arthur kaplan is the director of medical ethics at new york university's langone medical center. he was nice enough to join us from vacation via skype from denver, colorado. or steamboat springs, right? >> that's right. >> thanks for being with us. the interesting thing, we've heard a lot about its surprising results that there was just a one day after taking the serum an improvement in at least two of the patients. you had an interesting story about where this came from and why putting it into widespread use at least right now is an extremely large challenge. >> well, you still have a highly experimental drug. it's great, almost unexpected that it would do so well in the first two humans who got it. it's really only been given to a small number of monkeys, success there. but to bring a drug forward really so you know how to use it, what the dose is, how to administer it, how often to give it you have to test it on a lot more human beings. we might try this drug on children, very old people. what are the doses for them, how they're going to respond again unknown. so very promisin

and arthur kaplan, the director of the public health department in atlanta. doctor, let me start with you, i heard so many people say when the news was revealed that these two people had been cured. in just three weeks, here's you've had this medical break through. what are your thoughts today? >> i don't think you can call this a medical break through because i don't think we could definitively say at all that it was the medication that they got that made them better. because remember, about 50% of people survive ebola anyway, even under conditions that are not as good as the excellent medical conditions at emery, so although we're very, very pleased that they're doing well, and that they're going to be discharged, i think it is really beyond the scientific evidence to say that we have a medical break through here, i just wouldn't categorize it as that. i would say that we have a couple of people who have gotten excellent medical care, the therapy, the specific therapy, that may have had a role in it but we don't know definitivity. >> we're just getting more

according to arthur kaplan, director of bioethics at nyu langone medical center.idea of being diagnosed with ebola is terrifying, absolutely horrifying. today's outbreak is the worst than ever, 1,600 suspected cases and 887 deaths according to the world health organization. it is not nearly as contagious as another more common disease. the flu, which you might have heard of, causes as many as 500,000 deaths each year. 500,000. ebola is scarier with the whole sometimes bleeding from the eyes thing. but you are a lot less likely to die from it. in a press conference today, bruce johnson, director of simusa, the organization nancy writebol is working for in liberia added some perspective. >> i don't know if you know, but there are 50 doctors, liberian doctors, for 4 million people. the kind of infrastructure that we have in the u.s. is something that really provides this. i saw a report, you can help me here, someone in new york went into a hospital and felt like they may have ebola. that's exactly what people need to do, but it's not available in liberia. they can't

want to bring in professor arthur kaplan. let me start with nigeria and why that's so concerning. contact from someone who came in through the airport. this is not supposed to happen. >> not supposed to happen. nigeria is a big, sophisticated, relatively rich country. it's got a lot of doctors. should be able to quarantine. should be able to restrict travel. should be able to educate people. if you're throwing up, if you're sick, no airport for you. so the fact that these two cases happened is troubling. it's also bothersome because there's a lot of people coming and going around nigeria and through nigeria for business. that's a place you want to have absolutely good quarantine. >> this is the big fear. all we talk about is airports, people being able to move around. i don't want to call this isolated, but this has to be a cause for greater concern because that's a major airport, and somebody gets on a plane there is not caught and ends up somewhere else, we're having a different conversation. >> that's right. it's a big hub for africa, but it's a big hub to the rest of the world