CNN "Wolf" - Transcript: Ebola Outbreak

Interview

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BLITZER: Contentious Capitol hearing on the issue of Ebola. Joining us now, two congresswoman who were there as part of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Colorado Democrat Diana DeGette, who's the ranking Democrat on the committee. Also joining us, the Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn.

To both of you, thanks very much for joining us.

Congresswoman Blackburn, first to you. What's your reaction to the president's decision to name Ron Klain as the new Ebola czar?

REP. MARSHA BLACKBURN (R), TENNESSEE: Well, they needed one person to be in charge of coordination, but I'm one of those I would have loved to have seen someone like former Senator Bill Frist, who understands the mental and the governmental component, or General Honore, who did such a fine job after Katrina.

BLITZER: General Russel Honore, who was involved in Katrina.

BLACKBURN: Yes.

BLITZER: And Bill Frist was the former Senate majority leader, who himself is, what, he's a physician.

BLACKBURN: A physician.

BLITZER: He's a surgeon. He's a heart/lung transplant surgeon.

BLACKBURN: That's right.

BLITZER: What's your reaction, Congresswoman DeGette?

REP. DIANA DEGETTE (D), COLORADO: Well, I agree with Marsha that it's good to have somebody who can coordinate both the medical and the political and communication here. Ron has done this a lot.

I have a lot of faith in our CDC and our NIH medical personnel. I think that they're - that they're handling these things according to protocols. But I think it's good to have somebody to coordinate that. So I think it's good that the White House has done this.

BLITZER: You -- because Congresswoman DeGette, you asked some pretty pointed, tough questions at that hearing yesterday. It sounded to me like you - you weren't completely satisfied with all the answers you got.

DEGETTE: Well, I think that when Mr. Duncan presented himself at the hospital in Dallas, the way that it was --

BLITZER: He's the Liberian individual who had Ebola.

DEGETTE: He's the man who sadly has died now. And when he first presented himself, I thought the hospital handled this very poorly. And then I think that subsequent to that, some of the NIH directives were either not clear enough or else the hospital was not interpreting them clearly. And I think what we need to realize, and I'm sure Marsha would agree with me on this, is we shouldn't get hysterical over this. Ebola's not like the flu. It can't be transmitted by airborne transmission. But on the other hand, we need to have very clear guidelines about what we're going to do to handle these very few cases of people who have come into close contact with the bodily fluids of the sick people and then we need to treat those folks and get them better.

BLITZER: Right.

DEGETTE: And we need to focus on eliminating Ebola in West Africa. That's where we need to put our efforts.

BLITZER: So you mean you weren't happy, not with the NIH so much as the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, right, Congresswoman DeGette?

DEGETTE: That's right.

BLITZER: Yes, I just want to make sure that you're not critical of the National -

DEGETTE: I'm sorry, if I said NIH, I meant - yes, I meant CDC.

BLITZER: Yes, yes, you said NIH but I knew you meant CDC.

What about you? Were you - were you satisfied?

BLACKBURN: Well -- no, I was not. I think there has been a lack of clarity and great confusion coming from the CDC. There was underestimation. The hospitals across the country did not have and still do not have clear, precise guidance. There is lack of coordination on waste disposal and so many different areas the protocols being more precise in these protocols are something that we want to see. And as you've heard, there's unanimous agreement in this. We want to -- we're here to work with them to protect Americans.

BLITZER: Are the hospitals in your district in Tennessee ready? If somebody walks into the emergency room with Ebola, will they have the equipment, the gear, all the expertise that they need to get the job done?

BLACKBURN: We would hope that hospitals across the country -

BLITZER: I know we hope, but are they ready?

BLACKBURN: We would hope. That is something that we don't know. And this is something where the CDC should be more aggressive in coordinating that effort to be certain that every hospital has the gear that is necessary and knows what to do, rather than just say call the state health department.

BLITZER: And we've heard these horror stories out of the Dallas hospital.

BLACKBURN: Yes.

BLITZER: They didn't have the proper gear that -

BLACKBURN: Or how to dispose of the waste once they got it.

BLITZER: Yes. And as a result -

BLACKBURN: Yes.

BLITZER: Two nurses now are suffering from Ebola.

BLACKBURN: That's right.

BLITZER: I want both of you, congresswomen, please stay with us. We have a lot more questions, a lot more to discuss. For our international viewers, a separate program, "Leading Women," is up next. For our viewers here in the United States and North America, we're going to talk about the proposed Ebola travel bans, mandatory quarantines, the effort to try to protect U.S. military personnel now being deployed to West Africa. Stay with us.

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