Yet lets quarantine anyone and everyone. Just to be safe. As a bioethicists, youve seen this before. Why are we doing this as a nation as the politicians are saying maybe we need this. Event lugsary we evolved so if we see a sick person, our instinct is stay away because we dont want to get sick. And this is tapping into huge fear. Weve all seen movies like outbreak. Best selling books about the notion of the plague, the disease that wipes out mankind. This is the stuff of science fiction. So, it taps into these very instinctual fears we have. However, we need to realize that if we want to get rid of the epidemic, we need to quarantine people who are at risk of infecting people and also get rid of the epidemic abroad. We cant just say were going to protect the citizens in my state and put a wall around my state and not let anyone in. We also need to stop the epidemic in africa because thats and elsewhere because otherwise theyre just going to flood the walls. Doctor, is is there a happy medium here . We tend to go from one extreme to the other, right . We either treat them like theyre prisoners, these heroes going over there and helping out or no quarantine process at all. Isnt there a way to have some sort of quarantine process to make the American People feel safe without treating them like they are prisoners . Yes, absolutely. And that would be someone anyone who comes over, whos been in africa, who theyre not infectious. Yes, maybe theyre in that few days before they become infectious. They should report every day to a health authority. They should monitor themselves carefully. These are Health Care Workers who are responsible, who dedicated their lives to helping people. Every day they should check in we a Health Care System theyre okay. If they begin to see a problem, then they report to a designated treatment excuse me, doctor, were taking a look at the president. Lets hear what he has to say on the south lawn of the white house. I want to offer a quick update on ebola and a number of the issues that have been raised. We know the best way to protect americans ultimately is going to stop this outbreak at the source. And i just had the privilege of speaking with some of the men and women who are working to do just that. Our Disaster AssistanceResponse Team on the ground in west africa. First and foremost, i thank them for their incredible dedication and compassion. These are the folks that from the minute that we saw this Ebola Outbreak growing larger than we had seen traditionally, were deployed, were on the ground and were helping to coordinate the countries where the outbreak is happening to make sure that the response was effective. And its typical of what america does best. When others are in trouble, when disease or disaster strikes, americans help. No other nation is doing as much to make sure that we contain and ultimately eliminate this outbreak than america. We deployed this team to west africa back in august. Theyre now the strategic and operational backbone of americas response. Theyve increased the number of ebola treatment units and burial teams. Theyve expanded the pipeline of medical personnel and equipment and supplies. Theyve launched an aggressive Education Campaign in country. The bottom line is theyre doing what it takes to make sure medical personnel and Health Care Workers from all countries have what they need to get the job done. And the good news is its starting to have an impact, based on the conversations i had with them. Theyre starting to see some progress in liberia and the infrastructure is starting to get built up, thanks to the incredible work and dedication to the folks from the United States who are leading the way in helping liberia, guinea and sierra leone. Its critical we maintain that leadership. The truth is that we have to stay vigilant here at home until we stop the epidemic at its source. And for that, were going to need to make sure that our doctors and Health Care Professionals here in the United States are properly trained and informed and that they are coordinated, if and when an ebola case crops up here in the United States. But whats also critically important is making sure that all the talent, skill, compassion, professionalism, dedication and experience of our folks here can be deployed to help those countries deal with this outbreak at the source. Thats why yesterday the cdc announced well have new monitoring and Movement Guidance that is sensible. Based in science. And tailored to the unique circumstance of each Health Care Worker that may be returning from one of these countries after they have provided the kind of help that they need. In fact tomorrow ill have a chance to meet with doctors and Public Health workers who have already returned from fighting this return in west africa. Or who are about to go. Not only to say thank you to them and give them encouragement, but to make sure were getting input from them, based on the science, based on the facts, based on experience, about how the battle to deal with ebola is going and how our policies can support the incredible heroism that they are showing. So, we dont want to discourage our Health Care Workers from going to the front lines and dealing with this in an effective way. Our medical teams here are Getting Better and better prepared and trained for the possibility of an isolated ebola case here in the United States. In the meantime, we have to make sure that we continue to provide the support of Health Workers who are going overseas to deal with the disease where it really has been raging. Its also important for the American People to remind themselves that only two people so far have contracted ebola on american soil. The two dallas nurses who treated a patient who contracted it in west africa. Today both of them are diseasefree. I met with one of them, nina pham, last week and she is doing wonderfully. I just had a chance to get off the phone with amber vines son is on her way back home, and as many of you saw in her press statement today, is doing well also. Of the seven americans treated for ebola so far, all have survived. Right now the only american still undergoing treatment is dr. Craig spencer, who contracted the disease abroad while working to protect others. And we should be saluting his service. And we are focused on getting him the best care possible as well. Our thoughts and prayers are with him. Meanwhile, the west african nations of senegal and nigeria have been declared ebolafree. Thats in part because of outstanding work led in many cases by americans, working in coordination with those countries to make sure that we did not see an outbreak there. The point is that this disease can be contained. It will be defeated. Progress is possible. But were going to have to stay vigilant and we have to make sure were working together. We have to keep leading the global response. America cannot look like it is shying away because other people are watching what we do. And if we dont have Robust International response in west africa, then we are actually endangering ourselves here back home. In order to do that, weve got to make sure that those workers who are willing and able and dedicated to go over there in a really tough job, that theyre applauded, thanked and supported. That should be our priority. And we can make sure that when they come back, they are being monitored in a prudent fashion, but we want to make sure that we understand that they are doing gods work over there. And theyre doing that to keep us safe. And i want to make sure that every policy we put in place is supportive of their efforts because if they are successful, then were not going to have to work about ebola here at home. America in the end is not defined by fear. Thats not who we are. Americas defined by possibility and when we see a problem and a challenge, then we fix it. We dont just react based on our fears. We react based on facts and judgment. And making smart decisions. Thats how we have built this country and sustained this country and protected this country. Thats why america has defined progress, because were not afraid when challenges come up. Thanks to our military, our dedicated medical and Health Care Professionals, the men and women who i spoke to today in west africa, that leadership and progress continues. Were going to keep on making progress. Were going to solve this particular progress just like we solved every other problem. But it starts with us having the confidence in understanding that as challenging as this may be, this is something that will get fixed. In large part because weve got extraordinary americans with experience, talent, dedication, who are willing to put themselves on the front lines to get things done. Ill have more about more to say about this tomorrow when i have those workers here. But i just wanted to emphasize how proud i am of the people who are already involved in this effort and how confident i am after speaking to them that, in fact, were going to get this problem under control. Thank you. Reporter sir, there might be some confusion between the quarantine rules used by the military and by Health Care Workers and by some states . Well, the military is in a different situation, obviously, because they are, first of all, not treating patients. Second of all, they are not there voluntarily. Its part of their mission thats been assigned to them by their commanders and ultimately by me, the commander in chief. So, we dont expect to have similar rules for our military as we do for civilians. They are already by definition, if theyre in the military, under more circumscribed conditions. When we have volunteers who are taking time out from their families, from their loved ones, so forth, to go over there because they have very particular expertise to tackle a very difficult job, we to want make sure that when they come back that we are prudent, that we are making sure that they are not at risk themselves or at risk of spreading the disease. But we dont want to do things that arent based on science and best practices. Because if we do, then were just putting another barrier on somebody whos already doing really important work on our behalf. Thats not something i think any of us should want to see happen. All right . Thank you, guys. Reporter did you speak to governor christie about this . That was president obama speaking on the White House South Lawn about the latest on the Ebola Outbreak. He said america is not defined by fear. He had just received an update from our aid team in west africa. We want to turn now to nbcs luke russert, who is also at the white house. Luke, we just heard the president answer some questions there about quarantining troops well, one question, to be specific. It came up during the briefing as well today. Several times. How is the white house trying to walk that fine line . Before i get to that, krystal, lets do a debrief of what president obama said. Essentially his rationale was, we need to send americans some americans into harms way to west africa to get at the source of ebola. Thats the best way to contain the outbreak and keep everybody else and americans stateside safe. Thats what the president was trying to push there. He was trying to push a sense of reassurance, right . Seven americans have gotten ebola. All seven of them have survived. Only two have contracted it here within the shores of the United States. They both survived. He talked about how he spoke on the phone recently with amber vinson and also had a visit with nina pham, the other nurse, at the Oval Office Last week. Really the theme was reassurance. We have control the situation as best we can be and we need to keep our borders open so we have the best opportunity to contain the outbreak at its source. What youre getting at is this thing that came up in the briefing which is, okay, why do we have different regulation it seems between those individuals who are going over there voluntarily, who are giving up their time and medical capacity as opposed to the military . Well, there was not a real clearance upon that. Some saying that the military is having more stringent quarantine rules, why shouldnt the average population who goes over there, common citizen, have that . You saw obama take a question on that. It was unexpected that he would take a question. Im just going to speculate that may have been one that an aid ahead of time told a reporter, go ahead, you might get this answered because they want to be more clear on it. And what youre seeing is from the president right there is this idea, well, the military is going over there with a very specific mission. I believe the president said under circumscribed conditions. We dont expect similar rules to apply to the military that would apply to the average citizen. Basically saying, he does not want to make it more difficult for a citizen involved in medicine to come over to west africa. Saying there are certain rules and regulations that would pertain to the military that might not pertain to the general population. To me, i sort of thought that left more questions than real answers. Thats sort of their line, the military operates by different standards, which we certainly see when it comes to combat and other types of things. In an outbreak like this, it might cause fears if youre thinking of going over there as a medical professional, why youre subjected to less stringent standards than a soldier helping build clinics and whatnot. We are back here with director of bioethics at columbia. Lets talk more about this. Well leave the troops civilian thing to the side. I think the president had the clearance that civilians and troops are always treated differently, particularly when you sign up to go fight abroad, no matter what the battles may be. We heard the president an explicit rebuke, democrat and republican at this point, who have overreacted without science backing them up, governors cuomo and christie. Tell us what you read, sort of the subtext of the president s remarks, because this is a national story, National Political issue, no doubt. Scientifically medically so far, six states are receiving the vast majority of these Health Care Workers from west africa and the science dictates Something Different from what the governors are doing. There are competing values here. One is to protect us american. The other desire is to stop the epidemic abroad. Ultimately, these are one in the same because if we stop it abroad, well be protecting ourselves. In the short term it seems there is a tension between wanting to run the risk, some would say, of overprotecting americans of quarantining any asymptomatic Health Care Worker, for instance, which is not necessary. And i think that given that, you have governors such as christie saying, i basically want to create a huge wall around my state at the risk of Health Care Workers not going to africa. That in the end, as we were saying before the president s speech in the end, is very narr narrowminded and shortsighted because if a million in africa get the disease, only more will get into whatever state it is. What the president did shl, it s to me, is that he emphasized its abroad. We have two priorities, to to fight it abroad and protect ourselves. These are not mutually exclusive positions. I assume the reason he did what he did because you have governors saying im going to protect my state, state of new jersey or illinois, whatever the state is, hes moving far in the other direction saying, no, we believe in getting rid of the disease abroad. Ultimately, you need to do both for both political reasons and medical reasons. We talk about folks who have dedicated their lives to helping people. The devils advocate position might be, well f youre going to take that as your life and go to west africa and try to treat ebola, whats another 21 days just to make sure that everybody else who you come into contact with in america is safe . Well, very interesting argument. So, i have a number of friends whove volunteered for Doctors Without Borders and have gone abroad. Theyre immensely dedicated people. On the other hand, we dont want to use a lot of resources and take away peoples rights if we dont have to. The analogy, as we were saying earlier, in the beginning days of the hiv epidemic, people said lets lock up all the drug users and the gay men in the country or anyone with hiv who just has hiv, lets look lock them up, even if theyre not exposing anyone else. There can be extreme measures that dont make sense. If the amount of cost to put thousands or hundreds of people in hospitals for 21 days, we could be treating ebola in west africa. Just to put it in perspective, to prevent someone in west africa who has the disease from giving them the necessary care so they dont expose anyone else, to quarantine them, if they have the disease, is 7 a day, right . 7 per person. Its nothing. To put someone in a hospital in new jersey or new york city for a day and quarantine them will be many, many times at cost. Thats someone who actually has the disease. Were talking here about people who are on symptomatasymptomati. They are no more likely to give you hiv than you or i. Its like we heard of someone so were going to lock you up. There was the same hysteria back in the 80s. Great perspective, doctor. Thank you so much. Of course, we just heard from president obama about the ebola crisis. Tonight some eager democrats will hear from him as he hits the campaign trail hard, just one week out from the midterm elections. Plenty of politics to talk about as the cycle rolls on. This is kathleen. 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