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 please describe the policies and procedures cdc has in place to handle biosafety issues that may arise from human error? like what happened in the bioterrorism 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 bsl 3 and bsl 4 laboratories while we review each laboratory's policies and procedures to ensure that there's appropriate inactivation before any materials are transferred out. >> 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 and the cost of the brrat laboratory shutdo

dr. frieden, the floor is yours. >> inc. you very much for your interest in global health, your interest in ebola and calling this hearing at this critical and pivotal time. first, let's are member the lives and faces of the men, women and children who are affected by the ebola outbreaks in the four countries currently affected, especially the health care workers who account for a substantial proportion of cases. those are the people we must focus on. those are the people we must support, and it is in africa we can stop this outbreak and protect not only this country but ourselves as well. we focus on what works and i'm incredibly proud of the staff of he centers for disease control and prevention. and i think every american who would know the expertise, dedication of the disease detectives, laboratory experts, disease and intervention specialists who have an on the ground in the past few weeks and months and you are now searching for our response would be proud to know what we are doing there. i want to start with the botto

dr. frieden's. we had an independent team come in during -- there were still ongoing investigation by cdc and their staff and our 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 vials were discovered at nih, but they could have been somewhere else. nobody seemed to know. and 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 suitability assessments for all peop

he's the director at the center for disease control dr frieden said that this outbreak is the largest ever already surpassing the total death toll of all the previous outbreaks combined he also went on to say quote an outbreak anywhere is an outrage. everywhere that's in reference to the global society that we now live in four countries in west africa are affected by the outbreak of guinea liberia and nigeria and sierra leone but perhaps the most compelling testimony came from mr ken isaacs he's the vice president of programs for samaritans purse that's the organization that dr kent brantly works for he is the doctor who acquired who contracted a bowl and west africa and is now undergoing treatment in atlanta i sat down with ken isaacs following the congressional hearing and asked him when he thinks it might hit america i do think a bolo will come to america that's not a question of if it is just when. i don't think that in america we're going to see the death toll because we do have an excellent public health system but what dr frieden said today is absolutely right we will be able t

dr. frieden and i have spoken. they have helped articulate their procedures and protocols for americans returning to this country and we are grateful for that. while our liberian office remains open doing public awareness campaigns, we have suspended all other program activity. i would say we are in the process right now of backing up, replanning, and reloading. we intend to back up and fight the disease more, but we have found some things that are needed. one of the things i have recognized during in the evacuation of our staff is there is only one airplane in the world with one chamber to carry a level four pathogenic disease victim. that plane is in the united states. there is no other aircraft in the world that i can find. that means the united states does not have the capacity to evacuate its citizens back in any significant mass, unless the defense department has something that i am not aware of. it was not easy to get the plane back. but one thing that is important is if the united states -- and i believe th

dr. frieden, the floor is yours. >> inc. you very much for your interest in global health, your interest in ebola and calling this hearing at this critical and pivotal time. first, let's are member the lives and faces of the men, women and children who are outbreaksy the ebola in the four countries currently affected, especially the health care workers who account for a substantial proportion of cases. those are the people we must focus on. those are the people we must support, and it is in africa we can stop this outbreak and protect not only this country but ourselves as well. we focus on what works and i'm incredibly proud of the staff of the centers for disease control -- disease control and prevention and i think every american who would know the expertise, dedication of the disease detectives, laboratory experts, disease and intervention specialists who have an on the ground in the past few weeks and months and you are now searching for our response would be proud to know what we are doing there. i want to start with t

dr. frieden -- he took the cold call when his getting on the airplane. i hope you will talk about any deficiencies and how they can be addressed by the government and the congress of stop -- and the congress. i want to thank chairman smith for calling this hearing during the august recess and i also want to recognize the men and women of the cdc and other international response groups who are on the ground and soon will be on the ground in africa as well as the doctors and nurses helping the two patients n atlanta. i want to thank them because this is very dangerous, what a will be doing all stop and people we do not know their names, will be doing. i think we should tell them we appreciate them. i want to thank the state department and department of defense for their invaluable assistance as this thing is taking place. this is important and serious work and i knew if the american people if they knew what was being done would appreciate their efforts. this should be a very top priority of the white house, the political leadership of the nation. you know

dr. frieden was saying, younr, healthier, better chance of survival that dr. brantly was walking of his own volition. >> i think it's a terrific sign. the incubation period is between eight and 21 days. people spread the disease most when they are sick, which is a good thing. it looks to me like he is now either in the recovery phase or has been able to handled it. >> if you had been over in the area, in western africa in an outbreak area, when would you show symptoms? >> somewhere eight to ten, 21-day period. people coming back to the united states having temperature measured every day and quarantined until that 21 days passed. >> before i let you go, there's a real health threat in your neck of the woods, cleveland and toledo. algae bloom in lake erie making drinking water there toxic. how concerned are you about cleveland and what are you doing to fix it? >> we're concerned about water supply across lake erie and united states. the runoff from fertilizers from the farms has caused the algae to bloom in the lakes. that has gotten worse and worse each year as

dr. tom frieden. and our own dr. richard besser. also a veteran of the cdc. rich, let me begin with you. you've been in that isolation chamber. tell us more about it and what the prognosis is for dr. brantly right now. >> he was supposedly very ill in africa. seeing him walk out of that ambulance is a positive sign. i've spoken to one of the doctors that is on the team taking care of him. two infectious disease specialists, two highly trained nurses. they'll wear that same protective gear that we have been seeing. they'll be able to monitor him much closer. give him fluids, blood transfusions, the kind of care not available in liberia. >> and lots of worry here. are we taking an unnecessary risk? i want to show a tweet from donald trump. he says the u.s. must immediately stop all flights from ebola-infected countries or the plague will start and spread inside our borders. act fast. how do you respond to that? >> ebola is scary. we understand people being afraid. the plain truth is, we can stop ebola. we know how to control it. hospital infection control and s

dr. frieden and i have spoken. they have helped articulate their procedures and protocols for americans returning to this country and we are grateful for that. while our liberian office remains open doing public awareness campaigns, we have suspended all other program activity. i would say we are in the process right now of backing up, replanning, and reloading. we intend to back up and fight the disease more, but we have found some things that are needed. one of the things i have recognized during in the evacuation of our staff is there is only one airplane in the world with one chamber to carry a level four pathogenic disease victim. that plane is in the united states. there is no other aircraft in the world that i can find. that means the united states does not have the capacity to evacuate its citizens back in any significant mass, unless the defense department has something that i am not aware of. it was not easy to get the plane back. but one thing that is important is if the united states -- and i believe th

dr. frieden told me the bigger risk comes from somebody who boards a plane, like patrick sauer sawyer, inlie beera, came down with symptoms and died not long after he landed. or if somebody were to board a plain in liberia and come here to the united states and get sick while they're in the country, that could be a bigger5 issue. but dr. frieden believes the isolation ability in the united states would stop the pred but a the best way to attack this is get into the countries where this is appearing, isolate them, using appropriate disinfecting and burial techniques to stop it where it is. >> thank you very much. >>> the u.n. condemning us for supporting israel's so-called iron dome. is that just dumb? p÷úññ @ >>> that mid-east cease fire just ceased less than two hours after it started. conor powell is in gaza city. >> that cease fire never even got started. it was supposed to go into effect at 8:00 a.m. local time but before and after there was heavy shelling and rockets going out, never got started. but it is -- the failure is being felt here across gaza and has the potential to

dr. frieden took a pass on that one. >> i would need to refer you to the national institutes of health, which would be the lead on developing new treatments and vaccines against ebola. >> ken isaacs testified on behalf of is a marit an's purse. he disclosed that the national institutes of health knew about the experimental treatment from the start and testified it had worked for brantly and writebol. >> that medicine was administered after it was brought to us by the nih people. aside from brantly and writebol ebola can make its way to the united states from others. >> there will be people who come to america from lagos and are here with symptoms. >> thursday's hearing was to make sure we are ready. now, the reason people are so alarmed about this particular outbreak is because it's never before spread so widely, it was typically confined to these remote areas of central africa, now it's within a stone's throw of an international airport. it's on the move. i hear from social media, wanting the truth about what this all means from you at home. we heard the cdc director saying, it's inevitable

dr. thomas frieden is here with me. testified before congress today about the ebola spread, the outbreak. chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta is joining us from atlanta. sanjay, you have a question so go ahead. >> let me ask you you just off top, i was curious about we say that the patients don't start to become infectious spreading the virus till they are sick. we see that and ot website and everywhere. i wanted to get a little bit more detail on that. i mean we know what sick means. how sick are we talking about? we know you can't be a carrier of ebola, but could you be sick spreading the virus and still be able to move around, get on a plane, these sorts of things? >> what we really know is that when you begin to get sick and when have you fever, that's when you begin to shed the virus. and it's only by exchange of body fluids that we will see spread of ebola. that's why health care workers are at such risk. if you see the situation of the patient who went to liberia, he got sick on the plane. so far we don'

dr. tom frieden. thanks so much for joining us. do you have any update on the conditions of these patients for us? >> you'd really have to address that to the nongovernmental organization, samaritans purse that ep employed them and is caring for them in this time. >> obviously, the decision to bring these ebola patients into the u.s. just factually increases the risk of infecting more people here in the u.s. can you assure the american people that that won't happen? >> you know, it's really important to be clear about how ebola spreads. first off, it doesn't spread from someone who's not sick. so if someone has been exposed to ebola but not sick, they can't spread it to someone else. second, it's spread only by contact with body fluids. and what happens in africa is the spread is through health care where there isn't infection control and through burial practices that expose people to body fluids of someone who's died from ebola. we can ensure that the health care that's given here is done according to meticulous attention to infec

dr. frieden specifically about the experimental drug zmapp. it had never been used on a human before.t animals. representative bass wanted to know why did just two americans with ebola receive the serum with so many africans so sick? >> i would like for you to talk a little bit about that because there's a lot of concern that maybe we have access to this and are not providing that access. >> reporter: dr. freeden took a pass on that one. >> i really would need to refer you to the national institutes of health, which would be the lead on developing new treatments and vaccines against ebola. >> reporter: ken isaacs testified on behalf of samaritan's purse, where both dr. kent brantly and nancy writebol were working when they got infected. he disclosed that the national institutes of health knew about the experimental treatment from the start and testified that it had worked for both brantly and writebol. >> that medicine was administered after it was brought to us by the nih people. and there was improvement. they seem to have gotten better. >> reporter: one point of agreement, aside fr

dr. frieden warned of the severity of the outbreak but he believes there's a plan in place to get it underontrol. what is this plan? >> you know, he sort of predicates this a little bit on the fact that they've always been able to get ebola outbreaks under control. admittedly this is the biggest most widespread ebowl lal outbreak in history. but it really has to do with dealing with things on the ground in west africa. breaking up some cultural practices that seem to be adding to the spread of the disease, particularly around funerals. this is a big deal. we saw some of this in guinea, as well. the idea of public funerals where there's laying on of the hands at a time when the body is still shedding virus is a huge problem. until you start to stem it at the source there, you're not going to get control. you can do thingsing with screenings at airports and border shutdowns and things like that, but that's not going to control the problem. he made another interesting point that the public health infrastructure is bad there. we've known that for a long time. it's so bad things like this sort

dr. tom frieden to talk about the outbreak and the decision to bring the ebola virus to the u.s. for the first time. i think a lot of us on the outside were surprised to see dr. brantly walk into the hospital on his own steam. how is he doing? what's his condition? can you say at this point whether he'll make it. >> i can't predict the future and i do hope dr. brantly continues to improve. it's encouraging he's doing so well. ebola is scary. it's a deadly disease. it's understandable to be scared of it the. the bottom line with ebola we know how to stop it. infection-control in the hospital and stopping the south in africa which is the most important thing we can do not just to steve lives but to protect ourselves. >> can you characterize dr. brantly's condition at this point? >> he appears to be improving. that's encouraging. it's the case that people who are well nourished and healthy if they get a deadly disease do better than those who are in more tenuous patients dying from africa have weaker immune systems going in. >> doctor, can you categorically say the risk of bringing t

dr. tom frieden and dr. toby cosgrove. >>> turn now to an entirely different health concern tonight. it's a toxic water situation in ohio that prompted the governor to declare a state of emergency today and a warning to hundreds of thousands of people not to use the water. it's happening in and around toledo. nbc's miguel almaguer has the latest. >> reporter: the camps waited three hours with 60 other desperate families to finally get what they came for. one case per family of clean drinking water for 4-year-old todd jr. and his 1-year-old sister, michelle. they live in toledo, ohio, where tonight families are waiting in line and living in a state of emergency. >> orderly fashion please! >> reporter: the water here isn't safe to drink. >> i am very concerned for my kids because i don't want them to get sick. >> reporter: the run on water started just after 2:00 a.m. when the city announced tap water was dangerous to consume. store shelves went empty in hours. lines at grocery stores wrapped around the block. some drove from ohio to michigan for a case of water. police called in the c

dr. thomas frieden, the director of the cdc.ople have died so far from the virus across west africa. and in liberia, the hardest hit nation, an entire neighborhood in the capital is quarantined. the world health organization announced today that an unprecedented number of health care worker, 120 have died in the outbreak so far. twice that number have been infected. i spoke to dr. sanjay gupta earlier. this is an unprecedented number of health care workers who have become ill with this virus. do we know why so many? is it the scope of the outbreak? >> i think a lot is the scope. what is interesting is the health care workers are always the first people to get sick. >> right. >> because they don't know at the time that they're dealing with ebola. so at the beginning of an outbreak, you always have a lot of health care workers. but think about this. several simultaneous outbreaks. you have somebody appearing in nyjah. the first people that cared for him, they didn't suspect he had ebola. i think five, maybe seven health care worke

dr. frieden of the cdc that it really requires an intensive effort and infection control.rastructure in the countries involved is really very poor. they have to get help. they've got to get help from international resources because if you take a look at what's going on there, the ability to care for people under the appropriate conditions is really marginal and that's the reason why it's out of control, not to mention some of the social conditions where they feel that getting into a hospital is not the right way to go. they try to take care of people in their homes and that's how you get the transmission among family members and friends. all of that has got to get interrupted if we're going to be able to control this outbreak which is really a terrible outbreak in those countries. >> health officials working toward a vaccine for ebola. how closer we to that vaccine becoming available? >> well, it's probably going to be not until some time into mid to late 2015. right now, as i have mentioned in the past, we have good results in animal studies. we're going into what's calle

dr. frieden says we have the facilities to isolate people to keep the virus from spreading here. >>> theudge in the oscar pistorius trial says she will issue her ruling september 11th. today the defense wrapped up its closing arguments. lawyers for the olympian say he shot his girlfriend, reeva steenkamp, by accident, fearing she was an intruder. the prosecution says the blade runner shot steenkamp multiple times on purpose after a fight. south africa doesn't have a jury system, so a judge along with two advisers will decide guilt or innocence. >>> right now tropical storm iselle is hitting hawaii with high winds and a whole lot of rain. these live pictures from honolulu where the rain is light right now. right behind iselle, hurricane julio is threatening more rain and flooding. jacob rason has more from hilo. >> reporter: a hurricane warning in effect on the big island where we are because of wind gusts expected up to 85 miles per hour. the center of the storm expected to pass soon just to the south of where we are. up to 12 inches of rain expected in some areas which could cause life-

dr. frieden from the head of cdc when he appears at 2:00 at my hearing. cerned that zmapp, which is what has helped apparently nancy writebol and dr. -- the doctor from samaritan's purse who has also been affected, dr. brantly, they seem to be improving. now, this has a 50-plus percent fatality rate. other times it's been as rate, other times it's been as high as 90%. there's also a very promising substance of chemical out of a firm in, that was contracted by the department of defense in canada. that has been halted. i will be asking questions as to why it's been halted. remember, fda does first safety and then efficacy, when you have faced with the very high prospects of dying, it seems to me that we need to accelerate efforts, and if people like dr. brandtly want to take the risk of a new medication, they need to be able to take that risk. >> congressman chris smith, thank you so much. >>> and up next, a look at some rising political stars in tennessee, but first our tdr 50 porch of the day, they're serving up celery blue cheese soup that sounds great. i

dr. tom frieden, is on a fact-finding visit to the region assessing the ebola outbreak. i caught up with him as he toured the largest ebola treatment unit in the country, 120 beds totally full. he told me that this outbreak is a threat not just to the region but to the entire world, and if we don't take aggressive action, we can be dealing with this for years to come. i also saw a glimmer of hope. you remember that clinic i showed you yesterday where patients were waited to be treated, bodies being carried out? today i saw the construction of a 400-bed ebola treatment center by doctors without borders. this is the kind of center that's going to provide the type of care that could actually save lives. diane? >> rich, thank you so much for taking us inside the reality of ebola in africa. >>> and now back here at home, a debate tonight prompted by a video of a 9-year-old girl at a gun range in arizona learning to shoot a powerful automatic weapon. abc's clayton sandell tells us what happened next. >> reporter: the girl in this video is 9 years old. from the east coast with

dr. frieden, that comes up, and you've been transparent about, is lapses at the cdc recently.e are lapses in hospitals as well with regard to infectious disease protocol from time to time. there's a human element to this. even with the best sort of intentions, what kind of assurances can you say for sure, you know, with regard to this patient or these patients that there won't be other infections, that these patients won't somehow ineffefect a health car worker? >> ebola is a virus that can be stopped. it can be stopped in the community by control measures. it cab n be prevented by meticulous infectious control. doctors without borders has been caring for ebola patients for many years in outbreaks. they've never had a death in one of their workers. so that's in work in africa without the kind of advance in infection control procedures we have here. the stakes are higher with ebola. but the risk is no higher. it's a virus easily activated with standard cleaning in hospitals. we shouldn't let that unfam yardty trump our reason about the possibility, the likelihood, the availabil

dr. frieden said that ebola can be stopped but that it is going to be extremely difficult. >> it requires meticulous attention to detail. if you leave behind even a single ember it is like a forest fire it flares back up. one patient not diagnosed, one healthcare worker not protected, one contact not traces treysed. ebola is spread to the united states is inevitable but any outbreak is not likely to be large. for more we are joined from new orleans by robert garry, a viral october who worked for decades studying viral fevers. he worked to identify cases and train workers in containment. great to have you with us. we now are seeing a spanish priest being treated in madrid after being transported there from liberia. two americans in a hospital in atlanta, a suspected death saudi arabia, someone who had been in west africa. we have pan nick nigeria where there are a few cases in legos, one of the largest city in the world. how concerned are you that this is part of a bigger outbreak? >> we need to be very vigilant about cases showing up in the united states and other places around the world,

dr. frieden just said on the show when you showed that little clim p of him, thatt easily can be contained. so people should not be concerned. >> let me put this in as plain a english as anybody can understand. i am on a plane with somebody with ebola. they are sitting on the seat next to me and they sneeze, should i be concerned? >> no. it's not spread like flu or tuberculosis. you have to be in direct contact with the bodily fluids. >> let me ask another contact. they sneeze on their hand, they have their hand on the hand rest between us and then i touch the same one. should i be concerned? >> there's no evidence whatsoever that if somebody sneezes that they're going to be spreading the virus. that's for sure. it's when people are taking care of sick people and have their hands or their body on blood, on feces, on vomit. not somebody in a plane in an open space. so i think we need to get that off the table of people worry being that. >> i think you're absolutely right but we keep hearing these things over -- and i know you hear them out there as well. the next person, and i know -- do yo

dr. tom frieden, he's the head of the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention. >> ebola is a virus that can be stopped. it can be stopped in the community by control measures and it can be prevented from spread in hospitals by meticulous infection control. that means you really have to follow every one of the procedures carefully. doctors without borders, msf, has been caring for ebola patients for many years in outbreaks. they've never had a death in one of their workers. so -- and that's in work in africa without the kind of advanced infection control procedures we have here. the stakes are higher with ebola, but the risk is no higher. it's a virus that's easily inactivated with standard cleaning solutions in a hospital. i think we fear it because it's so unfamiliar, but we shouldn't let that unfamiliarity trump our reason about the possibilities, the likelihood, the availability of effective infection control in hospitals throughout the u.s. ebola's a huge risk in africa. it's not going to be a huge risk in the u.s.

dr. tom frieden said hospitals in the united states have the resources to contain the virus. >> any isolation unit in the u.s. can care for an ebola patient safely. what you do need is meticulous attention to detail. >> reporter: and what is that meticulous attention to detail. >> that means full precautions. it means careful disposal of all of the materials and potentially contaminated items. ebola virus, uplike some other organisms, isn't actually hard to disinfect. so it's not so much a question of thee here at emory university hospital within the next couple of days, and, james, that same plane is then going to turn around, head back to west africa, and ping the other. ro seriously. it comes as he is about to host a summit of african leaders in washington next week. he said some participants from at-risk countries will be screened before they leave for the u.s. and when they arrive. so how concerned should americans be about ebola? dr. jon lapook joins us now. jon, the question everyone wants to know the answer to is whether we are at risk of e.p.a. expert i have spoken to have said the s

dr. tom frieden offered hope. >> we can stop ebola. we know how to do it. a long and hard fight and the situation in lagos, nigeria, is particularly concerning, but we can stop ebola. >> well today with afghanistan on the verge of political chaos, secretary of state john kerry will meet with afghan president hamid karzai. it is the second day of an unannounced trip aimed at resolving an ongoing dispute over who won the presidential election in june. kerry met with the two candidates vying to succeed karzai yesterday. zeerchlgs new video shows a violent moment of impact in jacksonville, florida. the coca-cola truck slams into a fish market. five people including a child were injured. >>> netflix stock is surging. ceo reed hastings announced the company passed industry goliath hbo in subscriber revenue. he says they're still behind in profits, but says he is honored to be in the same league. >>> check out some political stories that caught our eye. we are no step closer to finding out what exactly happened to lois lerner's missing emails. a federal judge has

dr. tom frieden says it will take months and it won't be easy. >> a patient with suspected ebola symptoms tested negative for the virus. so that is good news in itself. but those two u.s. medical workers now undergoing treatment for ebola in atlanta, there are their pictures, each received an experimental serum. >> but it's just not clear right now if the drug is effective, and there is a very limited supply. in fact, u.s. president barack obama is downplaying hopes that it could be used to contain the outbreak. >> i think we've got to let the science guide us. you know, i don't think all the information's in on whether this drug is helpful. what we do know is that the ebola virus, both currently and in the past, is controllable if you have a strong public health infrastructure in place. >> we'll explain this to you. the cdc's highest alert level effectively means all hands on deck to deal with ebola. >> yeah, our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta visited the cdc facility charged with responding to the outbreak. take a look. >> reporter: this is the cdc's emergency operations c

dr. tom frieden? think there is going to be obviously an acknowledgment that this is the worst ebola outbreak in history. we've never seen anything quite like this. but i think it's going to more specific questions about, you know, was it dealt with adequately initially? were there any lapses? were there any mistakes made? what were the factors that led it to become this very big outbreak? i think there's also going to be questions, wolf, about these two americans who were medically evacuated out of monrovia, liberia, back to the united states and at emory university hospital. how does that work, exactly? were there approvals necessary? what was the cdc's role in that? and i think along those lines, as well, you know, wolf we have talked about this experimental serum, this experimental treatment. it had never been used in a human being before. i don't know how much dr. freedom freedom frieden is going to say about that, but what it means going forward, these are all potential questions he might get as