facebook said ebola and lack after travel ban. >> glen says ebola. people will go underground to hibernate and avoid contact. the economy will falter. david: gerri willis takes us from here to the will is report. >> hi, everybody, i'm gerri willis. a big news stay today. moments from now we're expecting to hear from president obama. he is holding a cabinet meeting on the government response to the ebola crisis. we'll bring you that. as soon as the president makes his comments we'll have them also ebola taking a toll on your 401(k). one word seems to be in all the headlines, ebola. let's get you caught up. the second dallas nurse infected with ebola is on the way to emery hospital in atlanta and won't be treated at the hospital in texas where she was infected, after word she had taken a flight to cleveland one day before being admitted to isolation. we will have more on that controversy. scathing accusations by nurses

union that the ebola patient who died was left in the emergency room for hours. the two nurses that are now infected worked out proper gear for two days. is it time for a ebola marshall plan? airline stocks tumbled on the latest ebola headlines. investors are running scared. and here with the latest on all this, dr. potarazu, ceo of vital springs technologies and teddy weisberg, founder of seaport securities. welcome to you both. great to have you here. teddy, i will start with you. 460-point down day at its worse. 300 point swings to the positive side. 173 points where we ended up down on s&p. how much is ebola driven and how serious is this? why are we so volatile? >> i think it is very serious because it create as huge unknown, enormous unknown. that is what investors can't stand.

sort of event de jure at the moment. there are at love other things going on. the mess in the middle east. political dysfunction here. economic numbers here. it is a perfect storm, gerri, for a downdraft in the stock market and we're getting that. >> getting just that. dr. sreedhar potarazu, the markets turn this morning. even before the markets opened futures turned dramatically south. with we told later she was allowed to fly. that could be because markets took another dive. why were they allowed to fly? >> this is most outrage just thing i ever seen. as a surgeon i'm completely flabbergasted by lack of communication from the top down. the lack of protocols being followed by the hospital. and the irresponsibility of allowing somebody that was in

direct contact somebody in contact with ebola to fly. that was an absolute nightmare and we have to take to task everybody that has authority or responsibility for implementing these procedures. as a surgeon, i can tell you that every hospital is required to have protocols in terms of how every health care professional is supposed to gown up and is supposed to abide by not having any skin exposure, which was not the case in the professional at texas hospital. gerri: just a second, i want to get back to teddy just a moment on markets and reaction because i think a lot of this, the very innings things that dr. sreedhar potarazu is talking about, unsettling to all of us. americans, trade es, it is unsettling. teddy, you talk about black swans. these are unexpected events that occur people don't see an issue for markets that become bigger than life. is ebola one of them?

>> this seems to be chatter and has been the chatter for a week or so amongst the traders that i talk to. you don't want to say that publicly because it is very dire scenario and the last time we really saw this was number of years ago with long-term capital management which was tied to a lot of leverage and russian debt and practically blew the markets up then and a lost banks and wall street firms came to the rescue of that particular company and perhaps saved the day. is this a black swan event? only time will tell but it is very scary and it has got the markets very unnerved. gerri: it is hard to understand what next? that is the big question here. dr. p, you were mentioning that a there was a period of time that many, many emergency workers in dallas, in that hospital, dallas presbyterian were not protected caring for patient zero. we're learning from "the dallas morning news" they were wearing no hazmat suits for the first two days of caring for this fellow. >> that's right. gerri: this poor fellow who

ended up dying. is that shocking to you? you're somebody has been around this kind of thing. are you astonished? >> yes it is. i'm absolutely astonished because there should have been adequate education for all those professionals before the patient arrived. you heard the debriefing from the nurses today who were providing information about the fact that the patient was in the emergency room and was not isolated for a significant period of time. the nurses were not adequately gowned in terms of having all of the areas of the skin that were not exposed. and then you have this patient who was taking care of him, get on a plane to cleveland a day before she developed symptoms? and so, you have now expanded the universe of people that are technically exposed beyond dallas. and the consequences of this are outrageous. and i hope that tomorrow morning, if not tonight, the

president issues absolute protocol for ebola for every hospital because where is the surgeon general? the communicator who is supposed to be -- gerri: that is where the surgeon general is. >> where is he when we need one. gerri: or she. i couldn't agree with you more, the woman you're talking about is amber vinson. she traveled back to ohio, part of a group who treated patient zero. we'll be hearing from the president shortly on this he is said to be bringing his cabinet together to come up with the best response possible. teddy, are the markets going to continue to trade on this? because not only are you worried about your health, you're also worried about your financial future with these headlines. >> he's, absolutely. i mean we're clearly on the other side of the equation now. now for the last two or three years people have bought the dips and gotten away with it. i suspect they might have bought this dip early on but this time it doesn't look like they are going to getaway which it. i will say this, at some point stocks will find a level where

values reappear. in fact we started to see that today, believe it or not with some of the energy sectors which basically have been beaten up in this market. some of those stocks look like they're really oversold but the fact is news remains unsettled. too many unknowns. even down 160 points is pretty bad day. the fact we were down 460, closed down 170, makes it look like a good day. it was not. gerri: it was not a good day. not for health in america and not for your pocketbook either. teddy, dr. sreedhar potarazu, thank you for coming on tonight. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. gerri: before we move an, i want to mention we'll have word from the president momentarily. he is at the white house right now. we is meeting with members from his cabinet. we expect to see tape. we'll get you all details as soon as we can. for every answer we get from federal official it is seems to spur more questions about handling of the ebola crisis which is why the cdc and nih

will be in the hot seat tomorrow on capitol hill. with more on this, republican congressman michael burgess of texas. he is the vice-chair of the subcommittee holding a hearing. he is a doctor, he knows a lot about what is going on. my first question for you, sir, what is your big question for tomorrow? what do you want to know? are you going to hold these people's feet to the fire? >> well it is a valid question because here we are, the middle of october and we're way behind and the first of september, we were told by the people at cdc not to worry, we got this the middle of september, of course the president went to cdc and said ebola has not come to this country but if it does we'll be prepared. and now a month later we're clearly not only not prepared but we're behind and we've got to stop being behind. we've got to get back in front of this. i think the greatest thing i'm anxious to hear from the cdc is, how are you going to go about implementing procedures you've been talking about, the

procedures you've been sending emails and brochures, how do you go about implementing? clearly the people at presbyterian were not protected by procedures that the cdc said they had in place. gerri: we heard lots of complaints from people in the industry they get to websites and links that don't explain what they're supposed to be doing. congressman, do we need a marshall plan for this? don't we need a plan that we need somebody to lead this plan? and have a vision of how it is supposed to work? because let me tell you, it's clear major fissures and cracks in this nation's health care infrastructure are being exposed tonight. we are learning just how ill-prepared we are for a major infection, a major virus. >> well, at a hearing at end of september i asked that very question, who is in charge if this gets worse and no one could answer the question for me. cd c, nih, fda were all present. now we do need a general. we don't have a general in this fight right now.

>> to that point, sir, josh earnest today at the white house said the general is lisa monaco, is the president's advisor from homeland security. is that going to work? >> i don't think so. and of course you've also got the assistant secretary for preparedness and response who has been completely not visible through all this you need a general to lead this fight but clearly, you've got to get in front of this and we're nowhere close. what i would do tomorrow, if i had the authority would be suspend all flights from western africa, not flights, but visas for people coming from western africa into this country. i think we need to put a pause on immigration, pause on the transportation side, to give us a chance to recover. i think the fact that this new patient was transferred to emory, i think that is good thing. every hospital, unlike what dr. frieden said a couple weeks ago, every hospital is not prepared to deal with this. gerri: let me ask you about that because i understand that there was a teleconference with some

5600 clinicians recently this week, telling him exactly what cdc expects out of these hospitals. i heard it was a screaming match. people from all over the country in those hospitals said we can't afford to do what you want us to do. we don't have the room to do it. we don't have the money to do it. we don't have the personnel. is that surprising to you? >> it is not surprising. i said early in this crisis i said let's move people to the centers where they can be taken care of. dr. brantley, taken care of at emory in the early part of august, and it all went well. but problem was not dr. brantley. it was individual who dropped dead in lagos airport right before he got on a plane to come back to minneapolis. we knew that there would be a problem. we knew someone would show up to an emergency room carrying this virus and might not be picked up originally. that has been a risk out there from the get-go. once the patient is identified, look, if you do research on this

virus you can't just do it at any university. you have to go to one of four biolabs in the country. the hospitals are no different. >> but, doctor, it took 76 personnel to look after patient zero. so if we were to get an onslaught of patients i don't think even four institutions could take care of all this? >> why you have to get control of this now. and that means not letting another person come in from western africa who is going to be the new patient zero in another location. you've got to have people with the expertise who are not only able to take care of the patient but protect their own personnel and protect pham police. gerri: i don't think the administration is willing to close those borders down to those countries. so good luck with that, congressman. >> we need to help them. gerri: we will be watching your e your coming on very closely. tonight. thank you very much. >> thank you, gerry. >> we want to know what you think, here is the question tonight, do we need an ebola

marshall plan, a ebola marshall plan a plan for ebola? log on to gerriwillis.com. right on the right-hand side of the screen. i will share results at end of tonight's show. we're waiting for the president to speak on ebola. he is holding an emergency cabinet meeting at white house. the president is expected to speak shortly. we'll have those remarks as soon as we get them. during the show we want you to facebook me or tweet me @gerriwillisfbn. send me an email. go to gerriwillis.com. at the bottom of the hour i will read your tweets and emails. first we outlined the growing problem surrounding ebola. next, solutions. one company is revolutionizing the way they test for this deadly virus. it could take ten minutes. stay with us. opportunities aren't always obvious.

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we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances. introducing synchrony financial bringing new meaning to the word partnership. banking. loyalty. analytics. synchrony financial. engage with us. gerri: just a reminder here. we're expecting the president to speak momentarily about ebola. he is right there. he is in the white house. he is postponed travel for an emergency session of the cabinet. we want to hear what those comments will be. we'll bring them as soon as we have them. more on ebola. it continues to spread and there is a company out there by the name of positive i.d. it has the

potential solution not only helping contain ebola but to diagnose it. diagnose it in just minutes. putting the laboratory process at your fingerprints. i think your fingerprints is what we meant to say. here with positive i.d. is the president. we have the senior adviser for positive i.d. i'm so excited about this segment. so exciting to bring people good news about this. lyle, explain the technology, what is it, how does it work? >> this is a lab in your hand. take a sample from a patient. blood sample or swab. put it in the cartridge and into the device and push single button and processes with the same chemistry and same tests currently used by the cdc to detect ebola is present or not. whether it is in a patient or

environmental sample. gerri: you're seeing pictures of that right now, the firefly device on a other side there. tom, how big after leap forward? how different is it from the technology presently available? >> well, thanks for having me, gerri. we're also excited about the capability. it is a huge advance forward because what we'll be able to do is not only determine who has ebola but facilitate trade and commerce and facilitate people moving through border checkpoints or to protect our troops overseas that are forward-deployed. we'll also be able to detect who doesn't have it and that is a very important distinguishing factor. gerri: so, lyle, how big of an advance is this? it seems to me it takes a long time to figure out currently if somebody has ebola. we're watching people for 21 days. they have to be specially contained. what would your technology do? how would it change that process? >> so it is a long process

currently to be able to diagnose somebody with ebola and to run the tests. if you have the facilities it still takes anywhere from six to 24 hours to come to that diagnosis. what our system does is, it takes the laboratory out into the field, at the point of need, point of sampling. and, by being able to advance your laboratory all the way out to the limited resource limited areas, you can test their at the site and come to a diagnosis within a few minutes. our prototype units, are processing samples in as little as 2010 minutes. the next generation, the flier fly unit we are talking about we expect to do that this ten minutes. gerri: wow. >> that the same results are what you achieve in the laboratory. when you forward deploy out in resource limited areas, they don't have the laboratories or personnel trained to do it. you can test people at the

locations. determine who is infected, who is not. you can isolate those who need to be isolated and quarantined. you can isolate it at the source. the closer you get to the source the better chance you have of isolating anything like this, whether ebola or influenza or something of that nature. if you get close to the source you can contain it much sooner. that is i believe the best to protect us as a country to prevent it from coming into our borders. gerri: good point. tom, to you, currently we have customs agents taking people's temperatures at the border which seems stupid, frankly. a, not everybody presents a higher temperature even if they're cooking ebola inside of them and b, what would we trust customs agents to do this? they're not health care professionals. how would your product shortcut that process? >> it i interesting that you bring up customs officials, going back into the early 2,000s, we create ad program at the department of homeland security called the container

security initiative where customs officials are overseas and screening containers for wmd, for potential explosives or nuclear material. and we're taking cutting-edge detection equipment and put it in the hand of our agents overseas to detect an acute an keen threat to the united states. so it is not unprecedented that we put u.s. government agents overseas. that program has been successful. i think we're talking about doing a similar thing. gerri: okay. >> and, go ahead, i'm sorry. gerri: no, finish your thought. >> i think it is important, i heard the congressman talking about it in the earlier segment about closing the borders. and really not only is ebola a threat to the united states population, it is a threat to global commerce and by -- gerri: that is a good point. >> as lyle has pointed out, getting closer to the source what we'll be able to do is move people, goods, aviation, move aircraft through the system. gerri: it has a lot of applications there is no doubt

about it. lyle, to you, how close are you to producing this en masse? is there a hurdle? is there something in the way? how long will it take and how much will it cost once you get it to market? >> so there aren't any major hurdles for us to be able to complete this system as designed. we've been working on this for several years. it goes back eight to 10 years when we were doing development of systems to detect biological weapons for the government but moving it forward to the next stage, which is what we're doing with the firefly system is we're less than a year away from having these units ready to go in the field testing and put them in the hand of the end-users. you asked about the cost of the units. we put that into consideration in the design because if you have a $50,000 instrument, you're not going to want to take it out into these resource limited areas. if it costs several hundred dollars a test you will not be running very many tests. we designed the systems to be

very cost effective. gerri: cheaper. >> i have a model of it here. the size of it is small. it is designed to be very simple to use an inexpensive. we expect the first units in this form factor to be around $5,000. that is something you can take in the field. if it gets broken it is not going to damage it too much. gerri: not a disaster. >> it is not. can be replaced easily and carry multiple units if you need to. gerri: okay. >> and then as far as the tests go with the cartridges that are inserted into it, those tests depend on the, those cartridges depend on the type of test you're running as to what the costs would be. for something where you're looking for single pathogen like ebola that is going to be a lower test cartridge and we would expect that final form factor to be somewhere between 20 to $50 once they're in volume. gerri: lyle, tom, thanks for coming on. it is a fascinating technology. i hope to have you back sometime. >> thanks, gerri. gerri: you're producing it en masse. thank you so much.

we're expected to hear from president obama any moment now. he is holding an emergency cabinet meeting on the government's response to the ebola crisis. as soon as the president makes comments at the end of that meeting we'll bring them to you. later in the show, it is day three of the user's guide to choosing your health insurance. tonight we're talking about medicare. but next our ebola coverage continues, as separate fact from fiction with grover norquist whether republican budgets cuts are to blame in the spread of the virus. there he is. we'll be right back.

gerri: news the second health care worker has been diagnosed with ebola is leading more to question why we don't have a vaccine for the deadly virus. the national institute of health is claiming

budget cuts are the reason. and a new political ad is placing the blame squarely on republican shoulders with more on this grover norquist president for americans with tax reform. great to have you here, grover. what do you make of this claim? is it true that the republicans take all the money out for any potential solution for ebola? >> it's kind of sad that the democratic groups instead of solve the problem is trying to exploit this crisis for political gain. step one. step two, let's look at the number. in 1980 the national institute of health had $3 billion. today it's time times that. 30 billion. the center of disease control that is supposed to be focusing on this stuff has 6 billion. it got an extra 4 billion over the last few years and turned around and spent 6 percent of that on infectious diseases. so the centers for disease control and the

nah decided to make ebola and other diseases not exactly a top priority. they say if they had more money they would have done something, they had 30 billion. they had lots of money. and they chose to spend it other places. gerri: let's get to some of the things they've been spending it on. i think it's instructional to know where that money is going. so if you look at the national institutes for health. they've been $257 to make an online game as a companion to the first lady's white house garden. that could have gone to ebola. right? >> yeah, there's about 500 million that went from the centers for disease control, 500 million more than that went for infectious diseases for their transformation fund that's supporting local farmers so you can get fresh fruit as opposed to something else. and local sidewalks so people will walk more. $500 million on interesting spending, but if you're the center center

for disease control why are you about it building sidewalks and trying to do local farmers markets. gerri: let me give you a couple more. 939,000 to learn why mail fruit flies prefer younger females. if you don't understand that you're not alive. 3.2 million for monkeys to drink alcohol excessively to determine what effect it has on their body tissues. 325,000 to learn why marriages are happier when wives calm down during arguments with their husband. come on. this is a waste of money, isn't it? >> well, it's certainly nonsense for the people who made those decisions, governing it about making decisions. they had $30 billion last year at nih. they chose to spend it on things like that. the cdc 6 billion and they're doing farmers markets. americans when they hear the national institute of health assume serious

research is going on. when they hear sisters for disease controlassume it's t disease control. remember obama found out hard to get gun control studies instead of ebola funding. he also recommended cuts in the center for disease control the last year. congress spent more than he asked for. even the washington post gave four pin oak i don't see to the democrats politician to the. the washington post you know you're in trouble. gerri: you know you're in trouble when that happens. thank you for coming. great to see you. and coming up next our users guide to choosing health insurance we'll take a look at medicare. how do you pick the right plan? and, again, we're expecting to hear from the president any moment now he's holding an emergency cabinet meeting on the government's response dot ebola crisis. we'll have that for you the moment it happens. you won't miss a thing. stay with us.

gerri: if you're a senior, listen up. medicare open enrollment kicks off today. for insurance coverage beginning january 1st. now whether you're newly eligible for medicare or have had a plan in place for years we have important information you need to know. our special users guide continues tonight with nicole vice president for outreach at aarp. great to have you here. let's start with what people need to know. what do we need to know about this year's open enrollment season. >> open flovment runs from october 13 to december 15 it's important people act during that time period in order -- and whether or not you love the plan you have, it really is important to take the time to evaluate your options. things change every year. your health may change. it's good to look carefully at your

coverage. gerri: what are the questions you ask yourself as you start going through these plans and making comparisons? >> well, we tell people to break it down in easy steps. you can consider cost, coverage, convenience, and customer service. what's the plan going to cost me? you need to look at not only the premiums, but also the doubles and what's it going to cost when you pickup a prescription and go visit your doctor? are the doctors that you want to see covered in the plan, or the medication that you take, is that part of your plan? you need to check that. even if you love your plan, things change from year to year. those are two really really important things you need to look at. gerri: cost, coverage, convenience, customer service those are all the things you want to compare. my understanding is that medicare advantage is getting hammered this year. what's going on? >> actually on average the premiums are only going up a couple dollars, about $3 on average. but there are plans that are moving in and out of

communities and so it is important to see whether or not your plan, the plan you've been in before is still going to be offering the same coverage and you need to look at those networks to make sure the doctors you want to go to and the hospitals that you want visit are still in that network. there's still a lot of options out there for medicare advantage an and -- gerri: be advised 320,000 people are enrolled in plans that are exiting the market. a lot of folks will have to figure it out all over again and find new coverage. not that that's impossible, but it takes work. part d premiums what's going on. >> on average they're going up about $2. you need to make sure that the medications you take are covered. you need to check to see what they're going to cost each year. they can move from one tier of payment to another tier. that's a really important thing to consider and to look at. i do like to tell people: there is help out there. you can call 1800

medicare or go only to medicare.gov to compare your options. gerri: and aarp has a lot of information on their website as well. thank you for being with us. all right. let's go to washington and peter barns who has some headlines coming out of the president's meeting with the cabinet. >> that's right, the president says that the u.s. must monitor ebola, quote, in a much more aggressive way, that's the main headline out of this meeting with some of his cabinet officials. he says that the federal authority should send a team within 24 hours of an ebola case to ensure proper protocols are being followed. the president says also that the likelihood of a widespread ebola outbreak in the united states is very, very low and that is, of course, repeating what som some of his top aides who are

handles this have been saying here. of course, the big question what were the protocols that were were being taken in dallas. and specific we're hearing from the nurses union today that the protocols at the hospital for dealing with ebola were nonexistent or changing constantly. we are expected to get the actual taped comments from the president in that meeting that is just wrapping up here momentarily. gerri: of course, that's moments away. and the big question today about what you're calling the protocols here. this most recent person who has contracted ebola, amber vin citizen, essentially got on a plane and flew after she was already infected. big questions about why that was allowed. do you think that's something that the president, that his staff that somebody will address in detail? >> well, yeah, the head of the sisters of the disease control did address that today and said that should not

have happened. that the health care professionals, the nurses and the doctors who were looking after thomas duncan, the liberian ebola patient who died at presbyterian hospital in dallas, were self-monitoring their own health. but under -- under the current rule should not have gotten onto a commercial aircraft knowing they were exposed to the ebola virus and taking care of an ebola patient. gerri: the other gap we know of comes from the dallas morning news which is saying that these folks that were taking care of thomas duncan for the first two days of his care, they didn't wear the special suits that are required, the hazmat suits to protect them. it's shocking, i think, what seems to be developing is a pattern of trouble. a pattern of negative a pattern of people not paying attention (?)

and now for the white house to come in and say we're going to fix this. i wonder how quickly change can be made. >> well, yeah, the president's spokesperson josh earnest telling reporters in the daily briefing who are asking about these very issues that there were shortcomings in the handling of -- of this index patient, thomas duncan. but otherwise describing the administration's response to these cases here in the u.s. as tenacious, but, of course, critics are saying, well, if they were tenacious how come these two nurses contracted the ebola virus? and exactly what were the protocols? he didn't respond -- earnest didn't respond directly to these reports out of dallas that -- that some of these professional health care providers may not have been wearing those protective -- protective outfits in dealing with

thomas duncan. and that's a question it looks like the president, at least from the headlines here, is not issuing any orders about. he's just saying that once they learn of a case, within 24 hours, the government's experts need to be there, boots on the ground, monitoring the protocols, but there seems to be a lot of debate still going on about a while what are those protocols? obviously there have been some patients treated at emory university successful and we saw that amber is being transferred to emory university. what are they doing protocol-wise differently from what the presbyterian dallas hospital has been doing? we'll see what will come out of the white house tonight. >> doesn't look like the president is issuing any orders at this point on additional steps that need to be taken. gerri: no orders. and today josh earnest said no czar. they're not going to put one special person at the head of all this. we're, of course, waiting for the president. moments away.

here he is. obama: all right. everybody set up? well, obviously the news has been dominated by the diagnosis of a second health care worker in dallas with ebola. and in light of this second case, i thought it was very important for me to bring together our team, including our cdc director tom frieden to hear directly from them in terms of how we are ramping up our efforts here. obviously, initially, we want to express concern for the two health workers who have been affected. you know, our nurses and our health care workers are absolutely vital to the health and well-being of our families. they sacrifice for us all the time, not just in this case, but in the case of other illnesses. they are self less. they work hard.

they're often underpaid so our thought and see priors are with them and we have to make sure that we are doing everything we can to take care of them even as they take care of us. as a consequence, what we've been doing here today is reviewing exactly what we know about what's happened in dallas and how we're going to make sure that something like this is not repeated and that we are monitoring supervising, overseeing, in a much more aggressive way exactly what's making place initially and making sure the lessons learned are then transmitted to hospitals and clinics all across the country.

first of all, what i've directed the cdc to do is that as soon as somebody is diagnosed with ebola, we want a rapid response team, a swat team essentially from the cdc to be on the ground as quickly as possible. hopefully within 24 hours so that they are taking the local hospital step by step through exactly what needs to be done and making sure that all the protocols are properly observed, that the use of protective equipment is done effectively the disposal of that equipment is is done properly, the key thing to understand about this disease is that these protocols work. we know that because they've been used for decades now. in ebola cases around the world. including the cases that were treated in emory and in nebraska. so if they're done properly, they work. but we have to make sure that understandably certain local hospitals that may not have that experience are walking -- walked through that process as

carefully as possible and we'll make sure this rapid response team can do that. in addition we're reviewing every step of what's happened since mr. duncan has been brought into the hospital in dallas so we understand exactly where some of the problems may have occurred. and doing a throw canvas of inventory of all the workers had contact with mr. duncan including those who engaged in some of the testing that took place. we are now communicating all these various lessons to hospitals, clinics, first responders around the country. and obviously given all the attention this has received, we're going to make sure that that provision of information is constant and ongoing and being updated on a realtime basis. in addition we're working very careful well the mayor of dallas, the governor of texas and others to make

sure that in the event any other cases arise from these health care workers, that they are properly cared for in a way that is consistent with public safety. i know that people are concerned about the fact that the second health care worker had traveled. here's what we know about ebola: that it is not like the flu. it is not airborne. the only way that a person can contract ebola is by coming into direct contact with the bodily fluids of someone who is showing symptoms. in other words, if they don't have symptoms, they're not contagious. what we are able to do, however is to do what's called contact tracing so that anybody who may have had contact with someone, even if it was incidental contact, even if they weren't showing symptoms, being able to identify who those individuals are, and

make sure that they are then being monitored in a way that allows us to make certain that the disease does not spread further. and that's currently taking place in a very aggressive process conducted by the cdc, hhs, and the rest of our teams. i want to use myself as an example just so that people have the sense of this here. i shook hands with, hugged, and kissed, not the doctors, but a couple of the nurses at emory because of the valiant work that they did in treating one of the patients. they followed the protocols. they knew what they were doing, and i felt perfectly safe doing so. and so, this is not a situation in which, like a flu, the risks of a

rapid spread of the disease are immanent. if we do these protocols properly. if we follow the steps, if we get the information out, then the likelihood of widespread ebola outbreak in this country are very, very low. we've all learned over the last several weeks is that folks here in this country and a lot of nonspecialized hospitals and clinics don't have that much experience dealing with these issues. so we have to push out this information as aggressively as possible and that's the instructions that i've provided to my team. just a couple other points: you know, we are going to be monitoring carefully the health status of the other health care workers in dallas, and obviously they're concerned. we understand that many of them are scared, and we are going to make sure that we're on the

ground 24/7 to provide them the kind of support, information, and assurances that they need to get through this particular challenge. and finally we're also going to be continuing examining our screening processes at airports. we're making sure that in the event that we have additional cases that involve the need for transpottinger those patients to specialized hospitals that those teams are in place and those facilities are in place, and, you know, we will make sure that (?) on a day-to-day basis we'll provide the public with all the information they need and any updates about what has happened not just in dallas, but what is being done across the country. i'll end with this point: we are going to have to make sure that we do not lose sight of the importance of the international response to what is taking place

in west africa. i am absolutely confident that we can prevent a serious outbreak of the disease here in the united states. but it becomes more difficult to do so if this epidemic of ebola rages out of control in west africa. if it does, then it will spread globally. in an age of, you know, frequent travel and, you know, the kind of constant interactions that people have across borders. and so it is very important for us to understand that the investment we make in helping liberia, sierra leone, and new guinea deal with this problem is an investment in our own public health. this is not simply charity although obviously it's important that america takes the lead in the humanitarian

crisis that's taking place there, but it's probably the most single important thing we can do to prevent a more serious ebola outbreak in this country is making sure we get what is a raging epidemic right now in west africa under control. for that reason, i had a call with prime minister of japan to solicit greater support for the international effort. this morning, i spoke with chancellor merkel of germany. prime minister of italy. president of france as well as david cameron, the prime minister of great britain to make sure we're coordinating our efforts and that we are putting in a lot more resources than so far at least the international community has put in this process. so bottom line in terms of the public, i want people to understand that the dangers of you contracting ebola, the

dangerous of a serious outbreak are extraordinarily low, but we're taking this very seriously at the highest levels of government. and we are going to be able to manage this particular situation, but we have to look towards the future, and if we are not responding internationally in an effective way and if we do not set up the kind of preparedness and training in our public infrastructure here in the united states, not just for this outbreak, but for future outbreaks, then we could have problems. so in the meantime, i want everybody to be thinking about and praying for the two health workers that have gotten sick, those who also treated this patient with compassion and care, we just want to say a thank you to them. and, you know, we are going to be doing everything we can to make sure that they're properly cared for. okay? thank you very much

everybody. thank you very much. gerri: that, of course, was the president speaking about this ebola crisis trying to put all of us at ease about what's going on. he talked about a lot of things the government is trying to do to put this under wraps. the swat team will fly in 24 hours after another case is seen and presumably the government thinks there will be more cases or the government wouldn't be doing this. i want to bring in peter barns. what did you make of what he had to say and what was new to you, peter? >> there were two new specific initiatives here in fighting ebola in the u.s. one is this directive to the centers to disease control as you mentioned for rapid response teams to be deployed he said hopefully within 24 hours of any new cases coming up.

this is something that the head of the cdc dr. tom frieden that he regretted not doing in the case of the patient in dallas. he said, i believe today that he wished he had sent his team of experts to dallas sooner to try to help the hospital there and try to get more information about thomas duncan the patient there who died from ebola. the second initiative is additional communications going out to the health care and first responder community and the president contrasting what happened in dallas with what happened in the university of nebraska at omaha which successfully treated one ebola patient and currently treating the second one the nbc news cameraman and what happened at emory university hospital and atlanta where two missionaries were successfully treated and released by the hospital and the president saying that, you know, he hugged and congratulated the emory medical team there for its work. so the president saying

that some hospitals, some first responders may not be aware or understand how to deal with ebola patients and the protocols, which he said worked. these protocols work, he said, based on what happened at emory and in nebraska. gerri: peter, you said these protocols work. he said they've been used for decades. the government will take a look at screening at airports, and he said that the odds of this becoming a major outbreak are very, very low. he emphasized how the disease spreads, but i know there is fear in many parts of america tonight. people worried about what might happen next, and i wonder if the unintended message of this emergency cabinet meeting might be, hey, this is finally a real problem, you should sit up and take notice, the government now preparing for more cases. what do you say peter? >> yeah. and that is clearly a risk that he might panic the public in

highlighting, drawing attention to this, but officials have been saying they do expect more cases and they've said even before today when we got word that that second nurse in dallas has been infected. but i think you also -- you're absolutely right, gerri, a new washington post poll today showed that about two-thirds of americans are very concerned about this and believe that the response so far by the government has not been adequate. gerri: you know, we were looking at the group of people around the table and we noticed there was no treasury secretary lou. where is the treasury secretary? >> well, his deputy was there. sarah was in the room. the white house has provided us with a list of attendees the number two treasury official was there along with other officials i haven't had a chance to ask the treasury why secretary lou himself was not there. gerri: a lot of people out there still have criticisms.

still concerned worried about ebola. wondering if the government is doing enough. should the cdc be leading the charge? the president's statement tonight do you think it will satisfy the critics or will it amp up the people who thinks there needs to be stronger more intense responses out there. >> there's some critics who is if any situations call for an ebola czar, this is it. but so far the administration is sticking with its current command structure saying that all of the various government agencies and white house officials with jurisdictions over addressing this are doing their jobs and that the president is being briefed on it and is staying on top of it it sounds like right now the president is the ebola czar. gerri: the president is the ebola czar. all right. hang tight. i want to bring in phil

flynn. phil, i know you were listening to this presentation. some people say it's coming far too late in this ebola -- with his own pr person described as an outbreak. what did you think of his comments. >> i agree with peter. i think he had to do something because fear is growing, and we've seen it in the markets. we've seen it in the concerns in many of the stocks of the airlines. this could be a major blow to the economy. president obama has a reputation of not being able to get ahead of issues. he seems to be coming from behind. and once again, i think on this particular issue, people are starting to get more and more afraid. he's trying to get ahead of this situation. he's trying to put it on the front burner. the traders on the floor were kind of laughing. they said this must be really important because he canceled a campaign fundraiser to have this meeting. this really gets to the point where they're obviously taking it

seriously. gerri: we're going to have to leave it there. we have no time left. thank you so much for being with us tonight. making money with charles payne starts right now. charles: i'm charles payne and you're watching making money. huge headlines today a shocking development in an ebola scare. the second patient confirmed today. and she flew the day before her symptoms now 132 passengers are being notified. rich. >> president obama speaking just after his cabinet meeting on ebola saying he wants cdc swat teams on the ground in 24 hours when someone is diagnosed ebola the president stretion the risks of contracting and the odds of contracting ebola are extremely low. 29-year-old amber was in close contact with thomas