senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joins us now live from atlanta. what is the latest?

elizabeth cohen, thank you. appreciate it. and to see a complete list of the hospitals that may have received that contaminated drug, visit cnn.com/empoweredpatient. ♪ oh wow, that is mmm... ♪ in fact it's so mmm you might not believe it's a hundred calories. well ok then, new yoplait greek 100. it is so good. ♪ c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t. so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey! >>> you don't need me to tell you that when you spend money, you help drive the economy. two-thirds of the economy is drivening by spending. we have new retail numbers released today for september. they look pretty good,

our senior medical correspondent, elizabeth cohen, joins us from atlanta. raise taxes in massachusetts to pay for romney care. let's listen. >> what were some differences? we didn't raise taxes. you've raised them by $1 trillion under obamaare. >> true? >> all right. well, here's what's really important to know, john, about the health care reform in massachusetts. it was done with hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money. some of it in a special pot, just to do this kind of health care reform. so this is according to a "washington post" and other fact checkers. they say, look, even if he didn't raise taxes, he had a ton of federal money to help him out, and they also point out that after romney left office, taxes were raised in massachusetts, to help with this health care reform. >> all right. next up, mitt romneyays that under obama care, some kind of supernatural government board will decide what kind of treatments you ought to have. listen. >> he has as a model for doing that a board of people, at the government, an unelected board, an appointed b

he went there to get help. >> and he got -- >> death. >> elizabeth cohen.bany, kentucky. >> thanks, elizabeth. >>> arrest electric speciflen s. story in one of his advisers straight ahead. so, as we go into this next phase, you know, a big part of it for us is that there isn't anything on the schedule. [ male announcer ] how do you make 70,000 trades a second... ♪ reach one customer at a time? ♪ or help doctors turn billions of bytes of shared information... ♪ into a fifth anniversary of remission? ♪ whatever your business challenge, dell has the technology and services to help you solve it. with odor free aspercreme. powerful medicine relieves pain fast, with no odor. so all you notice is relief. aspercreme. >>> president obama and mitt romney, round two. why will this one be any different than the first one? i talked about tuesday's night big event with will cain and they think the town hall format will be a better venue for president obama and i asked him why. >> because he'll be able to have the audience there to gauge. he can understand more about the

>> death. >> elizabeth cohen, cnn, albany, kentucky. >> thanks, elizabeth. >>> arlen specter died today. it was after a long battle with cancer. a personal story from one of his close advisers straight ahead. >>> president obama and mitt romney, round two. why will this one be any different than any first one? i talked to will cain and lz began sd granderson about it. the town hall format will be a better venue for president obama. i asked him why. >> because he'll be able to have the audience there to gauge. he'll be able to understand a little bit more about the energy level that he has. he'll be able to understand the way he answers the questions has a more immediate impact on the audience and perhaps the nation. >> it's like a performer. he can vibe off the audience. do you agree with that? >> absolutely. >> i totally but for a little bit different reason. i was reading a review of the 2008 town hall debate that senator john mccain had with barack obama, and here are the words they used to describe it. it was dispassionate. i don't know how high his bar is on getting up his energy.

senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joins us now live from atlanta to explain. it's a pretty significant chunk of time, john. it's about six months to two years earlier than in studies that looked at previous decades. you know what's interesting? it's different by race. so let's take a look at these specific numbers. when you look at african-american boys, this study found they were hitting puberty at around a little over 9 years old. for white boys a little over 10 years old. hispanic boys were just a tad earlier, 10.4 years old. and when pediatricians see this data they think, you know, maybe parents need to be having that talk with their boys a little sooner than what they might have done. >> i suppose the question here, elizabeth, is why? why is this happening earlier? >> right. that is what everybody wants to know and no one's quite sure. there are all sorts of theorys out there. you know, perhaps it's hormones in our food. hormones in our environment. perhaps it's because boys, like girls, are fatter than they used to be. and fat plays a role in hormone pro

. >> let's bring in senior medical correspondent, elizabeth cohen. she has information on the evacuation of the nyu medical center. i understand that many have been evacuated because they lost power, generator failed, is that the story? >> reporter: that is basically the story. they are in the middle of evacuating 260 patients approximately. at around 7:00 they went from having no water in their buildings to 45 minutes later having more than 10 feet of water. they are now carrying patients down 15 flights of stairs, sometimes only with flashlights to illuminate the way. this evacuation includes an intensive care unit, neonatal intensive care unit and pediatric intensive care unit. we're told those patients are all out. now, four of those newborn babies were on respirators that were not working because there was no power. the whole time they were taken down about nine flights of stairs, a nurse had to do what's called bagging. a nurse would manl usually pump oxygen so the child could brooelt, the baby could breathe. they anticipate this evacuation wil

elizabeth cohen, thank you.n person. >>> did i remind you, you, yourself, can see how these guys are going to speak of the issues tonight. what do they have to say about health care, the economy. it is the first presidential debate of 2012. it is important. debate night 2012, watch it here live, cnn, starting at 7:00 and cnn.com. >>> all right, so overcoming a disability is tough enough. it is a battle on its own. but new add to that bullying. because that's what kids do. and that fight can get downright cruel. but our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta is about to introduce to you a 13-year-old who is showing all of those bullies what he's made of and he's using his own disability as his tool. it is awesome. here's today's human factor. ♪ you can go and join my circle ♪ >>> listening to jake rap, you have no idea he suffers from a speech disorder, so debilitating that he used to keep to himself. >> he started speaking at the age of 2, and with single words it wasn't so bad. when he would get into sent

i want to bring in elizabeth cohen on the phone right now. the images of them having to evacuate this hospital on the east side of manhattan. what else do you know? >> i know now that they're in the process of evacuating about 200 patients. i'm told this is nearly all of the patients there, to nearby facilities. i'm told they're on backup power. this can be a very, very difficult situation when a medical center, especially one this large, goes on backup power. because you need the electricity for many of the machines keeping folks alive. they have what they call intermittent telephone access issues. it sounds to me like their phones aren't working, they're having communication issues to the point where the hospital is not even calling the families to say, hey, we're transferring your loved one. they're leaving that up to the receiving hospital. it sounds like this is a very difficult situation at nyu. erin, they opted not to transfer people. they decided that yesterday, not to transfer people. and now it looks like they're doing it under much

also with me right now is cnn's senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. as we await david, just begin with what we know about this so-called reparative therapy. >> the american psychological association had a task force that took a long look at this. and here's what they came up with. they said there is no good studies showing it works or doesn't work. so no good studies showing this works. they say some people have been harmed by it, depression, other problems. and this is a quote, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of psychological interventions to change sexual orientation. >> okay. >> plainly spoken. >> hold that thought. we have david. david, you with me? >> yes, i'm here, thank you. >> david, nice to have you on. welcome. of course we brought you on because i want to get your reaction to this legislation, this now law in effect in california. but first just explain to me as a reparative therapist, give me an example, parents come to you in the case of a minor and what do they say, what do they ask for? >> the parent asks for, first of

thank you, elizabeth cohen, for keeping us up to date on this story.hat get those steroid injection force back pain. go to your doctor if you have any of those symptoms. >>> christine romans with this morning's top stories. >> good morning. mitt romney basking in his debate success makes major shift saying he was completely wrong in that secretly recorded video when he said a nearly half of americans were victims dependent on government. president obama and his adviser, meanwhile are fighting back, playing debate damage contl. saying romney's performance was unprecedented in its dishonesty. >>> later this hour, director, producer, actor, adam shankman will join us live and will weigh in on the president's debate performance. new this morning, u.s. special operations forces are now in libya helping gather intel on militants who were allegedly involved in the attack on the american consulate in benghazi that killed four americans. military officials tell cnn that includes intercepting communications and analyzing drone images and one-on-one interviews wi

here's cnn's elizabeth cohen. >> brooke, here's what the lawsuit said.can of monster energy drink, and then a day later she drank another 24-ounce can and she died. now, it turns out this girl had a condition, a heart problem, and that she and presumably her parents knew she had this condition. we talked to a cardiologist and they said there is a long list of different heart conditions where you really need to be careful with caffeine. we reached out to monster for a response to this lawsuit from the fornier family and they said, monster does not believe its beverages are in any way responsible for the death of miss fornier. brooke, let's look at how much caffeine is in monster energy drink. if you look at the two cans, the two 24-ounce cans that she drank, one day apart, that's as much caffeine as in 14 cokes or 13 pepsis. this is important to remember. there are other stimulants in these energy drinks as well. so it is not just the caffeine, you have all sorts of other things that would be stimulating and possibly harmful to a heart, especially if that

elizabeth cohen in atlanta. that's really tough to watch, isn't it? 12 minutes past the hour. let's get you up to date. here's christine romans. >> good morning. president obama and mitt romney are off the campaign trail and busy gearing up for tomorrow night's second presidential debate. it takes place at hofstra university on long island. romney is getting ready in bedford, massachusetts. the president is preparing in williamsburg, virginia. this is a live picture from inside the debate hall. our own candy crowley moderates. our live coverage begins tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. eastern. >>> when it comes to the presidential race, comedian stephen colbert says there is a difference between president obama and mitt romney. but he says he doesn't know what that difference is. colbert clarified what he expects to see from both obama and romney on nbc's "meet the press." >> i think there's a possibility that obama would be, say, more aggressive -- a more aggressive performer in the second act of his presidency. and

senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joins us now from atlanta this morning. >> you know, this really came as a surprise yesterday. the fda put out a press release and they talked about two drugs, besides the one that we've been talking about all this time, that may be causing problems. so let's take a look at the drugs and the patients who they might have affected. there was one patient who received a different kind of steroid than the one we've been talking about. a different kind of steroid, and now possibly has meningitis. and then two other patients who are having heart transplants and received a heart surgery drug. and now might have or appear to have fungal infections. these drugs were all made by the new england compounding center. so the fda is saying, you know, there's more than just this one drug that we need to be worried about. >> so elizabeth, i've got to say, i hear two more drugs this morning. is it possible there are three, there are four, could there be even more? >> right. because this company made dozens of drugs. john, on october 4th the f

you get to the talk to elizabeth cohen about that. your morning was rough, pob star justin bieber gets sick twice onstage in front of tens it of thousands of screaming fans. that story um canning up and trending. ♪ well, he's not very handsome ♪ to look at [ sighs ] ♪ oh, he's shaggy ♪ and he eats like a hog [ male announcer ] the volkswagen jetta. available with advanced keyless technology. control everything from your pocket, purse, or wherever. that's the power of german engineering. ♪ that dirty, old egg-suckin' dog ♪ that's the power of german engineering. with two times the points on dining in restaurants,? you may find yourself asking why not, a lot. chase sapphire preferred. there's more to enjoy. like a squirrel stashes nuts, you may be muddling through allergies. try zyrtec® liquid gels. nothing starts working faster than zyrtec® at relieving your allergy symptoms for 24 hours. zyrtec®. love the air. nature valley trail mix bars are made with real ingredients you can see. like whole roasted nuts, chewy granola, and real frui

elizabeth cohen talked with his heartbroken family. >> lord give us the strength to go forward. >> reportermething's missing many the lovelace house. five generations gather in mourning. >> i lost all i've got. >> reporter: eddie lovelace, husband, father, grandfather, great grand father dead. a suspected case of fun gal meningitis. >> what do you miss? >> he was the center of our universe as a family. >> reporter: judge eddie lovelace was a healthy 78-year-old man. worked full-time. walked three miles a day. in the middle of september he started feeling dizzy and slurring his speech. >> he didn't get to finish his sunday school lesson and that individual was a long time member. he said he never witnessed that happen before. >> he was in the kitchen and said my legs don't work right. he said there's something wrong with my legs. >> reporter: he had a stroke. doctors told his daughter, a nurse, it was one of the strangest strokes they'd seen. >> they couldn't give me any explanation. they told me that a stroke occurred in this area of the brain was usually seen by prolonged uncontrolled hype

i want to bring in our senior medical correspondent, elizabeth cohen. elizabeth, you have spoken with someone who actually testified before congress nearly ten years ago about this problem. >> right. her name is sarah sellers and she's an expert in the sterile compounding of these drugs. she worked at one of these compounding pharmacies and she was horrified by the nonsterile conditions that she found. so let's listen to that 2003 congressional testimony. >> patients were unknowingly exposed to drugs that did not meet strict federal standards for safety and efficacy, manufacturing or labeling to ensure safe use. we have a flourishing unregulated drug industry within our own borders. >> so a few years later, sarah sellers goes to work for the fda, she says i'm going to go clean things up. she expects to go work on updated guidelines to help make these pharmacies more sterile, and then she found that she didn't work on it, she said that really no one was doing much work on it, and six years later, those guidelines have never been published. everyone is jus

elizabeth cohen joins us live now from atlanta.nformative. this keeps getting scarier and scarier. >> reporter: what i find scary is how in the world did contaminated medicine get out the 13,000 people. what failed in our system that it got contaminated in the first place and then was sent out. and let me give the new numbers of people who actually have gotten sick or have died. there are now according to the cdc 105 cases of fungal meningitis related to this outbreak and eight deaths. now it can take weeks or even months for someone to get sick after getting one of these contaminated injections, so john that's why the numbers are going to go up because people, some people who got the shot let's say in august or september or even before are just now realizing that they are sick. >> a lot of people. how do you fine them all? >> reporter: state health departments are telling hospitals and doctors get on the phone, send letters, track these people down. you know who you gave them to. find them. oil tell you as an "empowered patient" y

joining me is elizabeth cohen to discuss how this might actually unfold., remind us of the differences between each candidate on health care. >> right, zoraida, there are some real philosophical differences. let's boil it down here. obama care mandates that all of us, you, me, nearly all of us buy insurance and it also mandates that insurance companies accept everybody, even if you've got an expensive preexisting condition. the romney plan is to appeal obama care, which means there will be no mandate to buy insurance. also, he's going to have fewer requirements on insurance companies. he's not going to tell insurance companies what to do, to the same extent obama does. >> let's get to the debate. let's start with governor romney. how might he score points? >> he's recently been running an ad that talks about how obama is putting taxes on the middle class. what he means by this, because we asked, and what he means by this is the money that americans will have to pay if they don't buy insurance, because if you don't buy insurance, you'll have to pay money. y

i want to bring in our medical correspondent, elizabeth cohen, who is brilliant when it comes to empowerede, elizabeth, because thinking about what it takes to look after people when you're busy and working and commuting and all the different stresses, there are things like keeping a journal, contact list, even connecting to other people that you might want to do online and there is that fear that this material can get out there. but jonathan's not the only person who has done this. give me an idea of what's out there online and you're in this boat and you're vulnerable, what you should be looking for. >> if you're going to be talking about private information, especially things like social security numbers, you want to feel really good about the place where you're putting them down. in contrast, some people, for example, like to communicate on facebook. o oh, my son's not feeling so well today and they want the support of their friends. it depends, first of all, what you're sharing. second of all, this is such a great time for people meeting these challenges because there are so many opti

senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joins us now.break down these numbers. >> reporter: 13,000 people may have received this tainted medicine that's involved in the meningitis outbreak. so let's take a look at the most recent cdc numbers. they are reporting 105 cases of fungal meningitis. and eight deaths. we expect those numbers to go up because it can take a long time from the time you get the injection until the time you actually feel sick. >> elizabeth cohen thank you very much. >>> and in the next 30 minutes convicted sex predator jerry sandusky should be arriving in court for his sentencing. the former penn state football coach finds occupant his fate at 9:00 a.m. last night he released an audiotape from behind bars proclaiming his innocence. >> they can take away my life, they can make me out as a monster, they could treat me as a monster, but they can't take away my heart. in my heart i know i did not do these alleged disgusting acts. my wife has been my only sex partner and that was after marriage. >> sandusky said it was a

cnn correspondent elizabeth cohen joins me. seriously? >> i know. we've heard about multivitamins is, ah, take them if you want to, but they're not necessarily going to help. now this study comes out. it's a big study. it's a really good study we're told, a study of physicians that is part of a study called harvard, going on for years and years. they studied these doctors for about 11 years. let me tell you what they did. they took a group of them, 14,000 doctors and split them roughly in half into two different groups. half of them took a multivitamin, half of them didn't. then they watched to see who was going to get cancer. they found that 1,290 men who were taking vitamins developed cancer over that 11-year period and 1,379 who were taking placebos developed cancer. as you can see, there is a difference. in fact, it's a statistically significant difference. it's not gigantic. again, it's not gigantic, but there is a difference there. >> it's a multi-vitamin, it makes you wonder which vitamin works to prevent cancer. >> right. i think they really

cnn medical correspondent elizabeth cohen has the latest for us.s is horrible sounding. >> it absolutely is. i think there's a lot of confusion here, soledad. this disease is not, in this case, contagious. it's not spreading person to person. everyone who is sick had an injection into their spine for back pain and it seems that that drug was infected with fungus. that's how they got meningitis, which is an flainflammation of lining of the brain and nervous system. terrible disease. very difficult to treat. the drugs we do have have toxic side effects. this has a relative ly high mortality rate. soledad, what makes this even worse is these people didn't just breathe in fungus, which is usually the cause of this disease. it was injected directly into their central nervous system which makes it even harder to treat. >> oh, my gosh. so the investigation, obviously, must turn to how the contamination happened with that injection and how it was able to spread across all these states. >> right. this one company in massachusetts, new england compounding co

let's get back to senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen.as been following the developments for us. talk to me about the spread. how worried should people who -- you know, who -- i guess are in all these states and are now affected, how worried should we be? >> you should only be worried, soledad, if you got a steroid shot in your back. i can't emphasize that enough. this isn't spreading person to person. it is only going to happen to you if you got a steroid shot in your back and if that steroid was made in the new england compounding center. because here is what happened. apparently what they are looking at is was there a fungus in that because all these people who have gotten sick got a shot from a medicine that was made at that center. so if you got that shot and you are not feeling well you should go to your doctor and say, hey, could it be that shot that i got? >> okay. obviously they are going to continue to monitor the spread. are they able to track every single person now that has gotten that shot? i would think that wouldn't be so

elizabeth cohen, thank you so much. >>> and top of the hour, i'm brooke baldwin.ight in to new developments in the race for president. we have now received this photo, this is the first lady, you know that, this is michelle obama posing with her absentee ballot in her hands. yep, the first lady now officially voted. the campaign says the president will vote apparently in person later this month in chicago. >> he's got to be more energetic, i think you'll see somebody who is very passionate about the choice -- >> first things first. president obama supporters are looking for a little more zing at tomorrow night's debate in hempstead, new york. here is the president, thanking campaign volunteers in williamsburg, virginia, with a couple of pizzas, where he's been hunkered down doing debate preparations. meantime, mitt romney retired to boston to get himself ready for hempstead. his running mate today is in the mother of all battleground states. >> ohioans, you know you have a big say so. you know you're the battleground state of battleground states. you understand yo