dr. peter hotez, founding dean of the national school of tropical medicine at the baylor school of medicine. >> good morning. >> the ebola patient nina pham is now at the maryland hospital. should she have been moved there sooner? >> well, i think what we're clearly seeing is that taking care of ebola patients is extremely complicated and in my opinion it should only be done at specialized facilities that are specially as the virus progresses towards the end stages where the amount of virus in the body is extremely high and it is very difficult to manage these patients. so i would say nina sounds like is being caught early on in the infection, so that it is still aminable treatments, meaning the blood products that contain antibody to the virus or antiviral drugs. certainly as the disease progresses, this becomes a real management problem and is not something that is any community hospital could handle. >> speaking of that management issue yesterday on the "today" show, a nurse from pham's hospital in dallas described lapses in preparedness and containment. is there no standard protocol for

dr. peter hotez with the baylor college of medicine. take a listen. dr. peter hotez, thank you so much for being with us. i want to look at this, this first diagnosed case of ebola in the united states, tell us how concerned should people be in america. >> it's not grave cause for concern. it's not very easy to transmit. so the likelihood that one case will lead to an epidemic in dallas or in texas is very remote. close to zero so from that standpoint i do not see it as a serious public health threat particularly because we have the federal agency, the cdc and the state health department tracking down contacts and providing isolation measures so i think we're actually in very good happeneds. >> let's look at that because it is one thing to get ebola in west africa, a whole different thing to have it here in the united states. let's compare the level of care this patient would get to what would have happened if he remained in liberia. >> absolutely. a very good point you make. liberia, sierra leone, guinea have only recently emerged out of the years of war

dr. peter hotez, a director in texas for vaccine development. great to have you both here. ms. ross, shoo how concerned should we be that a nurse has tested positive for ebola? >> well, at least as concerned as the rest of us nurses of. it is impossible for us to protect 9 public if we can't expect to protect ourselves. so we have been calling for optimal protection for us, not just the basics that should cover it. when we see people in the media treating ebola patients, no matter what country or hospitals, they wearing hazmat suits. we believe the standard should be set for everyone. >> are you saying there's hospitals in this country that do not have full hazmat suits to deal with this? they just haven't invested in it? >> well, there's a variety of responses. you know, this is part of our problem. if you had like a national health care system where you could coordinate and had some actual enforcement to your dictates, for example, in canada, when they had the sars epidemic. that would be one thing, but we have a piecemeal fragmented system that's private. you can't necessari

dr. peter hotez. and dr.ke of what we've heard so far about how this case is being handled? gh i think, quite hon shi, i am not terrible hi concerned about the risks and the workers for contracting ebola. we saw this in dal has. it's relative hi straight forward to identify and isolate them. i think, for me, the big question is hihhary bellevue and nyu have the power to manage a very comp hi kuwaited ebola patient. we saw this in texas presbyterian. it's sr. difficult to manage patients with advanced disease. while the parkt is an outpatient and not a risk of transmission, that's when the risk happens. where we saw in high beer ya where health care boricers on the front lines are first and foremost, the ones that are are the greatest source of contracting infection. gh doctor, you make a good point. this is going to be a test of the first hopt that goat an ebola patient at dal has presbyterian hopt. that ebola patient did not survive. subsequent patients have been transferred out of that hospital. they're now

dr. peter hotez, director of texas' vaccine center and dr. kent at memorial sloan-ketteri sloan-kettering cancer hospital. the travels of dr. spencer. because i think, you know, people -- there are so many people who will have concerns even though i don't think there is a medical reason for that. >> it's a bit moot. when you first are symptomatic with the ebola virus, you have very little virus in your system so there's very little virus to transmit from person to person. remember, it's only as you're progressing when you're sick in a hospital bed or in intensive care unit where the virus activates your host mechanism and only in advanced stages that you lots of virus and a bag of virus at the end -- >> a bag of virus. >> that's right. >> the more virus you have, the more transmissible. >> who is getting sick in liberia? not people walking around on the street, the hospital workers or people taking care of sick loved ones at home or handling the see crests. keep saying to yourself advanced stages or burying the dead. >> as we know in the case

dr. peter hotez who is the founding dean of baylor college of medicine.o you think that -- you bet do. you think someone with a medical background needs to head up the organization and the front line of front office organizing to fight this and organize against this ebola virus? what are you thoughts on this? >> well, i think the president is sending a strong message and the message is he is not replacing dr. frieden. but by appointing a nonphysician, he is identifying someone to help coordinate all of the other aspects. so right now, ebola, as you know in the united states is not just a health problem any more. it's a communications problem and fire and emergency problem and air transportation problem and multifactorial. >> what do you expect this czar to do? >> i think it's to bring more cohesiveness to all the different moving parts to this. i think it's to better integrate them. and i think there is a component of communicating the message. dr. frieden is communicating to the press and to co-congress as much as he is doing public health opportunities.

dr. peter hotez, the dean of medicine. he joins me now.resources be going to finding an ebola vaccine right now? or better treatments for those already infected? >> well, that's a good question. we're going to have to walk and chew gum at the same time. so we need new drugs to treat viral infections like ebola, and we're going to need new vaccines, as well. in my opinion, if the numbers that we're seeing in west africa continue to escalate, especially in liberia, our best hope for controlling this disease is to get that vaccine, find it works and get it widely deployed. >> doctor, looking at where the science is right now, do you think it is likely that a vaccine is imminent? >> i'm pretty excited about two vaccine candidates that are moving forward. one is being developed by the nih, national institutes of health of the u.s. government and glaxosmithkline. these are two very exciting candidates. and the key is to advance them and accelerate them through clinical trials. to show, number one, they're safe, and number two, they're doing some

dr. zeke emmannel and peter hotez, thank you for your time?nk you. >>> after the break, you cannot make it up. julia pierson reportedly wanted protection surrounding the president to feel more inviting like, quote, disney world. we'll discuss the agency's problems and whether new leadership may solve them. plus, buried in a news cycle of scandals and uncertainty and threats there is actually some really pretty good news today. strong new numbers on the economy and health care coverage in this country. the good word is ahead on "now." ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you have enough money to live life on your terms? i sure hope so. with healthcare costs, who knows. umm... everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor.... can get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today. >>> security is super tight here, john. i tried to enter through the north portico, but the the steps were mysteriously cover