Saturday, October 4, 2014

Some drama today. A 35 year old man and his 5 yo daughter (Liberian Green card lives in New Jersey) flying from Monrovia on United Airlines to Brussels and then United to Newark. Man throws up on the Brussels – Newark flight. When plane lands CDC person on the ground judges that the person does not have Ebola and recommends that he be taken to hospital for checkup and releases the other passengers. To Tom Frieden’s great dismay, the White House (Lisa Monaco) and Sylvia Burwell over-rule CDC decision and have Hazmat remove man and daughter to hospital and call back the released passengers who were already either on the way home or boarding connecting flights in order to get their contact information and pass out forms telling them what to do if they get fever or sxs. Sylvia asked me to be on conference call discussing this with Lisa Monaco, Sec. Jay Johnson of DHS, Leslie Dach, Jennifer Palmieri of White House Comms and NSC Rand Beers and Ned Price. Decision on first call was to find out the clinical judgment of the hospital staff as to whether this person might have Ebola. If they felt there was a risk, they would do Ebola PCR, which would take 2 hours for primary result and up to 72 hours for confirmation. Decided to wait for second call in 2 hours. In between calls I called Tom Frieden to offer to help him out. He was greatly distressed that the WH and Sylvia over-ruled CDC and called the passengers back since the CDC person on the ground felt that the man did not have Ebola. He said he cannot do his job if he is being second-guessed by the Secretary and her team. He even spoke about resigning. I told him that this was ridiculous and that I would try to help him by speaking with Leslie and Sylvia. Also, Sylvia and Sec. Johnson (DHS) want to institute entry screening with questioning and temperaturetaking. There is already exit screening at the West African airports and Tom is against repeating things just to make people feel good. Sylvia and Leslie want my opinion and I will speak with Leslie tonight about this. On the second call at 5:30 PM (beautiful Fall day in DC with clear skies and 70 F), it was disclosed that the Jersey hospital found that the patient had no fever or abnormal labs; felt good; and had had an episode of vertigo. The patient will be released without restrictions and the passengers will be told that all is clear. Tom is beside himself. Also had long conversation with Mike Gerson today briefing him on story he is writing about the complexities of doing a vaccine trial for Ebola – scientific and ethical issues. Press today → NBC Today Show Weekend Edition; MSNBC with Alex Witt; PBS NewsHour Weekend Edition