dr. frieden. dr. frieden, thank you very much for being here and providing the subcommittee with your testimony. i actually have a number of questions for you, in fact, four, and i'll get right to those since time is of the essence. firstly, can you leads describe the -- please describe the oils and procedures cdc has in place to handle biosafety issues that may arise from human error like what happened in the bioterrorrism rapid response and advance technology laboratory in atlanta on june the 5th? >> we have extensive policies and procedures, but what we are doing now is implementing a moratorium on all transfers out of bsl3 and bsl4 laboratories while we review each lab laboratory's policy and procedure to insure there's an appropriate activation before any materials are transferred out. >> and i appreciate that answer, and you explained that to us, i think, last week in an informal setting, and i think that's a good thing. that leads to my second question, what is the impact on the cost of the brra

dr. frieden, or for you, dr. dick, if it's determined that a dangerous biological agent has been stolen, who do you report that to? >> sir, we have a protocol for dealing with theft. there has been no theft of biological agent reported from either c.d.c. or any of the regulated facilities in the 10 years of the program, to my knowledge. when there are concerns for potential theft or misplacement, we work with law enforcement, including the f.b.i., to do a joint investigation. i would just mention that our expansion of surprise inspections was something that we had erected over the last few years at c.d.c. because we felt it was important to do. >> so you say there have been no reports of stolen agents? >> that's my understanding. >> what about missing biological agents? >> there have been losses at certain facilities and in those circumstances we also coordinate with the f.b.i. usually it's an issue of inventory control. so earlier we were talking about critical control points, such as inactivation of virulent pa

dr. frieden. donna lagier reporter for u.s. today, vice chair of national press club speaker's committee and former president. doris mar fwmpb olis president of editorial associates and national press club speaker's committee member who organized today's luncheon. faith mitchell, president and ceo of grant makers in health and guest of dr. frieden's. susan heavy correspondent for reuters. carolyn block publisher and editor federal telemedicine news. hirito. this time last week dr. tom frieden was busy cramming for his july 16th appearance before the house committee on energy and commerce. the director of the centers for disease control dr. frieden had been summoned to washington to answer questions about the startling and potentially dangerous lab errors at the cdc and while that topic is likely to come up again here today, dr. frieden joins us to explore a much bigger and broader issue, looming worldwide health threats including the pathogens that put modern medicine at risk. he'll explain the mr

dr. frieden's. we had an independent team come in during and ongoing investigation by cdc and staff and select agent group was interviewing employees and workers from the various sections that were responding to this. we found very similar findings to those that he just indicated. >> okay. >> you know, i wanted to follow-up for a second on what the chairman was saying about the possibility of even stealing something that is a threat. you know, in the smallpox incident, it turned out that the viles were discovered at nih, but they could have been somewhere else. nobody seemed to know. that's really disturbing too, that, you know, who knows, somebody could have taken them out. i mean so i'm not sure when you say nothing's been stolen, but it also says nothing could have been stolen. you want to respond to that? >> well, we have taken a number of steps to strengthen the security aspect of select agent registration. those steps include assessments for all people who work with tier 1 agents including loo

dr. frieden, or for you, dr. dick, if it's determined that a dangerous biological agent has been stolen, who do you report that to? >> sir, we have a protocol for dealing with theft. there has been no theft of biological agent reported from ither c.d.c. or any of the regulated facilities in the 10 years of the program, to my knowledge. when there are concerns for potential theft or misplacement, we work with law enforcement, including the f.b.i., to do a joint investigation. i would just mention that our expansion of surprise inspections was something that we had erected over the last few years at c.d.c. because we felt it was important to do. >> so you say there have been no reports of stolen agents? >> that's my understanding. >> what about missing biological agents? >> there have been losses at certain facilities and in those circumstances we also coordinate with the f.b.i. usually it's an issue of inventory control. so earlier we were talking about critical control points, such as inactivation of virulent pat

dr. frieden's. susan heavy correspondent for reuters. carolyn block publisher and editor federal telemedicine news. hirito. this time last week dr. tom frieden was busy cramming for his july 16th appearance before the house committee on energy and commerce. the director of the centers for disease control dr. frieden had been summoned to washington to answer questions about the startling and potentially dangerous lab errors at the cdc and while that topic is likely to come up again here today, dr. frieden joins us to explore a much bigger and broader issue, looming worldwide health threats including the pathogens that put modern medicine at risk. he'll explain the mr. mers coronavirus a disease that has no known cure and has recently immigrated to our country. it haunts the arabian peninsula and is showing up in travellers through other destinations far away. the virus has reached an arrival in the united states, sent hundreds of cdc staff into emergency mode. and some now refer to this illness as public enemy number one. other issues that

dr. frieden. according to a recent report by the fda, 80th of all antibiotic -- 80% of all antibiotics used in the united states are fed to farm animals. this means that only 20% of antibiotics which were originally developed to protect human health are actually used to treat infections in people. what is being done to address this issue? >> we want to see rational antibiotic use wherever antibiotics are used. and i think that means, for example, in farm animals or feed animals that if animals are ill, they should be treated. using antibiotics that are of importance to humans for growth promotion is clearly something that we, the fda, the usda is and the food industry is concerned about. i think that's something that we'll see progress on in the coming months and years. it's more of a fda/us, the a issue than it is a cdc issue. but we do recognize as cdc that some of the most resistant organisms we're seeing like cre which is a nightmare bacteria, it's resistant to virtually all antibiotics, and a

dr. thomas frieden under the microscope at a house hearing. head of the centers for disease control was called to account after more than 80 c.d.c. lab workers were exposed to live strains of anthrax last month, in atlanta. the agency has also acknowledged that it mistakenly shipped the avian flu virus to outside labs. separately, several 60-year-old vials of small pox, some with still viable strains, were found at the national institutes of health in bethesda, maryland. no one was sickened in the incidents, but, frieden conceded: >> the fact that no one was harmed does not mean it is acceptable. it should never have happened. >> reporter: lawmakers pointed to a pattern of disturbing incidents, and to c.d.c.'s failure to report them before now. the house panel found that federal investigators have documented dozens of other safety violations at c.d.c. facilities in atlanta. among them: storing anthrax in unlocked refrigerators. allowing unauthorized access to labs. failing to document that staff were properly trained. and, even, transferring g

dr. thomas frieden. he's accompanied by mr. puty director of the office of security and emergency preparedness at the center for disease control. dr. jerry from the health inspection services at the u.s. department of agriculture. dr. kingsbury for applied research and methods at the u.s. government accountability office. dr. gingrey did you want to introduce somebody from your district? >> mr. chairman, thank you for giving me the opportunity. i know this witness is on the second panel and it will be a little while before we'll be hearing from the second panel, but it is an honor and a pleasure to introduce off of the second panel shawn kaufman. mr. kaufman is president and founding partner of a company called behavioral based improvement solutions. his background is long-term employment with the cdc before forming his own company in my district, the 11th congressional district of georgia in woodstock, georgia. and i would encourage all of the members on both sides of the aisle if you haven't had a chance, we try to read all of

dr. tom frieden, said "he was astonished at the latest breech and angry." here's dr. jon lapook. >> reporter: for the third time in a month, the c.d.c. acknowledged deadly pathogens were handled incorrectly in government labs. c.d.c. director dr. tom frieden: >> so i'm upset, i'm angry, i've lost sleep over it, and am working around the clock to make sure we do everything possible to resolve it. >> reporter: in the latest case revealed today, c.d.c. workers somehow lost track of samples of the dangerous h5-n1 influenza virus. the virus was added to a shipment that went to a secure lab in athens, georgia. the c.d.c. says both facilities were highly secure and nobody was ever at risk. frieden says the mistake was discovered in late may, but he was only told about it this week. can you take me back to the moment when you found out about h5-n1? >> i remember it vividly. i was sitting at my desk in the washington office, and i was stunned and appalled this could have happened and there could have been this type of delay in notification. >> reporter: this comes after 60-yea

dr. frieden suggests our exactly the steps required. the question is whether this time will be different from the previous time and the time before that, and the time before that. >> and if they did not do that, according to what you said, you would terminate the whole bunch? [laughter] >> in this particular case personnel action won't be sufficient to resolve the issue. this issue is institutional and organizational. they cannot have the regulatory authority to regulate themselves. it simply does not work. it does not work in many areas of human endeavor. >> mr. kaufman, anything to add? >> i continue to stand by my belief that -- and my conviction -- because over the last 10 years i have traveled several labs and i have asked scientists to please report laboratory accidents and incidents so we can learn from them. if we take this chance now and turn this into a punitive action against scientists that make intended injuries, it builds resentment, teaches no new behavior, and it hides true behavior. if we're going to make decisions to d

dr. frieden. >> chairman murphy, ranking member degtette. chairman murphy, ranking member of the, members subcommittee, thank you for letting us appear before you. -- me i will review the problems that have come to light in the past month and tell you what we are doing now to address improving lab safety. the fact that it appears that no one was harmed and that there were no releases does not excuse what happened. what happened was completely unacceptable. it should never have happened. if i leave you with just one thought about today's hearing as it relates to c.d.c., it is this, with the recent incidents we recognize the pattern at c.d.c. where we need to greatly improve the culture of safety and i'm overseeing sweeping measures to improve that culture of safety. c.d.c. works 24/7 and our scientists protect americans from threats like ebola and mrsa and manmade threats such as anthrax. but we must do that work more safely, and we will. there's a recap of the recent incidents that summarized in our report, which has been completed and we ar

dr. frieden you were so surprised is a problem in of itself. jenna: steve centanni in washington with the very latest on this story. steve? >> reporter: serious problems at cdc the head of that agency saying he will impose a moratorium on shipment of all kind of substances like anthrax until they can get to the bottom of this. in an incident last month at the cdc lab that handles bioterrorism agents dozens of workers were potentially exposed to anthrax when samples were sent to another lab without being sterilized first. nobody got sick but it was very dangerous. there was internal investigation. then a usda investigation and now capitol hill, congress is looking into it. the chairman of the committee in today' hearing. listen. >> what we have here is a pattern of reoccurring issues of complacency and a lax cult of safety. this is not sound science and this will not be tolerated. these practices put the health of the american public at risk. it is sloppy and it is unexcusable. >> reporter: now the cdc director was in the hot seat today and ackn

dr. frieden, this is like saying, i didn't know the gun was loaded but somebody got shot. you should always assume it is. for someone to say, i didn't think the anthrax was live isn't acceptable. >> it's important to put that into context because what he's talking about there is, they put those samples into a plastic baggy after they were convin convinced -- they were wrong -- that in fact the anthrax samples had been killed. we know now that they were in fact probably alive. >> tom, thanks so much. >>> and coming up, a medical breakthrough? how a simple eye test could some day change the game for alzheimer's early screening. that's next on "and rey 0 area mitchell reports" only here on msnbc. oblem isn't likely to go away... ...on its own. reports" only here on msnbc. >>> welcome back. could a trip to the eye doctor some day become also a way to screen for alzheimer's disease? researchers say that looking at changes in the retina and even alter raigss in your sense of smell could become early alzheimer's detection aids. these and other findings at the annual international

dr. tom frieden, thank you very much. >> the president is meeting this evening with congressional leaders on the surge of illegal immigrant children on the southern border. today a pew center poll found that 53% of americans support accelerating the legal deportation process while 38% want to stay with the current policy. there are nearly 9,000 illegal immigrant children in u.s. custody now waiting for a hearing on whether they can stay. those children were part of a surge of more than 57,000 unaccompanied minors who have come from central america just since last october. manual bojorquez went to el salvadore to find out why so many children are headed north. tonight he has raul's story. >> here if you don't do certain things, your life is going to end anyways. and it's better to try than to just stay and die. >> reporter: 16-year-old raul told us he gets daily threats from the gangs that rule the streets across most of this country. >> what's that like? >> well, it's really horrible because you feel like your life is in danger. you feel like you don't have freedom to walk down the street

dr. thomas frieden made few excuses. >> completely unacceptable. deeply troubling problems. inadequate culture of safety. >> reporter: agreeing this his agency missed a broad pattern of safety lapses. >> we need to improve the culture of safety. >> reporter: specifically, the cdc has temporarily stopped shipping biological specimens like dangerous avian flu, closed the flu and bioterrorism labs, both involved in high profile mistakes, and appointed a senior scientist to oversee safety issues. >> how do you expect to get the trust of america back? >> the scientific work we do is at the highest standards and we'll make sure that the safety work at the cdc is also at the highest standard. >> reporter: the cdc director saying some scientists are too comfortable with dangerous organisms, a lax attitude he vows to change. jim avila, abc news, capitol hill. >> jim, thank you. >>> now to that scare in the sky, that heart stopping moment on board a jumbo jet. tonight we are hearing from the passengers on an international flight, at least 20 of them injured. look at this. a passenger

itself was speaking out about the need to reduce the number of these labs dr thomas frieden recently said one of the things that we want to do is reduce the number of laboratories that work with dangerous agents the absolute minimum necessary reduce the number of people who have access to these laboratories to the absolute minimum necessary reduce the number of dangerous pathogens we work with wow what a lot see freedom is beginning to understand that every time a new lab is given access to the most dangerous materials known to man the chances of a catastrophic outbreak are mistaken release increases but as we've seen with pretty much every other policy that's been employed in the war on terror as long as the mirage of keeping us safe is projected and the government's just doing its job. in less than a week the deadline will expire in vienna talks between iran and six other nations of the country's nuclear plans the talks appear to have stalled after an interim deal was reached last november which decreased international sanctions on the country in exchange for freeze on part parts o

dr. tom frieden there will face tough questions this week in washington. he's scheduled to discuss the anthrax scare before a congressional kmecommittee. erica edwards has more on the laboratory mistakes. >> reporter: a report has revealed several serious errors at cdc labs. historically considered world class in their safety precautions. >> i'm disappointed by what happened, and frankly, i'm angry about it. >> reporter: friday tom frieden addressed recent incidents. starting with the anthrax scare that exposed 80 cdc workers. >> the scientists failed to follow a scientifically derived and reviewed protocol that would have assured that anthrax was inactivated and that the material was confirmed to be sterile before it ever left the lab. that should have happened, and it didn't. >> reporter: none of those workers have fallen ill, but that lab is now closed. in a second incident, workers accidentally sent active bird flu to an outside lab. this week another agency discovered decades' old viles of smallpox. these errors coupled with 2006 involving botulism le

dr. tom frieden scheduled to discuss the anthrax scare before a congressional committee. 83 workers were exposed to the virus after it was transported. >>> heads up this morning. five new speed cameras will start giving you tickets in the districts. all the cameras are in southeast d.c. if you are caught speeding, you could be ticketed up to $300. there are more than 117 -- 170 speed cameras across the district. >>> thanks for joining us on this saturday morning. >> the humidity is certainly sticking around for the start of the weekend. >> not good for our hair, right? >> not at all. you don't want to see that. >> time to check in with amelia segal. amelia, you have such a beautiful forecast next week. i have a gold star for you right here. can you see this? gold paper with a star. >> thank you so much. i ordered this weather up. honestly, though, next week we're looking at fabulous weather. temperatures, well, we'll talk about temperatures in a bit. all in all this weekend is going to be nice. it's the epitome of a summer weekend. it will be a little bit humid today with a high around 9

dr. tom frieden is sending 50 more disease specialists from the cdc into the hot zone to try to get this epidemic under control. >> ebola in west africa is worsening. we're responding by surging the cdc response so that we can lep countries find patients, ice lett them, stop spread and appreciate future cases. but it's not going to be quick and it's not going to be easy. >> in fact, frieden told me this ank, finally stopping the outbreak could take three up to six months in the best shot. >> what about ebola patients who could be coming to the united states, john? >> they're workers, volunteers with samaritan's purse and service in mission. dr. kent brantley and nurse nancy rightpol, both severely ill. samaritan purse is working with the centers for disease control and state department to medevac them back to the united states. if they come back, the first-ever cases of ebola in the u.s. samaritan's purse director franklin graham told me all necessary precautions would be taken. >> people are afraid. but these are american citizens, and they want to come home. we're going to help them ge

dr. thomas frieden, the director of the centers for disease control who will address the mers virus and other key health issues. august 1, we will have his excellency, the president of the republic of congo who will discuss peace, security and stability of the central africa region and oil investments in his country. on august 4, will have his excellency, jacob zuma, president of south africa. second, i would like to present our guest with the traditional national press club mug. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> it can go in your office right next to the panthers helmet. and finally, one last question. i understand your daughter is quite the constructive critic it comes to transportation. i would like to hear what advice and useful ideas she's given you lately. [laughter] >> very good question. my daughter is 10 and i brought her to work one day. she went off into another part of the office while i went and did meetings. she came back and said, "daddy, do you think you can influence the bill?" she knows this because she's seen the "schoolhouse rock" stuff and i said i don't know. she say

dr. frieden means even if we had a case introduced in the united states, the probability of extensive spreadcases, ask positionhysicians, me they take good travel histories, educate travelers in the area to monitor themselves for early recognition of symptoms, present to health care in advance, identifying they may be at risk and implementing it very prompt and effective infection control, all the way from the emergency room visit through the hospitalization, and that knowledge has been proven to effectively contain and stamp out epidemics of hemorrhagic fevers in the past. just this spring we had an incident with lhasa fever, another hemorrhagic fever sfwei introduced, three others identified and none of them spread. >> one of the reasons this one case that they were talking about where the man died is really stoking so much fear is that he was traveling from liberia to nigeria. he died after he collapsed in the airport there, which makes me wonder, is there a discussion that is needed or is already being had with airlines and airports about how to better protect and prepare? >> absolutely.

dr. tom frieden, will be talking about the middle east respiratory syndrome known as mirs, as well as the rise of antibiotic resistant diseases. that will be at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. in washington today, a ruling at the federal appeals court may have delivered a serious setback to president obama's health care law, potentially derailing subsidies for many low-income people who have bought policies. they write that a three-judge panel in washington ruled 2-1 that the law as written only allows insurance subsidies in states that have set up their own exchanges. that invalidated an irs regulation that allowed subsidies in 50 states. legal correspondent jeffrey tubin of cnn tweeted after that ruling, the 7-4 democratic majority on the d.c. circuit will nuke option means likely overturning of that obamacare ruling. >>> this weekend on book tv's "after words" -- >> i thought it would be compelling to tell the story of a white family and a black family with the same name who come from the same place and follow them from slavery through the civil war, reconstruction, jim crow, the civil r

dr. frieden's effort at cdc. we have worked with him on numerous issues in the last five years, and he has shown himself to be an effective leader and a strong communicator, and i appreciate the quick action that is taken in response to this incident. i'm encouraged to see that dr. frieden has appointed dr. michael bell to oversee safety protocols and procedures. this investigation has shown us that cdc needs to change its safety culture, in the hope that doctor bell can help instill a new mindset at the agency. still i am concerned that it took the disclosure of several cdc staff to anthrax to finally spur cdc to action. so we want answers from the cdc about how this incident was allowed to happen in the first place. and i look forward to hearing from aphis and gao about the problems they've identified in the past, have cdc should have limited their recommendations moving forward, and what role congress should play in making sure that happens. mr. chairman, this is not the first hearing on the subject. we have l