From nbc news in washington, this is meet the press with david gregory. Lets show you a live shot of Emory University hospital in atlanta where kent brantley, walked into the hospital of his own accord with the assistance of another medical worker. He arrived on a specifically equipped plane after contracting the deadly disease while working in liberia. President obama weighed in on friday saying the u. S. Is taking the outbreak of the disease, quote, very seriously. Our chief medical editor dr. Nancy snyderman has the very latest on the crisis and how the u. S. Government plans to respond. Good morning. Good morning. The cdc is now issuing an order for 50 people, disease detectives if you will to be deployed to west africa to try to start to get this epidemic, this outbreak of ebola under control. But in the meantime, they were also at the epicenter of an extraordinary operation. That required the coordination of the state department, cdc, white house, fbi, the doctors and nurses at emory and even patients on the ground. People on the ground, if you will to get dr. Brantley safely from liberia to the United States and admitted to the hospital. It was a military operation that took every precaution. Well, the disease continues to ravage parts of west africa, the death toll now over 700 and climbing, chances of an Ebola Outbreak in the United States are slim. But the government says its ready. Here are the three main reasons why. Number one, government on alert. Only the cdc can confirm ebola cases in the United States. And they have 20 quarantine stations at all major points of entry to the country staffed with medical and Public Health officers. If a traveler is sick on a flight, that person would be flagged by the flight crew, isolated and passengers and crew may be detained to get medical attention upon landing. If necessary, those with the disease can be denied entry into the United States. Number two, our modern Health Care System. A person cant get ebola without direct contact with bodily fluids of someone who already has the disease. Basic hygiene at our Emergency Rooms should prevent the virus from spreading. Number three, command and control. Hospitals in west africa have almost become amplification centers for the disease. Meaning unmodern facilities and lack of medical supplies can increase rather than halt the diseases spread. The government says there are strong systems in place to find people who are sick, isolate them, and give treatment. Having a command and control center gives experts a place to centralize Decision Making and take quick action. The real issue right now is to prevent any further kidney or liver damage, to limit any bleeding. And that is the best way to save dr. Brantleys life. No news yet on an update from emory. We expect that later today. All right. Thank you so much for your time this morning. Earlier, i spoke with dr. Tom freeden, director of centers of Disease Control. I asked him about the outlook at this point. Well, its encouraging. He seems to be improved. Ebola can be deadly. But in people who are healthy, the case fatality rate may be lower than the ones were usually quoting. Because people like this doctor are much healthier going in than the people still getting ebola in africa. Right. And he was working in western africa in liberia. When you look at some of the precautions that are taken, especially outfitted for him to be contained. The medical units onsite from the airport to his transfer to emory and a containment unit at emory. Is this an unacceptable risk to bring somebody we bow la back. Well, first off, we have to say that he was coming home. And the organization that sent him to africa made the decision to bring him home. Hes an american citizen. And what our role is in Public Health is to make sure if an american is coming home with an Infectious Disease, we protect others so they dont spread it. The head of the wofrld Health Organization has said in the last couple of days the following from dr. Margaret chan, this outbreak is moving faster than our efforts to control it. If the situation continues to deterioration, the consequences can be catastrophic in terms of lost lives but also severe disruption and high risk spread to other countries. What is the u. S. Government doing to respond to that need to respond to the potential for its spread . It is a very serious condition. And it is currently out of control in africa with a high risk of spreading further in africa. What were doing now at cdc is surging our response. Were going to put at least 50 health Public Health experts in the three countries in the next 30 days. Because actually, we do know how to stop ebola. Its oldfashioned plain and simple Public Health. Find the patients, make sure they get treated, find their contacts, track them, educate people, do Infection Control in hospitals. You do those things, but you have to do them really well, and ebola goes away. People who are looking at the events of the last couple of days are concerned even as the center for Disease Control is mishandling biochemicals and other agents and diseases at your own labs, have to be wondering about the ability of our Health Care System, the u. S. Government, to be able to prevent a spread here particularly with those affected workers, two in total, hole be back in the United States. What can you say to deal with that concern . I certainly understand that occurs at cdc. We have lapses in our laboratories. Fortunately no one was hurt. Nothing was released into the laboratory environment. However or out of the laboratory and into the environment. Whats so important is if there are patients with possible ebola or confirmed ebola in hospitals, that doctors and the entire Health Care Team are super careful. They have protocols in place and make sure every one of those protocols is followed. Ebola is really a formidable enemy. Your plan and your execution has to be meticulous to avoid its spread. If you dont do that, you can have spread to workers in the Health Care System or family members. That can happen. You can have some secondary cases if youre not really, really careful. Already. Dr. Frieden, well certainly send our best wishes to dr. Kent brantly and monitor his progress. Thanks so much for your time this morning. Thank you very much. Im joined now by dr. Toby cosgrove, chief executive officer and president of the renowned cleveland clinic. Doctor cosgrove, good to have you here. I wanted additional perspective from the hospital sector in the United States. First of all, take me inside what the containment unit is like when you have someone like dr. Brantly, how hes protected, the workers are protected and the wider public are protected with these efforts. We have to understand how disease spreads. This is spread differently. This is spread by direct contact or bodily fluid contact. Inside these containment areas theres negative pressure. So any air would go into rather than coming out of that facility. They are protected workers are protected by complete covering of their face and all of their body and they are isolated. So this is much like any other Infectious Disease we deal with. Interestingly, this is not as highly contagious as many other diseases. For example, many more people in the United States die from influenza. That requires hand washing, isolation to prevent that. We must remember were in a global world. Is it irrational to say oh, my goodness, the wonderful people helping to stop the spread of ebola in africa, they are americans but shouldnt be allowed to come back to the United States because the rick is too high. You have to understand weve gone to a globalized world now. Just because its in africa doesnt mean it doesnt affect the entire world. Transportation, this is something we must learn to deal w i think the cdc has done a wonderful job being able to isolate these patients, having centers that look for people coming into the United States with disease. I think they have done a super job. A lot of people think about a visit to the hospital, which is unpleasant. They worry about getting sicker than what they came in for being at the hospital. When you have the introduction of a virus like this, is that a compounded fear and is it real . I dont think the fear is real, first of all, because we understand we have the disease. We isolate it, take tremendous precautions with it. I dont think that represents an additional risk. The infections that occur in the hospital are generally important in terms of people not washing their hands and spreading diseases, bacterial diseases that way. Not so much diseases, viral diseases like this. No known cure for the ebola virus. What do you look for for dr. Brantly and others who have contracted this disease and who are being cared for now. Were looking for supportive care. You may have renal function failure. You may have failure of liver. You may have respiratory failure. All these can be supportive. Thats the real care these patients get. Better in the United States than any place else in the world. And as dr. Frieden was saying, younger, healthier, better chance of survival that dr. Brantly was walking of his own volition. I think its a terrific sign. The incubation period is between eight and 21 days. People spread the disease most when they are sick, which is a good thing. It looks to me like he is now either in the recovery phase or has been able to handled it. If you had been over in the area, in western africa in an outbreak area, when would you show symptoms . Somewhere eight to ten, 21day period. People coming back to the United States having temperature measured every day and quarantined until that 21 days passed. Before i let you go, theres a Real Health Threat in your neck of the woods, cleveland and toledo. Algae bloom in lake erie making Drinking Water there toxic. How concerned are you about cleveland and what are you doing to fix it . Were concerned about water supply across lake erie and United States. The runoff from fertilizers from the farms has caused the algae to bloom in the lakes. That has gotten worse and worse each year as weve gone along. Its now reached critical proportions in the western portion of lake erie. Obviously cleveland is right down the lake from that and were concerned as well. All right. Dr. Cosgrove, great to have you here on the program. Thanks for your time. Were going to take a break and talk about overseas. The brutal fight between israel and hamas. No end in sight as president obama defends the effort of secretary of state john kerry. Should be a bunch of complaints, secondguessing of, well, it hasnt happened yet, nitpicking before hes had a chance to complete his efforts. The question this morning, is there any hope of a negotiated solution to the crisis . I will ask diplomats from opposing sides of this conflict coming up next. Meet the press is brough comin[ female announcer ] when youre serious about fighting wrinkles, turn to roc® retinol correxion®. One week, fine lines appear to fade. One month, deep wrinkles look smoother. After one year, skin looks ageless. High performance skincare™ only from roc®. Okay patrick, one more stop. Skin looks ageless. Lets go base, shark, blitz. Base, shark, blitz, break when the games on the line. 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Mattress discounters were back with a discussion about the war in the middle east. The conflict between hamas and gaza, ceasefire efforts so far unsuccessful, can a solution be found any time soon. More israeli shelling killed 30 people today. The death toll in gaza now stands at more than 1700 people. Israel is withdrawing and redeploying some troops, but Prime Minister netanyahu says he will keep up the pressure on hamas even after destroying hamas network of tunnels into israel. Im joined now by the permanent observer of palestine to the United Nations. Ambassador, welcome. Thank you for having me. First of all, on that point about the redeployment and withdrawal of israeli troops, do you see some opening here to break this impasse, to get to a more durable ceasefire . We hope the israeli army would withdraw completely from the gaza strip. We have a tragic humanitarian problem in gaza, which you have indicated more than 1700 palestinians, most of them civilians, 80 or more, and more than 9,000 have been injured. 80 of them, according to you and statistics have been injured. What we need now is to stop this fighting, to address the strategic humanitarian situation in the gaza strip. Let me stop you on that point. Your anger at israel certainly understandable. The loss of civilians horrific. There was an agreement about that. Im wondering whether youre outraged by the conduct of hamas. Starting the conflict firing rockets, building tunnels to kill and kidnap israelis, being more than willing to sacrifice palestinian lives by imbedding them into their own kind of arsenal and using them, as israel contends, as human shields. Do you have a level of outrage to hamas itself. First of all, this concept of using Palestinian Civilians as human shields is not right. It is not correct. It is not even, you know, moral. Instead of why dont you bring on the show and let the american public, including congress to listen. For example, doctors without borders. Hold on a second. Hold on. My question stands. Im asking whether youre outraged at the conduct of hamas. I am outraged they fired rock, they built tunnels for the purpose of killing and kidnapping israelis and they do exploit the Palestinian Civilians when they know they are going to be in danger from where they are firing the rockets and so forth. Do you have any outrage towards hamas. I am outraged as the killing of innocent civilians by any party from any side. Today, another school of honorable United Nations was hit in russia. At least 10 civilians were killed and possibly 100 injured. These things need to be stopped. My president , president abbas, is doing more than that. He dispatched yesterday a delegation composed of all palestinian political groups to begin the negotiation with israel through the egyptian to have the ceasefire extended more than three days, to have a sustainable ceasefire and begin the discussion on the root causes ambassador, im trying we are waiting for the israeli side to come fair enough. Fair enough. The rope im pressing this point is not to challenge you about how horrific the loss of civilians are. As a more moderate palestinian figure, which is what you are, representative Palestinian Authority, theres certainly no love lost between Palestinian Authority and hamas, im wondering what level of culpability you believe hamas has for the advancement of the palestinian people. Not just in this conflict but more generally. I believe if we allow for peace to take place, negotiation to take place, under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, who is bringing all political elements in the palestinian side, including hamas you said his wing, International Consensus government. If we empower this government, we will be able to move gradually from the situation of confrontation and fighting into the situation of this tragedy and blocking it against our people in gaza, giving the people there hope. 50 of the population in gaza are under 18. If you put them in a continuous situation of fighting and resentment and hate, this is an excellent atmosphere for radicalism. But if you give them hope. You open the borders, let them go to schools, let them get good jobs, let them look for moderation, then well succeed in allowing all those who want to have peace between us and israelis to have the upper hand. A lot of people listening would find that compelling, the Palestinian Authority could provide better leadership than hamas. I want to try more on this. Do you think hamas is helping or hurting palestinians right now . Hamas is part of the palestinian political configuration. The question is how to deal with that. The first step is the National Consensus government. Israel is trying to destroy this government. To destroy this government is pushing us back and allowing hamas to have support in the gaza strip. The alternative is empower the National Consensus government, allow the government of preside