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NEW DAY

100 People Being Monitored For Ebola; Family Remains Quarantined With Patient's Items; ISIS Advances in Syria Despite Airstrikes; Tensions Simmer in Hong Kong

Aired October 3, 2014 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, another American infected with Ebola. This time, a freelance cameraman working in Liberia will now fly back to the U.S. for treatment. This as officials try to track down as many as 100 people now who may have been affected by the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S.

And new questions, as well. Did that man lie to get into the U.S.?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Stepping up the fight, the United States now sending hundreds of more troops to fight Ebola in West Africa with fears growing here in the U.S. Why isn't there more help, and why aren't other nations sending in reinforcements?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, another huge security breach, and it could be the biggest in history. The accounts of 76 million households, 7 million small business compromised in a cyber attack.

So, should you be worried?

CUOMO: Your NEW DAY starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning, welcome to NEW DAY. We made it, its Friday October 3rd, 6:00 in the East. And for all the talk about how few are at risk, now 100 people in the Dallas area are being monitored for symptoms of the deadly Ebola virus. That's how many people could have been in direct or indirect contact with Thomas Duncan, the Ebola- stricken Liberian man who landed in Texas last week.

The blame for people being exposed is expanding from just the Texas hospital that failed to test the man, to include the man himself. Officials in Liberia want to prosecute Duncan claiming he lied on a questionnaire when he said he not been in contact with anyone infected by the virus.

PEREIRA: We know that is not true. This morning, we are learning the identity of an American freelance cameraman who contracted Ebola in Liberia working for NBC. We're told the 33-year-old will be flown back to the U.S. for treatment. His father says doctors are optimistic about his prognosis.

We've got all the latest developments for you with the Ebola crisis, beginning with chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Quite a series of developments overnight -- Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No question, the cameraman working for NBC as a freelancer, his name is Ashoka Mukpo. As you mentioned, he is 33 years old. You know, he was working on projects in Liberia for the last three years.

But as you mentioned, this past Tuesday he started working for NBC. The next day, he started having some, started feeling not well, some aches, he got his temperature taken and it was a little bit elevated. That prompted this whole testing.

Testing came back and now they're en route back to the United States, Mukbo and the entire NBC team. The rest of the team appears healthy and they'll be checked out when they get here as well.

As for Mr. Duncan, he's where he needs to be, obviously in the hospital, still in serious but stable condition. And members of his family and friends are in quarantine, also where they need to be. But I will tell you, none of this came too easily.

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GUPTA (voice-over): Health officials now looking at 100 people in the Dallas area who may have had contact with Thomas Eric Duncan.

DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, CDC DIRECTOR: There could be additional cases who are already exposed if that occurs, systems are in place so that they will not further spread Ebola.

GUPTA: As officials work to contain the spread of the virus, many are questioning how did it get here? In Liberia, Duncan came into contact with an infected woman on September 15th.

Four days later, the 42-year-old was screened three times and showed no symptoms and was therefore permitted to board an airplane. But Liberian authorities now say Duncan lied about his Ebola exposure on a health questionnaire.

He was asked if he cared for or came into contact with an Ebola patient and he answered no. Duncan flew from Monrovia to Brussels and then boarded the United Airlines Flight 959 en route to Washington, connecting to Flight 822 to Dallas.

While the CDC maintains he was not contagious during his journey, United Airlines now voluntarily contacting passengers who flew on those flights.

In Dallas, Duncan stayed in this apartment complex for days before feeling sick and seeking medical care only to be sent home from the hospital with antibiotics, even after telling them he had just traveled from Africa.

The hospital now admits they missed his travel history, due to a workflow breakdown. Duncan was with his girlfriend, Louise, her child and her two nephews. Louise, speaking exclusively to CNN's Anderson Cooper, recalls her fear, when the family needed to be quarantined.

LOUISE (via telephone): They were going to be monitoring all of us, my son should stay home, my nephew, everyone should stay home for 21 days. We should not come outside. If we step outside, then they're going to take us to court. They will commit a crime.

GUPTA: Health officials say the family hasn't shown any symptoms of the disease. Late Thursday, a special team was deployed to clean the apartment and remove items Duncan used. But they were turned away because they lacked the proper permit to transport hazardous waste.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC360": Did the CDC recommend that you clean your apartment?

LOUISE: I told them I just -- mattresses on my bed and Clorox and dirty clothes in the plastic bag, all sealed up and that's it.

COOPER: How are you coping with this?

LOUISE: I'm just hanging in there, depending on God to save our lives.

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GUPTA: I'll tell you, some of the details are just remarkable. And I imagine many of the people taking care of Mr. Duncan and his friends and family wish they could get some of these as a do-over.

But nevertheless, the good news is it sounds like Mr. Duncan is stable and his family, still, Michaela, has not shown any symptoms. They'll continue to be monitored for a total of 21 days -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: And the hope is that they won't and they'll get the resources and support and advocacy that they need, Sanjay. We'll talk about that throughout the hours here on CNN. Thank you so much for that.

We know that the Ebola outbreak in Africa, the hot zone is spreading so quickly, the Defense Department is increasing the number of troops sending to West Africa to help aid in the fight against this deadly virus.

Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, joins us with details on that. Good morning to you, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. Here at NEW DAY, we have exclusive details on how the Pentagon plans to keep those troops safe.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) STARR (voice-over): With 3,000 troops already tapped to head to Ebola-ravaged West Africa, CNN has learned the U.S. military is increasing its fight against the deadly disease. Hundreds more troops are being added to plans to help the infected countries contain and control Ebola.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's America -- our doctors, our scientists, our know-how, that leads the fight to contain and combat the Ebola epidemic in West Africa.

STARR: Approximately 200 U.S. troops are already in Liberia. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has signed orders for another 700 from the 101st Airborne Division to head to Africa in coming days, to staff a command headquarters. Seven hundred more army engineers will be going to help build and advice on mobile hospitals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're standing up a field hospital and treatment units. We'll be training thousands of health workers.

STARR: Even before most have left the U.S., military officials tell CNN the Pentagon is considering drastic measures to insure they don't come back to U.S. shores with the disease.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are working with experts right now, on this.

STARR: That could include enforced isolation for 21 days, the Ebola incubation period, for high-risk troops who may have come in contact with the disease. All troops deployed will be monitored daily for symptoms. And all service members will face increased monitoring for those 21 days, before they are allowed to return to the U.S.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a complex emergency, beyond a public health crisis. That has significant humanitarian, economic, political and security dimensions.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

STARR: And so, how worried is the Pentagon? Well, those troops are going to take their own food, water, fuel, all of their own supplies for that six months deployment. They don't want to have to use anything from the local region.

Think of it this way, 3,000 troops coming back. They could have been in contact with tens of thousands of Americans when they return. So they want to make sure before they come home, they are 100 percent healthy -- Chris.

CUOMO: Well, Barbara, there's 100 percent chance that there's going to be exposure, that these men and women are going to be in harm's way. Everybody should know that when they're sending them in. There should be no surprise, if anybody gets it and they'll just have to do what they can to contain it.

Hopefully part of it has to do with the speeding up of getting vaccines for these people. Our thanks to Barbara Starr for that. Let's get some perspective now. Let's get the very latest with Dr. Irwin Redlener, he is the director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University.

We do not want to spread false panic. We understand and we believe that Ebola is not easy to catch and it can be treated much better here in the U.S. than it can be abroad.

And yet -- you started out saying not you, but those in control, those people are fine, five, six people, 20 people, 80 people, now it's 100 people, they're looking for people on the plane. What's going on?

DR. IRWIN REDLENER, NATIONAL CENTER FOR DISASTER PREPAREDNESS: A couple of things happening simultaneously. One is the actual science, the evidence that says we have a very limited amount of real possibility of people getting sick from contact with this individual.

And then we have the public pressure and the anxiety that's been created by the understanding that we now have Ebola in the United States of America. So public officials are trying to walk a very fine line here between assuaging the public anxiety about the disease versus what we know about the science of the disease.

And that's where we end up with this kind of confusion about how many people are we tracking? Why are we tracking so many people? Are these people that they're tracking actually in danger of getting sick?

And actually for the vast majority of them, they're not in real danger. They're in some anxiety state as far as the public is concerned, but they're not in real danger.

CUOMO: All right. Well, that's a little comforting, at least it's about public policy, instead of the ignorance about the actual disease, but then there are a couple of head scratchers, the virus, one head-scratcher.

The first couple of doctors who came back, thank God they're OK now, they're in bubble suits. Now you have people locked in an apartment complex in Texas. I mean, what's going on? Where's the urgency?

REDLENER: Well, we need a lot more information, this is one of the things I'm very concerned about was, which is the public health reaction to this particular identified case, is Mr. Duncan. And people are under armed guard, they can't leave the apartment.

The public officials are coming by theoretically and they are taking their temperature a couple of times a day, but they're not taking care of their food needs. The bed sheets that this guy was sleeping on are still on the bed.

CUOMO: Why haven't they been moved into a facility where they can be properly treated?

REDLENER: That's the kind of thing we really need to find out and when sort of the dust settles on this acute challenge right now, we really have to dig into how the public health officials reacted and responded to this particular case. And it's not just this guy. It's the entire family that feels like they've been abandoned. CUOMO: Trapped in an apartment with fouled sheets from when the guy was sick. There was a power outage there from bad weather. The doors were kept open of all their neighbors.

REDLENER: Right.

CUOMO: I mean, it does not seem like good preparedness, objectively. And then you get to the hospital, do you believe there is any chance this was about bad software. A software problem, that's why they avoided common sense when dealing with this first patient?

REDLENER: We're just in the throes of installing electronic health records throughout hospitals and medical practices throughout the country. In this particular situation, though, if you're sitting in front of a patient where the triage nurse, you're screening people. The guy says I've just come from Liberia.

CUOMO: Conversation is over, I'm going to test you.

REDLENER: It's not -- you then go, verbally and you get the chief of the ER and you say I got a guy from West Africa with a fever, he's got to be tested.

CUOMO: Even if he doesn't have a fever.

REDLENER: Right.

CUOMO: If he says I was in Liberia, I just came back, why not test? What's the risk?

REDLENER: We're on the road to a blood test right at that very moment. I think there's probably, there are problems with organizing the electronic health record information that will be fixed. That is a glitch. But that doesn't excuse the absence of whoever triaged the guy from getting up, getting the doctor and saying we got a problem right here.

CUOMO: Most alarming to me and I think it's the important point to end on here. You're not surprised that we're seeing problems with preparedness and response. You're saying, this was inevitable because?

REDLENER: It's inevitable because we've had literally a decade of disastrous cutbacks in funds for hospital preparedness and for public health preparedness. We're now paying a small price for that what I worry about is what if this was bird flu, something very contagious and very lethal? We'd be in a boatload of trouble right now and we have to get this adjusted.

CUOMO: I know there's a coordination issue, also because in Texas, you're dealing with the local health officials, they're the ones in control, not the CDC. You have to figure this stuff out. Because if the best can you do is lock people in an apartment complex? Along with the fouled sheets and not giving them food? We have to be able to do better than that. REDLENER: We should be and I think eventually we will be. The question is will this be a wake-up call or a snooze alarm. We hit the snooze button and we're back into complacency. Will there be action following this?

CUOMO: I think we can agree, it's not about spreading false panic, it's about forcing accountability so we get this right. Because a as you're saying, this could be much worse. Dr. Redlener, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

We know you have a lot of questions and they're actually growing so in the next hour, we're going to get the very latest from you, and the 8:00 hour, we'll get your questions and then we're going to talk to this man before that, Dr. Thomas Frieden.

He is the man in control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we're going to get there and get your questions and talk to him. And where do you get them to us? On Twitter, use the #ebolaqanda -- Mich.

PEREIRA: All right, Chris, thanks so much. Breaking overnight, another massive cybersecurity breach, this one affecting tens of millions of customers, at banking giant, JPMorgan Chase. Hackers may have compromised the accounts of 76 million personal customers and 7 million small businesses.

How successful were they? How concerned should you be? Chief business correspondent, Christine Romans is here. Was this part of that banking -- that we heard about this past summer?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, about seven banks every day you've got hackers trying to get into the vaults of banks to get your information. In this case, we now know it was 76 million JPMorgan Chase accounts and 7 million small business accounts.

That's essentially half the households in America. Their information gotten by hackers. What did they get? They got names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and internal JPMorgan Chase information relating to such users.

They did not get your credit card number or password or social security number. What could happen here? This is the kind of information that is just a goldmine for people trying to recreate your identity or trying to do phishing expeditions.

To call you up on the phone and say, hi, I'm calling from Chase, give me your social security number and your address, I want to verify some information. Do not do that.

Chase says, they have not seen any fraud activity yet. They're closely monitoring it. They say you don't need to change your account password or your account at this point. They're very closely watching it.

It's more likely someone is going to try to phish around, call you up, send you an email to try to trick you into them getting more information. So just be careful about that.

PEREIRA: Heads up, everybody, we'll be covering this more throughout the day. Thanks so much, Christine, for that alert. Let's turn it over to John.

BERMAN: All right, thanks so much, Michaela. Breaking this morning, ISIS has now reached the key city of Kobani, that's on the border between Syria and Turkey. They now control the southwest corner of that city and Kurdish fighters are trying to push them back.

This comes after Turkey voted to authorize military action against the terror group in both Iraq and Syria. Australia is also announcing it will launch strikes against ISIS, but only in Iraq for now.

Our Phil Black is along the Turkey-Syrian border with the very latest. Good morning, Phil.

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Yes, what we've been seeing here in the east of Kobani is a very -- a lot of shells falling over the city, particularly this eastern and southeastern site. And then, as you mentioned a short time ago, this news from Kurdish fighters still in the city, that ISIS has advanced into the southwestern corner and now control that part of the city. They, those Kurdish fighters say they are responding to that, trying to put fighters into position.

They've been predicting this for the last 24 hours, that ISIS would reach the city and enter it. The Kurdish fighters say they've been placing fighters in sniper positions to try and resist that entrance into the city. What we've seen up until now has been ISIS trying to deal with those snipers and those sniper positions through artillery, through shelling. Now, it appears they're advancing on foot. We've started to hear small arms fire in the distance as well, which suggests this close-quarter fighting has already begun.

Now, the Kurdish fighters believe that this close-quarter fighting in the city street to street, house to house, that suits them. That is to their advantage, because they know the territory. But they're now beginning to fall back really to their very last point of resistance -- John.

BERMAN: Quite a struggle. It will be interesting to see how Turkey responds to this. They say they will be involved in the crisis.

Our Phil Black right on the border -- thanks so much.

CUOMO: All right. Now, first, it was four. Now health officials in Texas are tracking 100 people. Who could be at risk because of possible contact with an Ebola patient?

Why the jump? How bad will it be tomorrow? Are they just reaching? Is this just about appeasing the public or is this following science?

We're going to ask Dr. Sanjay Gupta and our team of experts. PEREIRA: And we'll head overseas where a possible break of tensions

in Hong Kong. The country's embattled leader sending his second in command to meet with student leaders. He also has a warning for them, though. We're going to take you there live.

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PEREIRA: I want to take you to Hong Kong now, where tensions are simmering where police and protesters face off yet again, despite a potential for breakthrough. Hong Kong's chief executive saying his government is open to talks with activists, but he made it clear he is not going to step down.

Will Ripley is live in Hong Kong with the very latest for us.

Really want to get a sense of how things are feeling there on the ground, Will.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well the numbers out here today are certainly smaller. One, because it's a work day. Two, because there's been torrential rain on and off.

But remember when the streets were a sea of people, many thousands of them. Now, it's just a handful. In fact, they're having a hard time, Michaela, maintaining some of their barricades.

There was a situation over here up there on the pedestrian bridge where the police actually were removing some of the barricades, protesters started screaming, people ran up the stairs and put the barricades back in place. They're also trying to get supplies in here to the distribution tents, but again, their numbers are smaller.

The real test for this movement is going to be the weekend. Will there be more people who come here? But there's a big question about that, because more and more we're getting a sense that the city is divided, there are now anti-occupy protesters numbering in the thousands who are clashing right now in one of the city's working- class neighborhoods, telling these people that it's time to go home. That the city has suffered enough financially. There's gridlock here and they say it's time to get back to work -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: That's a very good point. You talk about the division between the regular folks who are saying, I need to go to work, I need to make a living. You kids go away. Stop with the protests, this isn't going to accomplish anything.

Give me a sense of how that is playing out in the streets, where you are. Oftentimes when we see these protests going on, there's a group of rabble-rousers that sort of stir things up. Is that happening there?

RIPLEY: Yes. So, there's a few different elements here. There are some working people, but a lot of those are gone today, because they had to go back to work. There are the students, the peaceful students that we've seen here sitting on the streets, sleeping here overnight, doing homework, even setting up makeshift classrooms here on Harcourt Road, which is normally a congested boulevard leading into the central business district behind me.

But there's also another element, and, in fact, Hong Kong city leaders, Michaela, sent out a strong worded statement about this, they say a radical element has moved in a small group of people who are trying to provoke the police, trying to escalate this into some type of confrontation that be presumably seen on the hundreds of television cameras stationed that are all around the city capturing every moment of it.

PEREIRA: All right. Stay with us, Will Ripley.

I also want to bring in our global affairs analyst and managing editor of "Quartz", Bobby Ghosh, who has been watching this situation unfolding in Hong Kong.

It's interesting. We're learning that the second in command to the chief executive there in Hong Kong has agreed to meet with leaders. First of all, how genuine does that feel? Given the fact that the chief executive has dug his heels in and said, no way, I'm not meeting, but I'll send my second in command.

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It's optics really. He said he's not going do resign. He said he's not going to give into any of the demands for more democracy. So, you don't start, this is not a negotiation, you don't start a negotiation by saying you're going to get nothing.

This is much more an attempt to seem to a larger section of the population, that he's being conciliatory. So that he can say, look, I tried, I reached out to the students, I sent my number two to talk to them. They're still not listening.

PEREIRA: Do you think the talks will accomplish anything? We know the students have sort of said, we have very strict demands, we are going to take further action -- again threatening to sit in some of these government buildings. We've already seen some attempts to do that.

GHOSH: Both sides are painting themselves into different corners of the room. The students are saying yes, we'll talk. But we're not changing our demands.

So, a lot depends on what actually happens when the number two and the students begin to talk. And as Will said right there, everything depends on what happens in the weekend. If there's once again, once the working day is already over in Hong Kong, if the crowds begin to swell again, and over the weekend, you see again the tens of hundreds of thousands of people out in the street, that will put a lot of pressure on the chief executive. And then that might force Beijing to have, it might force Beijing to come to some sort of a decision, whether it's a tough one, crack down, or sacrifice their chief executive.

PEREIRA: Look into your crystal ball -- how do you see this? There's such a concern. The sheer number of people there, with the sheer amount of tension that is building. It sometimes subsides, sometimes increases, how do you see this ending?

GHOSH: I think C.Y. Leung, the chief executive, has no more credibility. Now, it's only a question of when he goes. I think Beijing will want to save his own face, give him an opportunity to save some face, buy him some time so that he can find an opportunity, some months, some weeks and months down the line to say, all right now I'm stepping down. I'm not stepping down because the students pushed me.

PEREIRA: Speak to the optics, right?

GHOSH: They'll find some other explanation and let him go.

I think he's got no credibility, even though the students will all go home, he's been completely undermined in Hong Kong and in the face of the world.

PEREIRA: Bobby Ghosh, great to have you here, giving us an idea of how this all going to play out. We'll be watching it, and I know you will be, too. Thanks so much.

Medical experts say there is zero Ebola transmission on planes. Yet, United Airlines is contacting everybody who was on board Thomas Duncan's flight. Is there a real risk to those passengers? Our experts are here, they've got answers.

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