Lawmakers call health agencies to account for Ebola mistakes

GWEN IFILL:

Major federal health agencies were called to account today for mistakes in handling Ebola. Lawmakers from both parties fired off criticism and questions at a hearing in Washington.

REP. FRED UPTON, (R) Michigan: People's lives are at stake, and the response so far has been unacceptable.

GWEN IFILL:

Growing anxiety over the prospect of Ebola's spread in the U.S. brought a House committee back from campaigning and put the nation's top health officials on the firing line.

Michigan Republican Fred Upton:

REP. FRED UPTON:

We're going to hold your feet to the fire on getting the job done and getting it done right. Both the U.S. and the global health community have so far failed to put in place an effective strategy fast enough to combat the current outbreak.

GWEN IFILL:

The complaints were bipartisan.

Democrat Diana DeGette of Colorado:

REP. DIANA DEGETTE, (D) Colorado: It would be an understatement to say that the response to the first U.S.-based patient with Ebola has been mismanaged, causing risk to scores of additional people.

GWEN IFILL:

The hearing came amid suggestions from House Speaker John Boehner and others that limits be placed on travelers coming into the country from West Africa, where thousands have died of Ebola.

Republican Tim Murphy of Pennsylvania chaired the hearing.

REP. TIM MURPHY, (R) Pennsylvania: This is the question the American public is asking. Why are we still allowing folks to come over here and why, once they're over here, is there no quarantine?

GWEN IFILL:

But the head of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Tom Frieden, argued a travel ban could backfire.

DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: If people were to come in by, for example, going over land to another country and then entering without our knowing that they were from these three countries, we would actually lose that information.

GWEN IFILL:

At the White House, a spokesman said banning travel is not under consideration.

But passenger screenings have started at major international airports in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Newark, New Jersey, and Washington. The process includes taking temperatures and handing out questionnaires to travelers from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

At Washington Dulles Airport, some passengers felt reassured, some less so.

ERIC MORENO:

Any screening in or out, I'm all for, whether it's security for terrorism or whether it's for health issues. Obviously, I don't want anything brought in.

RAMYA SINGH:

I don't know how effective they will be, quite honestly, because you know where you're coming from, but you don't know where you have been before.

GWEN IFILL:

In Dallas, questions continued about how two nurses got infected after treating a Liberian man, Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

A top hospital official appeared at today's congressional hearing via video.

DR. DANIEL VARGA, Chief Clinical Officer, Texas Health Resources:

Unfortunately, in our initial treatment of Mr. Duncan, despite our best intentions and a highly skilled medical team, we made mistakes. We didn't correctly diagnose his symptoms as those of Ebola. And we are deeply sorry.

GWEN IFILL:

One of the nurses, 29-year-old Amber Vinson, has now been moved to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. The other nurse, Nina Pham, is being sent to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Later, President Obama called key congressional leaders, met with top administration officials, and authorized a call-up of the National Guard and Reserve troops if needed to help deal with the outbreak in West Africa. We will have more on the response to the Ebola threat after the news summary.