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

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

frieden. >> chairman murphy, ranking member degette. chairman murphy, ranking member degette, members of the subcommittee, thank you for letting us appear before you. with 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 mers 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 sum

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 o

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

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

frieden? >> well, we have taken a number of steps to strengthen the security aspects of select agent registration. those steps include suitability assessments for all people who work with tier 1 agents. they include looking at cybersecurity issues and personal reliability, ongoing access of personnel who have access to tier 1 agents, increased physical security standards, incident response plans and ongoing training. o i do think the concern for theft is real. some of these organisms still occur in nature and ensuring where there are laboratories, not just in this country but around the world that do tests on them -- >> well, let's worry about this country right now. smallpox, of course, would be a big concern. let me just end with this, if i could, mr. chairman. whenever i hear the word culture and a cultural problem, i know we have a real challenge on our hands. you know, hand washing changed the face of medicine. it's not sexy and people don't win nobel prizes over that kind of thing, but i

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

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

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

tom frieden. with me is mr.eads our office of security, safety and asset management. i'll review the problems that have come to light in the past month and tell you what we're doing now to address improving lab savt. the fact that it appears that no one was harmed and that there were no releases do sd not excuse what happened. what happened was completely unacceptable. it should never have happened. if i leave you with

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

cdc director frieden told nbc news scientists sometimes become complacent. >> sometimes when scientists work with dangerous organisms year after year, they get a little bit too used to them. >> reporter: the number of labs researching dangerous pathogens has skyrocketed since 9/11. as maybe as 1,500, maybe more, no one is quite sure. there's still no government agency providing oversight. >> the more labs you have, the more of a chance that an accident will occur somewhere. it's just simple statistics. >> reporter: two cdc labs in atlanta remain closed as the agency conducts what it calls a sweeping review of its practices and procedures, but it insists the public health is not in any danger. brian. >> tom costello in d.c. for us tonight. tom, thanks. >>> third day in a row now of severe weather in the northeast. this was the scene today in parts of massachusetts. flash flooding is a result of rain falling at the rate of over an inch an hour. northeast still cleaning up from yesterday's high winds and heavy rains. the owner of a home on new york's long island said he felt lucky to be al

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

. >> during a press briefing on friday, tom frieden started with the anthrax scare that exposed 80 cdc workers. >> the scientists failed to follow a scientifically derived and reviewed protocol that would have ensured that anthrax was activated and the material was confirmed to be sterile before it left the lab. that didn't happen. >> reporter: that lab is now closed. in a separate incident, workers accidentally sent a sample of highly infectious bird flu to an outside lab. this week another government health agency discovered decades' old viles of viable forms of smallpox. this leads to one ckey question. >> how could this have happened at the cdc all this could be released? >> reporter: that was erica edwards. >>> happening today, a remind to slow down or face a five. speed cameras will start issuing tickets in the district. the cameras are in southeast d.c. if you're caught speeding, it could cost you a hundred bucks. >>> new details about that crash that put tracy morgan in the hospital. >> the legal action in this case that could have the comedian spending time in court plus a mon

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

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

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

. >> reporter: today cdc director tom frieden offered no excuses. >> what we're seeing is a pattern that we missed. the pattern is an insufficient culture of safety. >> reporter: the cdc experiments with dangerous diseases and biological agents to development treatments in the event of an outbreak or bioterror attack. they should be kept in air sealed rooms with workers wearing space-like suits. the cdc director told nbc news scientists sometimes become complacent. >> sometimes when scientists work with dangerous organisms year after year, they get too used to them. >> reporter: the number of labs researching dangerous pathogens has skyrocketed since 9/11. as maybe as 1,500, maybe more, no one is sure. there's still no government agency providing oversight. >> the more labs you have, the more of a chance that an accident will occur somewhere. it's just simple statistics. >> reporter: two cdc labs in atlanta remain closed as the agency conducts what it calls a sweeping review of its practices and procedures, but it insists the public health is not in any danger. brian. >> tom costello in

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

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

a subcommittee is grilling director tom frieden about serious safety problems, we're talking about accidentalxposure, and dangerous substances stored in ziplock bags. and the culture of lax safety and sloppy handling. >> this is a ziplock bag, what in heaven's name in a scientist a ziplock bag protecting someone from anthrax, when you have all the things someone has to wear in dealing with anthrax. have you asked them why? >> not to besmirch ziplock but i had the same question. >> we're not talking about the head of the cdc in atlanta here. >> this is what we do. we talk about the high standard and how fiery this discussion got. it's in part because this is the gold standard for this sort of thing and everything that could have possibly gone in these situations have gone wrong. you had transport problems, ziplock bags, refrigerators not locked, you have someone in p corridors piggy backing. there is all sorts of lapses. what's interesting they have -- there have been some lapses as well. they didn't rise to this level until you saw these problems, the anthrax, the flu, the smallpox. >> who is

no one got sick, but c.d.c director doctor thomas frieden says lab safety has to improve. >> our laboratories core to our ability to protect americans. our laboratories are the reason we are the gold standard for not just infectious diseases, but environmental health as well. and for this to happen and put our workers potentially at risk is totally unacceptable. >> woodruff: the c.d.c also announced that two vials of smallpox virus found recently after 60 years still contained live virus. they're being destroyed. the vials turned up at the national institutes of health in bethesda, maryland. chrysler announced the latest auto safety recall today, some 650,000 jeep and dodge s.u.v's sold in the u.s. the wiring in their vanity mirror lights could be prone to short circuit and catch fire. there've been three injuries. the recall applies to vehicles built between 2011 and 2014. on wall street, the dow jones industrial average gained 28 points to close at 16,943. the nasdaq rose 19, to close at 4,415. and the s&p 500 added just under three points, to finish at 1,967. but for the week, the dow lost

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

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

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.

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