CDC Director Frieden's Ebola Q & A on Fox News - Excellent and Informative Interview.

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• published: 15 Oct 2014
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Today Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden appeared on Megyn Kelly's show on Fox News. IMO both did an excellent job. Kelly like a rabid bulldog asked intelligent and tough questions. When she did not get an answer, she asked the question again. However, CDC Director Frieden COMPETENTLY answered every question posed. WARNING: You may not like what you hear the Director has to say, but he is right. So TV personalities and pundits should quit trying to cause panic. I won't interpret the Q & A with too many of my own opinions, but listen to the Director. He made sense. The key to controlling a U.S. outbreak is to jump on cases when they arise. And hospitals must immediately train personnel and get the proper equipment to all staff. Anyway, I thought BOTH did an outstanding job in this interview on putting the hard questions to the Director, and the fed answering them, at least as much as we as lay people are able to understand. If Frieden was like this in his speeches I suspect Americans would not be so mistrustful of how Washington is handling matters. Note: I don't think many people understand the CDC's jurisdiction and authority. I do not believe the CDC has jurisdiction and control over states and local government, that is unless the POTUS declares a national emergency, or if we turn into a bunch of Zombies the POTUS declared martial law (in all seriousness, because the citizens are out of control and Ebola has reached epidemic proportions). I assume the fed, under advice by the Dept. of Health and Human Services, FAA, SOS, Immigration, and others, does have the authority to immediately close our borders, forbid travel to West Africa, control immigration, arrest and detain the Dr. Nancy Snyderman types (oh please Lord, please let that happen), and ban flights, but like the Director said (and I agree) there's a bigger picture here. For example, encircling West Africa so no one goes in, and no one enters or leaves the region will make the situation worse. To us "erecting barbed wire" and "planting land mines" sounds like swell ideas, but all that will do is cause Ebola to spread to hundreds of thousands then maybe millions in the West African population making Ebola impossible to control anywhere in the world. I do disagree with the Fed that they should delay closing our borders until we can get immigration controls into place. Yes, it is mean and discriminatory to appear to be locking our doors, but we can't allow Ebola-infected people to sneak into the U.S. and travel to all parts of the U.S. This is serious and we need to get Ebola under control. A few cases are too many. I also disagree with the Fed "defrauding" us with placebos, e.g., taking the temperature of passengers arriving in the U.S. accomplishes a prevention objective. The Fed knows that is BS and it should stop with the theatrics. Sidenote: If anyone knows the jurisdiction and authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, please chime in. I don't think the Agency has the authority to order State, local, private business, and health practitioners to do anything. The CDC's role is limited to advise state and local health agencies, who do in fact have the legal authority to regulate hospitals and health practitioners. (E.g. hospitals, doctors and nurses are licensed by the state. Just as our driving is regulated by the state who issued our driver's license, so too are health practitioners regulated by the state.) This is important because I suspect our angst and anger is NOT properly directed at the CDC, to the extent your concerns are about your local hospital, not what someone is doing in Dallas, Texas. Our complaints and concerns should be voiced via the phone and emails to our individual state health agencies. We should be contacting our local hospitals, asking what they are doing to prepare for when and if an Ebola case shows up. But, to the extent you want international travel limited, we should be contacting the federal govt. However, IMO efforts should not be directed at the CDC. Your U.S. representatives are the people to call (Senators and House members).