the white house is naming an ebola czar today. controversial move there. that will be ron klain, he served as chief of staff to vice president bidens and gore. we're keeping an eye on the white house briefing room now where we should be getting more details any minute. over at the state department, secretary of state john kerry said this morning that more help is needed. >> no one country, no individual group of nations is going to resolve this problem by themselves. this is going to take a collective global response, all hands on deck. >> nina pham, the first nurse at texas presbyterian hospital to contract ebola left dallas last night amidst cheers from supporters. just before pham taped this video message with hospital staff.

>> she's now at the national institutes of health in bethesda, maryland, one of the top facilities for this kind of treatment in the country. dr. anthony fauci, one of the major officials at the nih is optimistic. >> she's in fair condition, which implies she does still have some symptoms. she is in good spirits, she's a highly intelligent, aware person. who knows exactly what's going on and she's a really terrific person. >> when asked about the appointment of an ebola czar, dr. fauci didn't have a lot to say. >> you know, i don't know exactly what is meant by a czar, but we will certainly follow the lead of the president. and to follow the lead of secretary burwell. >> nbc's kristen welker is following the developments at the white house. thanks. what do we know about ron klain? and why does the president believe he's the person for this

job? a lot of controversy, especially over his lack of medical experience. >> the president obama clearly choosing him because he has strong management skills this is someone who has a background in law as well as business. as you pointed out, he has served as chief of staff to vice president biden, as well as former vice president al gore. so those are among the qualifications that made ron klain someone who president obama wanted to choose to head this effort. but you're right, he is getting criticism today. some republicans, steve king for example, saying this is someone who doesn't have a background in medicine. however, you have democrats like chuck schumer saying he has the perfect background to head an effort like this. we know that he's going to be reporting directly to lisa monaco, the president's top adviser on homeland security, as well as national security adviser susan rice. there were a lot of practical pressures for president obama to name an ebola czar. ronan, obviously there's a lot of fear right now about the

spread of ebola. but there are also political pressures, democrats saying look we're fighting to hold on to the senate, elections less than a month away. we need the administration to put on a front of having someone who is in charge of this. so today president obama making the announcement that ron klain will head the effort. >> kristen, another point, the seemingly complete gridlock of getting someone into the job of surgeon-general. one interesting facet. we an acting surgeon general. do all of the developments together suggest that the president is giving up on pushing through a new surgeon general? >> i think that certainly the white house is frustrated with the gridlock, there's no doubt about that. the surgeon general pick that president obama had, murphy was a lightning rod, he tweeted out something that was controversial to the nra, there is an acting

attorney general, rear general boris lushniak. we haven't had a strong, robust form of surgeon general since c. everett coop, he did a lot of work on cancer and aids. so that position, unlike this position of ebola czar, doesn't come with a whole lot of power. but certainly that is among the questions that are being asked right now. ronan? >> you make a very important point, kristen. historically there are times when the role has been such an important messaging and clarifying role. clearly that's out of style now. kristen welker, appreciate you following this for us. this question of whether to appoint a czar was a big point of controversy yesterday. when representatives from the cdc and the nih testified on the hill. cdc spokesman tom skinner joins me now. you're on the phone i believe it is i want to clarify to our audience. what difference is it going to make in this response to have this ebola czar in place, ron

klain? >> i think we are awaiting more, more specifics about you know, the role of mr. klain. but i think that i can speak on behalf of cdc and dr. friedan. that we are very supportive of anything that's going to help better our response. and certainly a czar who can help coordinate the response and insure accountability. maybe be a liaison to our elected representatives and to other countries, to help trouble-shoot things that are coming up. is just going to be a value-added for sure. >> we'll be watching that closely as i know your personnel will be. a question to you, you were on the air about two hours ago, mr. skinner. when my colleague asked you about the condition of one of the nurses being treated, you said you didn't know the names of those nurses, those comments are now trending nationally. simple question, should a cdc public spokesperson know the names of the two patients at the center of the ebola scare? >> to be honest with you, for the sake of protecting the

confidentiality of the patients, we do not name individuals here. so the reason i don't know the names of them is because the names of individuals out of protecting patient confide confidentiality is not something that we in the line of work that i do, are accustomed to providing to people. >> but mr. skinner, other cdc officials have freely used those names and they're a matter of public record now. they're in widespread use. >> very well. but i'm just telling you by the mode of operations that i fall under for patient confidentiality sake, i don't use the names of individuals. >> all right. well moving on to other big questions about how robust an attentive this cdc response has been. those two nurses, amber vinson and nina pham contracted ebola while treating a man at that texas hospital. did the cdc fail to properly oversee standards of protective

gear there? >> what exactly happened at the hospital as far as how these health care workers became infected something we're looking into. however we may never know. there is movement on our part to simplify the infection control. hopefully to make the guidelines easier to follow. but i think the one thing we would be remiss pointing out is health care workers, and hospitals have to practice and practice and practice some more. putting on and taking off this personal protective equipment, hospitals have to drill, our guidelines can only do so much it's these, these exercises or caring for ebola patients, it's difficult and challenging. so health care workers have to practice putting on and taking off -- the equipment. >> i hear you mr. skinner that there's a onus on the health care worker, that the cdc can't

do everything. but should it be the cdc's responsibility to make sure the guidelines are enforced? >> we're not a regulatory agency, we have no enforcement role in making sure that hospitals follow our guidelines. we have not a regulatory agency. but it is up to us and our responsibility one that we take very seriously. to make sure that hospitals and nurses are equipped and my point is, that it's up to the nurses and the hospitals to really practice and practice more, to be able to follow this guidance. to a tee. one slight slip, and someone can get infected. >> so mr. skinner what government body should be responsible for overseeing a case where there is seemingly a problematic response going on that could lead to more widespread infection? >> again, the cdc is not a regulatory agency, we don't regulate how hospitals you know, operate or protect their workers. again, we're in the business of educating and preparing them and

that's what we're doing. >> all right. well i certainly thank you for those efforts. i want to ask you about the capacity for treating additional patients going forward. take a look at this we know at the university of nebraska there are three beds total to treat patients in this kind of a situation. there is one patient there now. one bed taken. that's the nbc freelance cameraman being treated in omaha. around the country we have three other facilities that specialize in this kind of infectious disease treatment. emory university, three beds for ebola patients there. two of those beds are currently enter use already. one american worker for the w.h.o. who has been there over a month. and as well as amber vinson, the nurse we mentioned. at the national institutes of health in bethesda, there's a capacity for two beds, nina pham is in one of those. finally at st. patrick's hospital in montana, they have one bed and there's nobody there. nine beds total, four currently in use. the simple question, does the cdc have a contingency plan for

what happenes if more than five people need beds? >> there's no question that we have to surge our capacity to have more beds and that's something that we're looking into. this notion of having more regional hospitals especially equipped to care for ebola patients, that's something we're looking into. >> looking into. is there a plan, mr. skin centre. >> let me finish my statement. in the meantime, we have to be able to have every single hospital out there be prepared to take in an ebola patient. we don't know when or where an ebola patient may come into. so every hospital needs to be able to take in, properly isolate and the notion of having to care long-term for them, is something that we're looking into as far as regional hospitals go. >> and so that is the plan to build capacity at these other hospitals? >> it's something that we're looking into. the need to have more hospitals like emory with the ability to care for patients and expand the numb of beds that we have to

something that we're looking into. >> tom skinner, thank you, i know you've been fielding a lot of tough questions today. certainly all of our thoughts and support are with you, this is an important effort that you're involved in. >> thank you, all right. one of the members of congress who grilled administration health officials yesterday at those hearings on the hill we mentioned, congressman john yarmouth, he joins me now. what do you make of this appointment of ron klain to lead the administration's response to ebola? >> i think it's very good. i submitted a paper done by the university of louisville doctor, about the nature of the fragmented nature of our health care delivery system. and how that might be a problem with treating ebola. we rely on an awful lot of front-line people and at the local level, hospitals, local health authorities. statewide and so forth. so the need to coordinate all of those activities, as well as the myriad of federal agencies that are involved, if you looked at the hearing yesterday, it wasn't just cdc, it was nih, it was the

food and drug administration, it was border patrol. so you had department of homeland security. you have department of defense. all of these agencies in some way involved in combatting this potential threat. so i think someone who can coordinate those, to make sure that communication is, is fluid and seamless, is a very, very important component of developing the right kind of strategy here. >> congressman, does congress deserve some blame, though, for holding up the nomination of a surgeon general who maybe could play some of the coordinating and messaging role? >> i'm certainly ready to place blaxt right now we've had one person die in the united states from the ebola virus, we have 11,000 people who die every year from murder, homicides with guns. also in the purview of the cdc. so to hold up a surgeon general because of something that he may have tweeted about firearms, it seems to me to be ludicrous,

disproportionate to the actual threat to the united states citizen. right now you're 11,000 times more likely to be shot to death than killed by the ebola virus. we need to have a surgeon general on the job. he or she would be the at least the public face of the efforts to combat any threat from ebola. and it's really absurd that we have gone over something comments made about a problem that is significantly worse than ebola. >> it seems darkly comical. that at a time we're in the midst of the worst outbreak in the world's history, that there's no one on the job. this topic of an ebola czar is today's hash tag battle. we want you to weigh in, is it the right move for the government to create an additional bureaucratic role? and will it make a difference? should they have supported one with a medical background for the role? tweet us with #yesczar, or

#noczar. up next after the break, we look at whether ebola fears are justified. and who's fueling those fears? a little bit of an explainer on fact and fiction. they challenge us. they take us to worlds full of heroes and titans. for respawn, building the best interactive entertainment begins with the cloud. this is "titanfall," the first multi-player game built and run on microsoft azure. empowering gamers around the world to interact in ways they never thought possible. this cloud turns data into excitement. this is the microsoft cloud.

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the ohio bridal shop that dallas nurse amber vinson visited saturday now closed. a nearby elementary school shut down simply because a student's mom spent time with vinson. even though vinson had no contact with the woman's daughter. and near san diego, just word that a student's sister was hospitalized with flu-like symptoms was enough for officials to evacuate and briefly cordon off a college building. >> nbc's peter alexander

reporting on the ebola fear and confusion. now making its way across the united states. remember, the facts here, the virus can only be transmitted by direct contact with bodily fluids and only if someone already is showing symptoms. that's creating a real threat in west africa for sure, and a real threat to the few health care workers unfortunately in the position of treating ebola patients here in the u.s. but is any fear justified for people in a very different situation? ordinary americans in communities around the country that are concerned. kareen ustair just returned from liberia's treatment clinics and previously worked in a trauma icu of a major hospital in seattle here in the u.s. thanks for being here. president obama tried to calm american fears this week, he said the dangers are extraordinarily low. take a listen to this. >> i shook hands with, hugged and kissed, not the doctors, but a couple of the nurses.

at emory. they followed the protocols, they knew what they were doing. and i felt perfectly safe doing so. >> kareen, you know the risks well, what would your message be to americans who are understandably concerned right now? >> yeah. i think you know, it would be i hope a message of calm. i think president obama was very smart to do what he did. and the fact is, that in the united states we've only had a handful of people who have been infected and why we shouldn't be minimizing at all what happened and i think that it was good in a sense that it happened because it exposed some of the weaknesses or some of the holes in our system, i think we should really refrain the question and continue to focus on western africa. because it is by sending resources, health care staff, money, equipment to western

africa and to contain the illness there, that we're going to have no cases of ebola coming into the united states. so again we need to really focus, really remember it's in western africa that we need to be and we need to focus our efforts. think the w.h.o. is talking about having upwards ever 10,000 new infections per week. so this is really a different scale from the handful that we're seeing in the u.s. >> and karin, given that it's only a handful we're seeing in the u.s. as of now, when you hear the tone on the hill, for instance in these hearings yesterday, a lot of raised voices, a lot of words like emergency, a lot of talk about grounding all flights out of that part of west africa, do you think the tone is appropriate? has congress behaved in a way that matches up with the actual medical facts about how risky this is? >> i wish congress would be as forceful as they have been yesterday. talking about the response that we need to have in western

africa. that the world, that the global powers that be should have in western africa. i think the anger should be redirected towards the efforts that we should have over there. i think very well placed. i wish that they would be angry, they would have been angry several months ago at the very beginning of the epidemic. >> karin, bloomberg created a chart, of media coverage of ebola around the world and what we're seeing on this chart here is that wire stories in the u.s. spiked right as the disease reached america. is it a good thing on some level that so much attention is being raised here? or do you think the media is contributing to some of the unfounded fears? >> well of course the media helps in some ways and it's not always very good. but i think in that case, it is a good thing. because all of a sudden americans are really waking up to something that has started back in march or april. and nobody really was interested

about ebola in western africa. and all of a sudden because it's reached the shores of the united states, it's affected americans. people start to care. and people start to be scared. so while it's never a good thing, our folks affected by something like ebola, i think in the grand scheme of things, it will help putting the appropriate resources where they should be. >> karin huster, such an important message, that's something we're trying hard for. we're just listening in now to the white house briefing. press secretary josh earnest delivering that and answering some of the questions we've been talking about. take a listen. >> you'll recall at the cdc, and usaid deployed personnel to west africa back in the spring. over the course of the summer, additional resources were moved to that region of the world.

because this administration had a keen understanding that the best way to protect the american public and to eliminate risk from the ebola virus to the american public, is to stop this outbreak at the source. >> and that's why you've seen the cdc make the largest-ever commitment of resources and personnel to the specific effort. and that was something that was done even before this outbreak has gotten the kind of media attention that it has in the last several weeks. the president has followed up on the effort by committing significant department of defense resources to this effort. by adding the department of defense's logistical expertise, we can leverage a greater international confidence in the ongoing response effort. we've pleased to have seen the response from countries and nongovernmental organizations around the world who are focusing more time and attention and resources on this effort. however, there's quite a bit more that can be done. that's why you've seen the president convene a number of telephone calls over the last 48

hours or so, with leaders in japan across europe. the president placed a couple of additional phone calls yesterday. to try to -- enlist greater international support, for the very serious situation we see in west africa right now. >> the president's choice to be the point man on running the ebola response, ron klain, is coming under criticism from republicans on capitol hill. >> that's a shocking development. shocking. what did it take, three weeks before election day and republicans are seeking to score political points? stop the presses. >> i guess you think that they're scoring political points, as opposed to there being any legitimate questions whether it might be smart to have someone with some element of medical or pebble health expertise as opposed to a government insider to be running this kind of operation. >> i think you're asking a good question. which is, what kind of person is

appropriate to fill this role. the fact of the matter is this is much broader than just a medical response. the response that you've seen from the administration is a whole government response. to insure we're leveraging the necessary resources to protect the american public. so as i mentioned earlier. everyone said and the department of defense, in addition to the cdc have been involved in responding to the outbreak in west africa. you've seen the department of homeland security and customs and border patrol play an important role in this effort, which is to monitor the borders and screen passengers from airplanes, from entering the country. there are additional screening measures in department of homeland security put in place within the last couple of weeks to make sure we're protecting the american public. there's an important role to communicate with state and local leaders and public health officials, to protect the american public. there is a significant medical component as well of course. but it's not solely a medical response. that's why somebody with mr. klain's credentials, somebody

that has strong management experience, inside government and also in the private sector. he's somebody who has strong relationships with members of congress and strong relationships with those of us who worked with him here at the white house earlier in the administration. all of that means he is the right person for the job. he is the right person to make sure that we're integrating the interagency response to this significant challenge. >> the president last night when we were in the oval office. >> you've been listening to the josh earnest, the white house spokesperson and about some questions about the newly elected ebola czar. ron klain, and a lot of questions about his background and expertise, press secretary earnest saying he has plenty of management experience that equips him well for that. first coming up later in the show, an exclusive tour of the big tech stories origin point today, will i am's idea factory

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air travel is in fact how this disease crosses borders. and it certainly how it got to texas in the first place. based on recent and ongoing developments, i believe it is the right policy to ban air travel from countries that have been hit hardest by the ebola outbreak. certainly there should be an

exception for aid workers, so that they continue their important work fighting this disease. >> governor rick perry in texas, this past hour calling for an ebola flight ban. two other stories moving fast out of texas. a dallas hospital worker who may have handled ebola samples is on a caribbean cruise and now quarantined on board, not showing symptoms it's important to note, just as the cruise line puts it, out of an aboundens of caution. some dallas health care workers have signed an agreement limiting their movements, among those limits, no one who entered thomas eric duncan's room can travel on commercial transportation from 21 days. let's get to nbc's craig melvin live in dallas. craig, you're there at the hospital, what can you tell us about what health care workers are doing, in particular about this health care agreement. >> the agreement that was reached this morning, again we're still trying to figure out

precisely how many of the workers had signed the agreement and how many workers have indicated they will sign the agreement. are going to be speaking with the county executive here in the next 30-45 minutes. the agreement is not what the county executive was seeking yesterday. yesterday he talked about posing essentially a disaster declaration. declare two of the disaster area here in dallas. that would have given him broad sweeping powers and he would have been able to order these people not to travel. instead after meeting with the commissioners in dallas, they reached an agreement of sorts. and as you indicated, under the agreement folks who were being monitored, folks under the 21-day monitoring period, people who came in direct or indirect contact with thomas eric duncan here at dallas presbyterian, they're not going to be allowed to travel on trains, planes, not going to be allowed to go to public places as well. they're going to be large gatherings, i.e. football

stadiums. now the question is of course, how is this going to be enforced? that was the question i asked the public information director this morning. it was basically said it's sort of a -- a gentleman's agreement. they're not going to be following these people around. they're going to take them at their word, that they won't be using public transit. again the 21-day period, for one person, actually ended today. a large number of folks, it's going to end over the next day or so by the weekend, just about everyone who came in contact with thomas eric duncan will be out of the 21-day period. >> so thankfully, they'll be out of the window. but still a tough situation for health workers there. i was down there reporting at the hospital earlier in the week. at that time, the talk was all about how this hospital may have breached protocol. there were a lot of angry health care workers talking on background. have you seen evidence of that hospital picking up their game? upping their standards here?

>> one thing is for sure, the hospital has become acutely aware of the pr nightmare that it faces. as a result of that. they have gone out and hired one of the largest public relations firms in this country. as you probably know, it had been somewhat difficult to get official responses from the hospital. in the past 24 hours, that has changed dramatically. we're getting a great deal of information, we're also getting the video that you just, that you played earlier in your broadcast i believe, showing nina pham in her isolation unit. that came from the hospital, a number of other interviews so to speak with nurses, also coming from the hospital. that's not something that we saw just a few days ago. we're seeing that. what we have not gotten, ronan, as you know, is sort of a direct blow-by-blow response to the nurses on the "today show" two days ago, detailing some specific breaches, the hospital

still has not responded to those specific accusations. i guess in a sense you could say it stepped up its game to a certain extent. >> what are you hearing about the monitoring of these other health care workers, up to 75 we were hearing at one point that may have come into contact with thomas eric duncan. what are they doing to keep track of whether anyone shows symptoms? >> that's the million dollar question. that's a question we've asked a number of times down here. the monitoring, we use the word monitoring for lack of a better word. it's not as if these folks have people in cars sitting outside their homes. there's still a fair amount of trust involved. they're checking in with these workers. but you know, the agreement that was reached this morning for instance, that agreement was a direct result of one nurse, who managed to hop a commercial airliner and get to ohio, and the other person, that you just mentioned here from the top of

this segment. who managed to get on a cruise ship. the agreement was, in response to that it's a good question. we don't know precisely how they are being monitored. and whether that monitoring is, is aggressive. >> craig, thank you for keeping tabs on all this down there, you're doing an incredible job down there. everybody should watch craig, he's filling in for joy reid at the beginning of the next hour. craig, give us a preview. >> coming up, as i just indicated we'll be talking to the chief executive here. i'll be talking to a local congresswoman. about the federaltracking of co some weather, the cat 4 hurricane about to hit bermuda. we'll spend some time looking at that as well. we've got a jam-packed hour coming up. >> that will be big, looking forward to it. everybody at home. can you watch that at 2:00 p.m., the reid report live from dallas right after this show. up next, a surprising link between the ebola crisis and the environment. this is the number one story you wanted to hear more about, our

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oil. tires. brakes. everything. trust the midas touch. . with the world in the midst of the worst ebola outbreak on record, scientists are looking in unexpected places for a root cause. just hours ago, discovery news unearthed this emerging body of literature, that suggests deforestation, the cutting down of the world's forests could be a factor in the spread of ebola. sound a little far-fetched? think of it this way, the three countries hit hardest by ebola, guinea, liberia and sierra leone, have all experienced massive deforestation. that means more interactions between humans and wildlife. according to a 2005 article in the journal of emerging and infectious diseases, johns hopkins researchers linked

previous ebola outbreaks to this kind of extensive death of forest animals. a new addition to add to the worries of the fast pace of world industrialization. let's talk with the dean of cool in houston and a forestation campaign director at greenpeace, an organization in the lead on a lot he deforestation questions. this link between deforestation and ebola caught us offguard. can you expand on the kinds of risks we could see in the widespread killing of animals and the lack of animal habitats for infectious diseases, specifically? >> sure and it seems to be the deforestation that seems to be linked to a conflict or post-conflict situations. there's been a breakdown of infrastructure and a need to knock down forests. people have been foraging, and this has created more

interactions between humans and animals. it turns out that the fruit bat is probably the natural reservoir for the ebola virus. fruit bats live with ebola virus. they don't get sick from ebola virus. as a result if humans come into contact with fruit bats, we then get ebola virus spreading into a place like guinea, which is where the epicenter of the epidemic is. we've seen it in other infectious diseases as well. deforestation linked to another disease and the list goes on. >> is this a central feature of the spread of infectious diseases in some parts of the world where there are vectors like the fruit bat that people should be more aware of and more concerned about? >> and the frontier forests, the first cut can often be the deepest and when the chain saws first hit the forests it sets off a chain reaction, not just interaction between humans and the animals, but consumption,

fruit bats, chimpanzees, all kinds of animals can end up on the dinner table, unfortunately and that increases the risk of these kinds of outbreaks. >> obviously greenpeace, very proactive on the deforestation issue, but you are lukewarm about commitments that just came out of the u.n. climate summit last month. one was a commitment to end deforestation in 100 countries, corporations and civil groups joined that initiative. but greenpeace sat it out, why? >> because the date for ending deforestation in that declaration is too far off. they talked about 2030. that simply isn't fast enough. this is happening now. people's traditional lands are being stolen in places like africa, only 400 sumatran tigers left in indonesia. deforestation is an issue that's facing us now, we need to address it now. many companies agree with us,

procter & gamble and agricultural companies, like cargill, pledged to cut deforestation out of its supply chains entirely in a much faster timeframe than the declaration stated. >> dr. hotez isn't having some sort of agreement, even if the accord is weaker than one would like, better than nothing? >> clearly, climate change is an important factor, in promoting infectious diseases. but we should also emphasize what's really emerging, it's together with poverty and conflict. so it doesn't seem to be climate change alone. but the combination of extreme poverty, and then being in a conflict or post conflict setting, this creates the perfect storm for emerging infectious diseases. we saw this previously in the democratic republic of congo in the 1970s, where more half a million people died of african sleeping sickness, transferred by tse tse flies and we so you

seau is in southern sudan with another infectious disease, 100,000 people died, more than ten times in the current ebola epidemic. and so what i often tell my students and others is that ebola viruses is on the same spectrum. then we also have to look at