and border patrol officers are questioning their whereabouts and visually scanning for symptoms.

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: To bolster that screening effort, the CDC has been involved in training CDP officers who are on the frontlines to this to make sure they understand and that they have been trained on the symptoms of this illness.

SCHAFFNER: Most important thing to do is ask every patient with a fever, have you traveled and if so, where? And if they tell you they've just come from West Africa, put them in isolation immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARSH: Well, U.S. customs flagged the sick passengers arriving in the United States. And the CDC is on hand at most airports where international flights arrive.

Now, at this point, no indication that the U.S. government will stop carriers like United, which does indeed have flights that go to some areas which has seen the Ebola outbreak. No indication they're going to step in and say do not fly there anymore, but we do know that the CDC, they place alerts on their website, so if travelers are going to any of these countries and there is a color-coded system to let you know that there is this potential danger.

TAPPER: Rene Marsh, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Coming up on "The Lead" more on our top story. The CDC has promised to stop Ebola in its tracks. How can the CDC do that with just four or five hospitals equipped to treat patients?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to "THE LEAD." I'm Jake Tapper. More now on our national lead. The first, diagnosed case of Ebola in the United States is raising questions about just how ready we are to deal with the impact of an outbreak. Government health officials continue to assure the public that Ebola is not a major threat in this country and that the medical community is completely prepared for whatever may come. But if that's the case, how was this Texas patient who contracted the disease allowed to leave a hospital despite showing symptoms? Joining me now to talk about this and other parts of this issue, Gavin MacGregor Skinner, he's an assistant professor of public health, preparedness for disasters and terrorists emergencies. At Penn State University, also with us, Jeffrey Stern. He's the author of a fascinating "Vanity Fair" article that explores in great detail how this outbreak begin. Professor McGregor Skinner, let's start with you. You say only four U.S. hospitals are properly prepared and equipped to treat Ebola patients?

First of all, that seems like a very small number and secondly, what makes a hospital prepared and equipped compared to another hospital, say, Texas Health Presbyterian where this patient is.

GAVIN MACGREGOR-SKINNER, ASST. PROFESSOR, PUBLIC HEALTH PREPAREDNESS, PSU: No, there is, Jack, there is four hospitals that have been training for years to develop procedures and processes to contain highly infectious diseases like Ebola. So they have these isolation suites already set up in their hospitals. They've been - they train throughout the year and they know exactly what to do. They have the management, the processes, the implementation in place that if an Ebola patient comes in, just right away they know what to do. Would we want, every hospital in the country to get Ebola patients? No, we don't. We don't want that. What we want, we want networks to be created where in case we want early detection of patients and if we get a patient, you need to know what to do to either get that patient isolated as quickly as possible and into one of these Ebola isolation suites.

TAPPER: And these are NIH, Emory in Atlanta and then Montana and North Dakota, I believe. Do you think that this patient in Texas should go to one of these isolation wings in one of these four hospitals?

MACGREGOR-SKINNER: We've seen two hospitals already have received patients, Ebola patients here in the U.S. And with 100 percent survival rate. So, now we have the staff in place. We know that, for example, we talked to many colleagues that I have in the hospital, say, at Emory in Nebraska and they're telling me, look at what it took, look at the intensity, look at the number of people, over 100 people were required to look after one Ebola patient? They've ironed out all of the problems and they've come up with new solutions, new approaches and they saved that patient. Why put the pressure on a new hospital?

TAPPER: So, Jeff, you traveled to Africa to find the origins of this outbreak. Obviously American hospitals and what the hospitals in medical situation in West Africa are very, very different and we have better, more sanitized hospitals and we don't have the tradition of embracing corpses in this country as you've written about as a problem over there, one of the reasons people contracted that. But can we learn from the West African experience that we can implement here, either mistakes or things that they have done right. JEFFREY STERN, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, VANITY FAIR: I think one of the

really important things that became very clear to me very early on was that in some cases in West Africa, the government kind of lost the population. In other words, the population, many corners of the population were just not convinced that the government health workers and the international community were there to help, were there sort of for their benefit. Part of the reason for that I think is simply the fact that a lot of people hadn't heard of Ebola until it was too late and in fact in many cases hadn't heard of Ebola until there were health workers in these big yellow space suits traveling to the village to take grandma away. So, I think one the things that we need to remember, is that it's very important for the population to feel like they want to cooperate with the government, with their health infrastructure and with the hospitals and not feel compelled. You know, as we begin to talk about - should we be banning flights and this kind of thing. I think we should ask those questions, but be very cautious about implementing things that are trying to compel cooperation rather than incentivize it.

TAPPER: And to get people onboard early on. Professor.

MACGREGOR-SKINNER: Jeff just got a good point there because what we keep hearing in the media is that there's over 3,000 people have died in West Africa. What we don't - what we don't hear that over 3,500 people have survived. So, as we hear - that this health system has collapsed, I totally agree, I've just come back from there, but they are basic - and they need to be congratulated on a job well done. And we are not hearing that.

TAPPER: Well, let me ask you about what he just mention about flights and what we saw in Renee Marsh's report that the going on in West Africa before people get on flights is there and positive. Are you concerned that that kind of screening is not going on the way it should here in the United States for passengers arriving?

MACGREGOR-SKINNER: I'm concerned we're not using all of the tools in the tool box for preparedness. And that's what I teach at Penn State University, that's what I do through the Elizabeth R. Griffin foundation. We teach preparedness in hospitals. So, what we're seeing now is when my team was in Nigeria and we had - we were treating Ebola patients and were coming back, the first thing they said to me, should we tell the truth? When we come back we're telling the truth. As we flew out of Nigeria, I had my temperature taken and I was interviewed twice. As I came through Germany, I had my temperature taken and I was interviewed and questioned were asked. Where have you been? What have you done? When I got back here to Washington, D.C., I said I've been working with Ebola patients, and I was told, welcome back. Isn't that great? Off you go. No one took my temperature and no one asked me any questions. That was my whole team. So, we told the truth, but there was no process, there was no - there was no program here to ensure that we were OK.

TAPPER: Jeff, final thought, what does the United States, what are people watching right now need to know about this horrific disease that you've tracked? STERN: I think what Gavin says is exactly right. People need to know

that. While it doesn't have a specific cure, it is treatable, a lot of people survive when they seek treatment early and get supportive care. Hopefully the case in Texas that will be the case, but it's certainly been the case in Africa with very limited resources. As - tragic as it is, a lot of people have died and a lot of people have also survived.

TAPPER: All right, a good note to keep in mind. Thank you so much. Gavin MacGregor Skinner, Jeffrey Stern, thank you so much. We really appreciate it.

In other world news, student protesters and Chinese officials are both digging in their heels? What needs to happen as far as compromise or chaos? We'll get the latest from the streets of Hong Kong.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. You're looking at live pictures from Hong Kong. It is 4:47 a.m. there. Today is a holiday in Hong Kong, but pro-democracy protesters aren't taking time off.

They're demanding that China give them more say over their elected officials and have now issued an ultimatum to their current, Beijing- approved, chief executive in Hong Kong. China's foreign minister is in Washington, D.C. and he had a warning of his own.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WANG YI, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): I believe for any country and any society no one will allow those illegal acts that violate public order, that's this situation in the United States, and that's the same situation in Hong Kong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: CNN senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson, is in Hong Kong. Ivan, you just heard the Chinese foreign minister talk about events that would create disorder. He's talking about pro- democracy protesters. Where is this all heading?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Nobody seems to really know. I mean, nobody really expected the kind of scenes that have unfolded over the past couple of days. The demonstrators won the moral high ground in many circles here in Hong Kong on Sunday when the police used tear gas and used pepper spray against them when they were unarmed.

And since the police have ceded ground in the center of Hong Kong and you see the encampment behind me in 4:00 a.m. and the people who are still occupying this place, but now we're in tricky territory because the demonstrators and some of the leaders are saying they'll step up their civil disobedience.

They may try to occupy some more government offices and that could put them in confrontation with the security forces again and who knows how the rest of Hong Kong society will react to that. They've stepped up their demands.

They say the top official here in Hong Kong has to step down by today, basically, and of course, the Hong Kong authorities are refusing that. There are no hints at any kinds of negotiations under way so we're still very much at an impasse -- Jake.

TAPPER: And Ivan, it seems as though the Chinese government and their hand-picked rulers of Hong Kong think they can just wait out the protesters and not respond and eventually they'll all go back to class and go back home to their jobs, is that right?

WATSON: Perhaps, yes. A war of attrition, if you like. You just try to wear these mostly young demonstrators down and in the interim they are disrupting daily life to some degree here in Hong Kong and there are people who are voicing frustration at that.

Another interesting tactic here, though, is trying to get word out about what's happening here to Mainland China. This is a holiday. This is a time when many mainland Chinese come to Hong Kong to shop for vacation.

The message, the images of these protests heavily censored in Mainland China so some of these people visiting here are seeing this for the first time and it's something they've never really seen before.

So we've also heard, for example, from Amnesty International that dozens of activists in Mainland China who voiced support for these protests have been rounded up in recent days.

So one interesting thing to follow will be what kind of ripple effect will these pro-democracy protests here in Hong Kong have in the rest of China and we don't know if that message will actually make any impact over there -- Jake.

TAPPER: That's a chilling story. Ivan Watson, thank you so much.

Joining us now from Hong Kong is Yvonne Leung, a spokesperson for the Hong Kong Federation of Students. Thank you so much for joining us. How long can you stay in the streets? How long can these protests go on?

YVONNE LEUNG, SPOKESWOMAN, HK FEDERATION OF STUDENTS: Well, I think it is hard to say as of this moment because sometimes in China democratic movements encounter many hurdles and one of them is no matter how many people are out there on the street they will try their best to suppress instead of hearing the voice of the people.

TAPPER: The Chinese government is doing a lot to censor the news of your protests. They are blocking the news from social media sites. They are not reporting it in state-run media. Are you able to get around the Chinese censors and spread your message?

LEUNG: Of course, there are censors on the Chinese use of network, but I think provided that there are a lot of foreign media who came to Hong Kong for news regarding this movement, I believe that the message could be spread all over the world including Mainland China. TAPPER: Yvonne Leung, thank you so much for joining us. Good luck.

The fiercest round of airstrikes in Iraq yet, but are they working to hold ISIS at bay? We'll go to the front lines to find out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. In other world news, they are adapting and somehow still advancing despite days of coalition airstrikes in Syria closing in on a key border town within sight of Turkey and while it remains unclear whether the bombing campaign has done anything to accomplish the president's goal of degrading and destroying ISIS.

There is a new concerns of the toll that the campaign is taking on innocent people in the area. Innocent people who have already survived years of war from many different angles.

Today another jarring reminder of that civil war as 41 schoolchildren were reportedly killed in twin bombings in the city of Homs controlled by the Syrian government according to the human rights monitors there.

Our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, joins us now -- Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think today in these recent days you're seeing two of the deficiencies of an air campaign.

One is that bombing from the air causes what the military likes to call collateral damage, in another words, bombs kill innocent people sometimes.

And two, without a ground force, air power alone does not quickly alter the balance of power on the ground and so far, as what we're seeing both in Iraq and Syria.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO (voice-over): It is a fight for their lives and their homes. Syrian Kurds battling ISIS militants in the town of Kobani on the Turkish border. U.S. and coalition aircraft unleashed the biggest day of the air campaign so far Tuesday with many strikes targeting here. But today ISIS is holding ground and even advancing.

LT. RICK FRANCONA (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: The fact that ISIS can still move under this American air power is very surprising. It tells me they're very resilient. They're adapting their tactics so they move when they think they can.

SCIUTTO: In Iraq, mortars rain down on Baghdad's green zone today, home of the U.S. embassy, and on the streets of the capital, a devastating series of bombings in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhoods. At least nine people killed, 40 wound following two car bombs and seven mortar attacks. Outside the capital, ISIS militants are testing Baghdad's defenses from several directions. The U.S.-led air campaign adding more French warplanes today is coming under increasing scrutiny with the first reports of civilian casualties.

The Obama administration now acknowledges that the high standard that has applied to drone strikes is a near certainty there will be no civilian casualties does not apply over Syria and Iraq.

Pentagon says it is at times, foregoing targets to minimize civilian deaths. However, former commanders say a broad air campaign is fundamentally different from relatively isolated drone strikes.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: A drone strike is going to be a single piece of munition. It's going to be directed against a target that's been there probably for a while and it's just very different from a fast-moving aircraft.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: And the differences don't end there. Compared to drone strikes, an air campaign has a vastly larger number of targets struck with much greater frequency and speed with jets flying at much higher speeds than drones.

And with the coalition, you have another problem, Jake, that you have a bunch of countries up in the air with different abilities to target and you have to kind of get them all at the same standard is a difficult thing to do.

TAPPER: Jim Sciutto, thank you so much. That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I now turn you over to Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM."