to how they may have become infected? thank you. >> director frieden, i'll turn that to you. >> thank you. it has been stated publicly that the first patient is a nurse. i will just say that the second patient as well as the first had extensive contact with the patient when they were having substantial amounts of both vomiting and diarrhea. the assessment of the team is that in those first several days in the hospital, a variety of forms of personal protective equipment were used. there are several ways to use personal protective equipment safely. it's critical that that be done consistently and correctly. and that's one of the areas of active investigation. >> our next question is from fox

news. your line is open. >> thank you for taking the call. i'm curious if you can go into some more detail, how this nurse was able to get on an aircraft and not being monitored or quarantined if she had been in contact with the patient, the index patient, thomas duncan, in texas? >> director frieden, do you want to speak to that? >> the patient traveled to ohio before it was known that the first health care worker was ill. at that point, that patient, as well as the rest of the health care team, were undergoing self-monitoring, as the first health care did, resulting in her rapid isolation.

the second health care worker reported no symptoms and no fever. however, because at that point she was in a group of individuals known to have exposure to ebola, she should not have traveled on a commercial airline. the cdc guidance in this setting outlines the need for what is called controlled movement. that can include a charter plane, that can include a car. but it does not include public transport. we will from this moment forward ensure that no other individual who's being monitored for exposure undergoes travel in any way other than controlled movement. >> next question, holly? >> thank you. comes from arthur delaney with "huffington post." your line is open.

>> thanks for doing the call. national nurses united said yesterday they talked to nurses at the hospital and that they don't think any protocols are really in place or are being followed there or anywhere. and i wondered if cdc would respond to that more directly than it has. >> we are working closely with the hospital. we have staff there around the clock. there are intensive efforts under way to train, retrain and supervise staff. the single most important way to get consistency is a site manager. and we have now ensured that 24/7, there will be a site manager who will monitor how personal protective equipment is put on, taken off and what's

done when people are in it. >> i would just add two things, one is that we have two nurses from emory who have gone to dallas who are experts in the treatment and they are doing training with regard to helping the nurses. the second thing is we hear and understand what the nurses' concerns are. and we are doing a lot of communication. the call that i mentioned at the beginning with clinicians, we'll be doing another call from our assistant secretary for preparedness and dr. mary wakefield, the nurse herself a senior leadership member here at h.h.s. in addition, i would say one of the things that's so important is front-line health care workers, whether it's those health care workers that are in the emergency room or those that are doing intake, what is so important at that first line is for everyone to know that the point at which they see a fever, ask a travel history.

i'm mentioning it here in this call and in this conversation because we want to use every means we can by which we communicate to help address some of the educational issues that have been raised. >> next question, holly? >> thank you. that comes from julie ste steenhighsen with reuters. your line is open. >> thanks for this call. i'm trying to understand what kinds of -- sounds like the p.p.e. worn by these two health care workers was not necessarily the same kind. but what were they actually wearing? there have been some reports that their necks were exposed, for example. were they wearing full bodysuits or just wearing gowns and gloves, single gloves or double gloves? these questions are being looked at by a lot of other hospitals who are trying to decide how to protect their own staff. so it's important to know exactly what they were wearing

and what people can do. >> when we've reviewed the records for the first several days of the patient's stay before he was diagnosed, we see a lot of variability in the use of personal protective equipment. and when our team arrived the same day the patient was diagnosed, we noted, for example, that some health care workers were putting on three or four layers of protective equipment in the belief that this would be more protective. but other things were done, such as taping parts of their protective gear, again, in the belief that this would be more protective. and we certainly understand the fear and the anxiety that's normal and understandable, these are good, dedicated people who worried about themselves and their families. and they were trying to protect

themselves better. but in fact by putting on more layers of gloves or other protective clothing, it becomes much harder to put them on, becomes much harder to take them off. and the risk of contamination during the process of taking these gloves off gets much higher. that's true for several different areas of the body. i think more broadly, if i could comment, i know the issue of p.p.e. has gotten a lot of focus. there are several right ways to do it. what we have always emphasized is that health care workers who are using familiar p.p.e. in familiar ways are more likely to do it right. so we're looking at this. we're working with the hospital and we will absolutely look at what are the ways to provide the maximum possible support to health care workers and allow

them to do their jobs by minimizing their risk of contamination. i don't know if secretary burwell would like to add anything? >> no, no, tom. >> next question? >> that comes from "the bloomberg news." your line is open. >> thank you for taking my question. first of all, i was wondering which patient was going to be transferred from emory and whether it was just one. and also, are there any other people who are health care workers who are among these that are currently being tested or currently being isolated or at the hospital with ebola symptoms? >> director frieden, would you like to answer that? >> the second health care worker is the individual who is being transferred from dallas to emory. and we continue to assess anyone who has symptoms.

we encourage people to come forward at the slightest concern. we are not currently -- we have not currently identified anyone who we feel fits the blood test to see if they have ebola. we are continuing to monitor closely. and as with many parts of this investigation and this response, this can change from minute to minute and hour to hour. >> next question, holly? >> thank you. that comes from betsy mckay with "the wall street journal." your line is open. >> thanks very much. just a couple of quick questions. did you say the first patient will be transferred elsewhere and if so, could you give us a little more detail on that? and secondly, i wanted to go back to the movement of the health care workers. dr. frieden, you said you'll ensure none of the others who are being monitored will be able to travel. what powers are in place for that to happen and what exactly

are the rules and the legal authority right now to prevent them from going anywhere or leaving home or whatever the level of quarantine is? >> with regard to the first patient, the report from the hospital is that she is in improved condition today. we will assess each hour each day whether that's the best place for her or somewhere else might be. in terms of controlled movement, that's something that we work out with the state and local public health authorities. >> next question, holly? >> that comes from janet st. james with wfaa tv dallas, your line is open. janet, please check your mute button. your line is open. >> holly, let's go to the next question. >> thank you, one moment.

>> holly, next question. >> yes, thank you, i apologize. one moment. >> holly, do we have questions coming? >> yes, we do, sir. just one moment. i apologize. >> we're going to continue to monitor what's going on at this news conference. only audio-only with dr. thomas frieden, the director for the centers for disease control and prevention.

sylvia burwell, the secretary of health and human resources. i want to bring in our chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta. for our viewers, update us on what we've just learned. it's pretty dramatic stuff. >> it is. we know that a second patient has been diagnosed with ebola, another health care worker, at the same hospital. the person who had extensive contact as it was described with mr. duncan. you remember he was the first patient to be diagnosed with ebola. so this is a nurse, sounds like, that was infected and it sounds like is ill. doing okay but pretty ill. and remember she was just diagnosed over the last several hours. so it sounds like she has progressed a bit over the last several hours. i think what is most salient here is that she is going to be transferred, it sounds like, to the emory university hospital in atlanta. this is something that has come up back and forth. you remember dr. frieden has

said hospitals anywhere in the country should be able to take care of these patients. this patient, second patient now diagnosed is going to go to emory university hospital. the first nurse is still in the hospital in dallas is going to stay there for the time being. they say she's doing better and she's going to stay there. but the second patient, again, just diagnosed over the last several hours, apparently is ill and they have made that decision to transfer her. so that's a pretty big decision, wolf. again, they sort of intimated a week ago that this sort of thing would not be happening. but it is changing now. the protocols and the procedures and the plans, wolf. >> is it a vote of no confidence? should we see this as a vote of no confidence in the dallas hospital that they might not necessarily be up to the task? >> what's striking to me is -- keep in mind, there is no specific treatment for a patient with ebola. there's not some sort of magic wand that emory is going to have to say, oh, we got this potion over here that we can help with regard to ebola.

so i don't sense that it's a treatment issue as much. you can give blood transfusions, you can even give the experimental medications if they're available. what is so striking to me is the no confidence seems to be that if a patient is ill with ebola, we're not entirely sure we can protect other health care workers in that hospital. and that is striking to me, wolf. they've done such a good job, for example, the doctors without borders in very remote areas in africa. yet at texas presbyterian hospital, a very good hospital, a hospital with a long track record of success in so many areas, what you seem to hear from this press conference is they're seeing, we're not sure they can keep their health care workers safe if they have a patient with ebola. and that is highly disappointing for a lot of people, wolf. >> and now these two nurses contracted ebola from mr. duncan who passed away last week and what is very frightful, sanjay, give us some perspective. you heard dr. frieden, head of the cdc, suggest there may be more on the way. >> well, the fact that these two

health care workers were sort of an passive surveillance, they had exposures but were sort of told to monitor their temperature and then it was only after the first nurse got sick that they went back and said, wait a second, maybe we should be a little more vigilant about these other people, it speaks to that point. are these other people more at risk? what exactly caused the infection? and if we don't know the answer to what exactly caused the infection, how do we know these other health care workers aren't at risk? he also talked about the fact, wolf, that the second health care worker, her name is amber vinson, got on this plane, flew to cleveland. three days later flew back to dallas. and that very act seemed to violate cdc protocol. cdc recommends only what is known as controlled movement after someone has had an exposure to ebola. they can get in a car they could be on a charter plane but no commercial flights. this was a violation. and that's a huge problem.

misstep after misstep after misstep, wolf. >> certainly sounds like that. sanjay, i want you to stand by. i want to go back to dr. frieden, the news conference. i want to pick up the q & a. unfortunately i think we've got a problem listening to that news conference. we'll monitor it. elizabeth cohen, our senior medical correspondent is with us. we know nina pham, the first nurse, seems to be doing better. the second person that contracted ebola from the first patient who died, the man from liberia, she's going to be transported, airlifted to emory medical university in atlanta. was she endangered as a result

of the same kind of treatment she provided mr. duncan that the first nurse, nina pham, provided? >> reporter: it certainly sounds that way, wolf. what we heard is that both of these nurses, nina pham and amber vinson, gave care around the september 28th to 30th time period. and to not be too graphic, we were told by dr. frieden that this was a time when mr. duncan was putting out copious amounts of bodily fluid. that's the danger. ebola patients have lots of bodily fluids coming out of them, it splatters on those garments. sanjay has shown us so explicitly. taking off soiled garments is really hard without contaminating yourself. as far as her being moved to emory, it's an interesting question who instigated that move. did amber vinson or her family say, we would like her to go to emory? or perhaps did a state or local or federal official say to this hospital, enough is enough, we think you ought to move her? or did the hospital itself say,

we think she'd be better off elsewhere? i'd be curious to know who instigated this move. >> all five patients treated at emory university hospital in atlanta, all have recovered. they have recovered. and unfortunately we have a problem that we're seeing at the hospital in dallas. right, elizabeth? >> reporter: that's right. there were five patients who were seen between nebraska and emory. together those two hospitals treated five patients. they had no deaths and significantly no health care workers got sick. one patient is treated here. two health care workers sick. doctors without borders, sanjay was saying what an incredible job they've done. they have treated more than 2,000 ebola patients and two of their health care workers got sick. 2,000 patients, two health care workers got sick. this hospital treats one patient and two health care workers get sick. >> stand by, elizabeth. sanjay is standing by.

gloria borger, our chief political analyst, is with me as well. the president of the united states, president obama, now taking dramatic action to underscore that he appreciates how significant this crisis is in the united states. >> he's not going on a campaign trip that he was going to go to in new england. instead, at 3:00 this afternoon, he's going to have a cabinet meeting to coordinate the government response among agencies. obviously this is a president who's concerned that he needs to look like he is in charge and doing something about this. if you look at the polling that we've seen just today in "the washington post" by a 2-to-1 margin, people believe we should do more. i think people at the white house are looking at the optics of whether they should go on a campaign event when there is an anxious public about this new

diagnosis. and obviously this has become unfortunately an issue in the midterm elections. >> when you say a campaign event, you really mean fund-raising for candidates who are up for election. >> fund-raising in connecticut and new jersey. this has really moved into the realm of the midterm elections. i say unfortunately. democrats are saying they want to blame the republicans on this because the problem here is a result of across-the-board budget cuts which by the way people in both parties allowed to occur. and republicans are using this as a measure of the president's competency. they're saying, you need to stop these flights in from these three countries in africa. and they're trying to sort of broaden this as an issue of, is the president competent, is he really in charge? and so unfortunately it's playing out in the midterms and the president will -- you'll be seeing pictures of the president today with his cabinet to talk about emergency preparedness. >> cabinet agencies coordinating this ebola crisis.

gloria, stand by. sanjay, elizabeth cohen, i want everyone to stand by. we'll continue the breaking news coverage. a second patient, another nurse in dallas, now contracting ebola. she's about to be airlifted to emory university hospital in atlanta. much more of the breaking news right after this. an unprecedented program arting busithat partners businesses with universities across the state. for better access to talent, cutting edge research, and state of the art facilities. and you pay no taxes for ten years. from biotech in brooklyn, to next gen energy in binghamton, to manufacturing in buffalo... startup-ny has new businesses popping up across the state. see how startup-ny can help your business grow at startup.ny.gov i was out for a bike ride. i didn't think i'd have a heart 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.

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second nurse at the dallas hospital where the liberian man, thomas eric duncan, passed away last week from ebola, second nurse now has contracted the disease. her name is amber vinson. nina pham, the first nurse, she's being treated at that hospital. but amber vinson will be airlifted to the emory university hospital in atlanta, georgia.

i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. once again, we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. let's get some analysis now. joining us from capitol hill, republican congressman michael burgess of texas. congressman, your district just a few miles from the texas health presbyterian hospital in dallas there where this second health care worker has tested positive for ebola. we know you're a physician yourself. you actually worked at that hospital at one point. what do you make of this development that they're going to airlift the second nurse to emory? because it sounds to me like maybe they don't have confidence that she could get the proper treatment in dallas, a hospital you're very familiar with. >> well, i think we actually talked about this yesterday. and i am in favor of hospitals that have particular expertise, and there are four of them in the country, i am in favor of those being the sites where the care for both patients with ebola, where that care is

delivered. to be sure, every hospital needs to be able to provide the diagnosis and the protection for staff and personnel and the patient. but once that diagnosis is returned, i think serious consideration should be given, apparently just as it was today, to moving that patient to a center. if someone is involved in scientific research and they want to study ebola, they can't do that at southern methodist university. they have to go to one of the intense bio level 4 labs like they have down in galveston. there are certain places in the country where you can work with the ebola virus. but other labs are off limits. the reason for that is, if this thing gets away from you, it is so extremely dangerous. now, the protective equipment they have in those bio level 4 labs is extremely intense. some of the graphics i've seen of the personal protective equipment being utilized by the personnel and nursing staff at presbyterian, yeah, in retrospect, it's not a surprise there's been a problem.

but reality, wolf, the president went to emory -- i'm sorry, went to cdc and said, ebola is not in the united states but if it comes, we will be ready. but the fact of the matter is, they weren't. i will tell you, i was very disappointed yesterday afternoon to hear the cdc say, we've got our first team, our first ebola team going to dallas. where were they a week ago? where were they two weeks ago? this is serious stuff. and you can't be dismissive. you can't treat it as business as usual. >> what worries me, congressman, is that this hospital in dallas is an excellent hospital. has a world-class reputation. if they can have blunders like these at this hospital, you can only imagine, god forbid, what could happen at a whole bunch of other hospitals all over the united states if someone walks into the emergency room and they have ebola. that's a pretty frightful thought. >> it is. and would any community hospital be any better prepared than what presbyterian was on the 26th of september?

i suspect the answer to that is there are many that would even fall short of where presbyterian was. but here's the thing. the cdc told us from september 5th on that they had done the notification, they had done the -- they had provided the materials to hospitals around the country so people would be ready. but clearly that was not operational. and just as we talked about yesterday, okay, we are having a real problem with this now in dallas, texas. but what we just put the pause on allowing people to come into this country from western africa even for a few weeks to allow the systems here to catch up. i think that would be a wise use of time. >> congressman, thank you very much, congressman michael burgess, republican of texas, joining us. we'll continue our conversations. i want to get back to this story. a huge crisis involving ebola. but there's breaking news involving the stock market. the dow jones, take a look at this. it's down 453 points right now.

alison kosik is joining us from new york. alison, it's down about 1,000 points in the last week alone. what's going on? >> reporter: well, one analyst puts it to me this way. he says, there is this nervous cloud that really is hanging over wall street at this point. another trader telling me, this is a rebooting of stocks, responding to what they're seeing and what they're seeing right now is not great. there are a few things going on here. for one, the data that comes out that describes how the health of the u.s. economy is, that data is mediocre. here's the example. retail sales coming out today down for september. this happening on the cusp of the holiday shopping season, showing consumers are already pulling back. this coupled with the slowdown in economies in the eurozone, with countries especially germany which is really the driver of growth supposedly in the eurozone. germany fighting off a third recession in six years. i'm talking about the eurozone

fighting off a third recession in four years. and there are worries about deflation in this country in the u.s. after we got inflation report that disappointed. taken individually, these reports may not seem like much of a concern, but you roll them all together and they become this snowball effect. then you take a step back and you look at the big picture and you have investors looking at this picture and saying, you know what, maybe those record highs that we've all been talking about for so long weren't justified considering how the economies are doing in the eurozone and how the economy in this country is doing. also keep in mind, it's been since 2011 that we've seen stocks, the market, go into correction. we're getting dangerously close to that. the s&p 500, the broadest measure of the market, only about 13 points away from correction. wolf? >> gone up to 17,000, the dow jones industrial average, right now 15,877. although, some perspective during the recession in 2008, it was down at around 7,000. so people have made money over

these years. but obviously something's going on right now. down about 1,000 points over the last few days, 435 points on this day alone. alison, stand by. up next, we'll get back to the breaking news, the latest patient to be diagnosed with ebola just traveled by plane from cleveland to dallas. much more of the continuing coverage right after this. big day? ah, the usual. moved some new cars. hauled a bunch of steel. kept the supermarket shelves stocked. made sure everyone got their latest gadgets. what's up for the next shift? ah, nothing much. just keeping the lights on. (laugh) nice. doing the big things that move an economy. see you tomorrow, mac. see you tomorrow, sam. just another day at norfolk southern.

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welcome back. i'm wolf blitzer reporting from washington. around the world, various safety measures are being put into effect to try to reduce the risk of ebola. earlier this year, british airways suspended flights to and from liberia and sierra leone

until march of next year, on the recommendation of the french government, air france has temporarily halted flights to sierra leone and airport screenings are now in effect at five major u.s. airports as well as airports and trains in the uk. richard quest is joining us right now, as is dr. sanjay gupta, our chief medical correspondent. richard, how effective is all of this? >> not very effective at all for a variety of things that sanjay is much more qualified to talk about. you don't know at various points where the person is symptomatic. you don't know at what point they are able to be infectious and contagious. and as we're seeing just today with frontier flight 1143 with the nurse that flew on that flight, now you've shown no symptoms but all of a sudden everybody's looking for 132 passengers who took that flight.

now, you multiply this many times by the number of passengers who have come from africa and then you start doing things like the laser temperatures and you start worrying about passengers on different passports and where they started their journey and finally, wolf, those passengers who have taken ibuprofen or medication to bring down any fevers. and, of course, it becomes an absolute nightmare. it's not practical. but it makes people feel perhaps more secure. >> sanjay, i want to put that map back up because this second nurse, amber vinson, after treating mr. duncan, the liberian man who came down with ebola and died in dallas, after treating him together with nina pham, the first nurse who contracted ebola from mr. duncan, she left -- she took a flight to cleveland. you can see on october 10th. frontier airlines, flight 1142. spent a few days in cleveland. and then flew back to dallas on

october 13th, even though she'd been with mr. duncan, apparently treating him. give us your perspective on this. it sounds pretty risky to me. >> it should not have happened, wolf. very clear now that should not have happened. it was another misstep. let me make one thing clear. the cdc offers up guidelines, recommendations, regarding how to care for people who have come in contact with ebola. but these aren't mandates. these aren't laws. they're recommendations. one of the things they talk about is something known as controlled movement. while someone who has come in contact with ebola is not necessarily quarantined, again, unless they're sick, they're not going to be a risk to the general public, while they're not quarantined, they are told they can only have controlled movement. if they're going to fly, it must be a chartered plane. if they can get in a car and drive. but commercial air flights, those are off the table. and yet it still happened here twice. so it wasn't supposed to happen.

and you can imagine now, wolf, the passengers on that plane, essentially seeing these notices on your program and told to call the cdc. you can understand. if you were on that flight, anybody on that flight, that would -- you'd be worried about that. i think the risk of any of them being sick, any of them having ebola is minimal to none. but you can understand the sort of concern this starts to cause. >> she would only be contagious if she were showing symptoms, if she had a fever or were vomiting, anything along those lines. and presumably when she at least flew to cleveland, she was all right? >> that's what we're hearing. we don't know that she had symptoms on those flights. but some of that's her own personal record. was she taking her temperature? did she have even a low-grade fever before she got on any of the flights? with the low-grade fever, still, i think she'd have a very low chance of being infectious. but part of this is, you have to take people at their word as well in this situation. she shouldn't have been on those

flights. maybe not her fault because maybe she wasn't told that. but those guidelines, as dr. frieden pointed out, are pretty clearly spelled out. >> certainly are. pretty frightening when you think about it. richard, thank you. sanjay, don't go too far away. richard, if you can stand by as well. president obama is scrapping his schedule, supposed to go up to new england to do some fund-raising. but he's staying in washington. he's about to hold a cabinet level meeting on this ebola crisis. meanwhile, congress is also taking action to try to prevent a significant outbreak in the united states. we'll update you on what we know with all the breaking news right after this. so guys -- it's just you and your honey.

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and visit our website to learn how you may be able to get every month free. we're following the breaking news. a second nurse in dallas has now contracted ebola. this is a serious development. the president of the united states now deciding he's not going to do political fund-raising. he's going to stay in washington with top members of his cabinet to deal with this crisis. we'll have extensive coverage of that throughout the day here on cnn. let's get some analysis now. joining us from pittsburgh is republican congressman tim murphy of pennsylvania. you're the chairman, congressman, of the house subcommittee on oversight investigations. you're holding a special hearing tomorrow on this ebola outbreak in west africa. the cases now occurring in the united states. i know that tom frieden, the director of the cdc, dr. fauci of n.i.h., are going to be testifying. what's the most important thing you need to learn? >> well, the thing we need to learn is do we have a stable strategy yet on several levels?

hospital training, where patients need to go. we're going to be asking questions about travel, travel restrictions, asking questions about what is being done in africa. and of course asking questions, what congress needs to do to facilitate. i was on the phone with dr. frieden yesterday. and i said, please let us know if we need to do something. i'm sure there will be widespread bipartisan cooperation to work with the administration to come up with solutions here. there are several areas we are concerned about. we don't know if hospitals are equipped let alone trained at this time. when i've talked to some hospital administrators, they say, quite frankly, we don't know what we would do. we don't think there's adequate transportation mechanisms set up for patients who do have ebola, bringing them from overseas. so we want to know what are the plans in the works coming up, too, dealing with the united states and in africa. >> what would you like to hear from the president of the united states? he's convening top members of his cabinet within the next hour

or so to deal with this crisis. >> well, it is one of the important things. what are we going to do about travel? do we restrict all travel from west africa at this point? are the screenings going to be adequate? i don't think they are. do we have some sort of -- once someone comes back to the united states as a u.s. citizen, they're on house quarantine or restrict their travel? these are questions the american people want to know because worry has set in pretty deeply and anxiety about travel, going to hospitals are all a great worry. so it is important the commander in chief talk about what is happening with the military in africa and that the president is talking about what is happening to calm people's fears when it comes to the cdc giving continued accurate information on this, which seems to be changing day by day. >> a lot of americans are deeply concerned about those 4,000 u.s. military personnel either already in liberia or on their way. there are thousands, not just a few, but thousands of cases of ebola right now.

do you think they're secure enough, protected enough? >> well, we don't know and we need to find out the answers to that. in some case, they're not going to be going anywhere near villages or clinics, et cetera. but in other cases, we're not going to be able to combat this unless people go into the villages, provide supplies, teach them the basics of hygiene and sanitation which they may not know. we know some charitable organizations are cleaning over supplies to teach people how they need to culturally handle bodies differently, how to clean things differently. if our soldiers are doing the same thing, it's going to be a situation where we're going to have to make sure that they're protects. and following from that, what happens if they do show symptoms of ebola? do we even have the capacity to bring them back here? right now, it appears that capacity is only about one person at a time with a several day turnaround time. that's not a very comforting

situation. >> even at those four university hospitals where they do have specialized equipment. there are only about ten beds prepared to deal with this here in the united states, which is shocking. congressman, thanks very much for joining us. we'll monitor your hearings tomorrow. coming up, we're also going to check in with what's going on at the pentagon from ebola to isis. there's a lot of news. the chairman of the u.s. joint chiefs of staff, general martin dempsey, he talks about his fears about the virus, a special interview with cnn. we'll have details when we come back. [ male announcer ] it's a warning. a wake-up call. but it's not happening out there. it's happening in here. [ sirens wailing ] inside of you. even if you're treating your crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, an occasional flare may be a sign of damaging inflammation. learn more about the role damaging inflammation may be playing in your symptoms with the expert advice tool at crohnsandcolitis.com. and then speak with your gastroenterologist.

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as we told you, the president of the united states has cancelled his travel today to new jersey and connecticut. instead he's staying right here in washington, d.c. because of the ebola outbreak in the united states. the president is gathering members of his cabinet to talk about the government's response. joining us now, cnn's investigative correspondent, kyra philips who just came from the pentagon who had a sit down interview with general martin dempsey. you asked him about ebola. >> we thought our entire interview was going to be about isis but he had even more to say about ebola. he said not only is it just a national security priority but he made it very clear he sees this as a global threat and he's concerned, he's been concerned for a long time. take a listen. are you, general, denvercy,

worried about ebola here in the u.s.? >> i've been worried about ebola globally for about 90 days and i have had some on my staff that were probably a little more worried than i was even a few weeks or months before that. >> why? >> i'm worried about it because, because we know so little about it. you'll hear different people describe whether it could become airborne. if you bring two doctors who happen to have that specialty into a room one will say no it will never become airborne but it could mutate so it would be harder to discover. it disguises itself in the body which makes it so dangerous and has that incubation period of 21 days. another doctor will say if it continues to mutate at the rate it's mutating we go from 20,000 infected to 100,000 the population might allow it to mutate and become airborne and then it will be a serious problem. i don't know who is right. i don't want to take that

chance. >> so what is he doing? he's taking extreme measures right now with the troops that are overseas. they are monitoring them. they are training them. those ones going into the ebola hot zone. when they come back there's concern will they bring the ebola back. they are under specialized observation periods, wolf, with the hopes that it will be contained and it won't be a problem. he also made the point that unlike the civilian sector, they are constantly monitoring each other. he is on top of this. >> we're talking about 4,000 men and women of the united states military who are already in a -- a few hundred are already there in liberia, a few hundred are on their way. when they come back for 21 days they will be quarantined? >> yes. those troops in west africa will be helping setting up specialized units to support the health care workers. >> this is a dangerous mission and we salute these men and women of the military who are

doing it but let's not kid ourselves. there are thousands of cases of ebola in those three west african countries so clearly they are at some risk. they will have to be very, very careful. you also had a chance to ask him about isis, the war against isis, the u.s. troop levels. what's going on? >> the first thing we learned and first to find out about this, the name of the mission is called inherent resolve. everybody wanted to know, they knew the mission was named. bedidn't know the name. we found out this morning. what does it mean? credible and sustainable over time. i asked him about baghdad. we've been concerned about that. the u.s. has been concerned about that. iraqis have been concerned about baghdad. apaches were sent in there. >> apache helicopters. >> isis was just outside of the baghdad international airport. the advantage of that they got tactical glimpses into the enemy, and so my next question was okay you're learning more

about this enemy what about u.s. combat troops, will you ask the president to send in more u.s. troops. and this is what he told me. apache helicopters have joined the fight against isis. so at what point do you say to the president, sir, i now recommend u.s. combat forces on the ground? >> well, i said a moment ago war is discovery and i haven't discovered that point yet. i can't foresee a circumstance where i see introduction of units of u.s. combat forces taking control of swaths of iraq. but, i could foresee a case where the advisers we have -- we have 12 advisory teams there right now and yesterday we got a significant commitment from other collings members to add advisory teams. we're going set up three training bases where we can, you know, give this offensive capability to the iraqi security forces. i can foresee that leading to

some point on the ground where i say mr. president we need a forward air controller in this particular mission for this purpose but i can foresee a case where we should reintroduce large combat ground forces into iraq. but, again, war is discovery. isil is a national security threat. if we get to that point i'll make the recommendation. >> you know, how the president said we all under estimated isis. i wanted to drill down 0 on that. general dempsey, was it the white house, intelligence communities. he made it clear to me and i quote they have been watching isis since the time it was al qaeda. he said they all missed the fact that the iraqis wouldn't stand up and fight them but they knew this was a threat back in february, an intelligence agent actually came in and said isil is re-entering iraq. >> i know much more of the

interview will be airing later. i want to get back to the ebola breaking news. i want to play for you, this is president obama when he was down in atlanta visiting the centers for disease control and prevention back on september 16th. listen to this. >> 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. we have been taking the necessary precautions including working with countries in west africa to increase screening at airports so that someone with the virus doesn't get on a plane for the united states. in the unlikely event that someone with ebola does reach our shores, we've taken new measures so that we're prepared here at home. we're working to help flight crews identify people who are sick, and more labs across our country have the capacity to quickly test for the virus.

we're working with hospitals to make sure that they are prepared and to ensure our doctors, our nurses, and our medical staff are train, are ready, and are able to deal with a possible case safely. >> i want to bring back our own doctor, dr. sanjay gupta and jim acosta. sanjay, it sounds like the president was upbeat, overly optimistic about the readiness of the united states to deal with ebola. >> yep. i think that's right. wolf, i think it reflected what i think a lot of people were saying including the leaders at the cdc and even within the nih, and so it sort of -- they all had a similar message that it was an unlikely thing to occur a patient would come here with ebola although they thought it could occur, thought it was unlikely. that has happened. they talked about flight crews would be informed and trained to

recognize someone who is sick with ebola, laboratories would be increased in their capacity to test for ebola and i think most importantly, and to this discussion that hospitals would be prepared to be able to take care of patients once they were diagnosed with ebola. so all those things that he talked about back on september 16th have now been tested, wolf, and just once, you know, this dallas hospital and so far track record has not been very good. >> it's pretty sad when you think about it because, sanjay, this is one of the excellent hospitals not just in texas but in the united states and if they are not prepared you can only imagine what can go on elsewhere. >> absolutely. it's a hospital i visited. i have colleagues of mine who are on staff there. i keep bringing up one point and it's worth raising with you again and that is when we talk about the fact this hospital isn't prepared. you know, what does that mean? i have been to west frig. i have seen literally a field filled up with tents where the doctors without borders set

those up to care for patients in a very tough environment and they do a good job. they are able to take care of those patients and simultaneously keep themselves protected. difficult, obviously, here in dallas for some reason. >> we'll stay on top of this story. sanjay you'll be with us throughout the day. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. christiane amanpour is next. newsroom with kate bolduan starts right now. >> here we go. let me pick up where you left off. brooke baldwin. this ebola story is fast-moving. a lot of developments we're watching for. we're watching for the white house briefing happening in a few minutes and two we'll keep a close eye on this picture, live picture in cleveland, ohio with we should be getting a brief. there's a white house,