Bill Johnson at Oversight and Investigation Subcommittee Ebola Hearing – “This is not about politics…it’s about protecting the American people”
WASHINGTON – Today, Representative Bill Johnson (R-Marietta) questioned Dr. Thomas Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during the House Energy & Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations’ “Examining the U.S. Public Health Response to the Ebola Outbreak” hearing.
For a complete list of witness hearings, please visit: http://energycommerce.house.gov/hearing/examining-us-public-health-response-ebola-outbreak
TRANSCRIPT:
Rep. Bill Johnson: Thank you for being here. Thank all of you on the panel for being here today.
This is not about politics or international diplomacy. This is about public health and protecting the safety of the American people, particularly our health care workers who are some of the high-risk folks to be exposed. One of my main concerns is we don’t know what we don’t know. Throughout testimony and questioning today, I have heard you say multiple times I don’t know the details of this, I don’t know the details of this. I think what the American people are wanting is some assurance that somebody does know the details. Do we know yet how the two health care workers contracted the virus? Was it a breakdown in the protocol? Was it a breakdown in the training of the protocol? Do we know the protocol works?
Dr. Thomas Frieden: The investigation is ongoing We have identified possible causes.
Rep. Johnson: So we don’t know. We don’t know. I get that. We don’t know. The people in Ohio are concerned, especially now that we know that one of those health-care workers traveled through Ohio, even spend some time in Akron with family members. I applaud Governor Kasich’s immediate actions to try to address the situation. In my experience as a military war planner, 26 and a half years in the military, and I know we have the military engaged in this process overseas, we don’t wait until the bullets start flying to figure out whether our war plan is going to work.
When did the CDC find out there was an outbreak of Ebola in West Africa?
Dr. Frieden: Late March.
Rep. Johnson: One of the things we do in the military is conduct operational readiness inspections.
We give real world scenarios in controlled environments, no notice, so that those who are going to be responsible for executing a war plan know what to do when the first shot is fired. No panic, no second-guessing, they know what to do. Has the plan to address an Ebola outbreak ever been tested by the CDC in a real-world environment?
Dr. Frieden: Not only has the plan been tested, that outbreak control has been done multiple times in West Africa.
Rep. Johnson: I am talking about America.
Dr. Frieden: In America also.
Rep. Johnson: Do you know of any hospitals in Eastern and Southeastern Ohio that have participated in any kind of real-world scenario of an Ebola outbreak?
Dr. Frieden: I cannot speak to that specific example.
Rep. Johnson: Let me go further. You mentioned that 150 per day roughly are coming in from West Africa. Let me give you a scenario. Let’s say a person comes in to the country from West Africa, and let’s say that everything in the screening process works right. They may be on day 14 of having been exposed to Ebola in West Africa. They show up with symptoms and go through the screening process and then go to wherever they may go. Day 17 or 18, they start getting ill and start seeing a spike in their temperature. If they went into any emergency room in Appalachia Ohio and start throwing up and having symptoms, does your plan identify that can tell hospital emergency room what to do in that scenario? Do they have a temperature screening kiosk or any similar option set up? They don’t know that person came from Liberia or any other place.
Dr. Frieden: We have detailed checklists and algorithms we have provided widely to health care workers throughout the country to determine if there is an outbreak of Ebola and if they do, to call for help, and we will be there.
