CBS Medical Correspondent on CDC's Ebola 'Uneven Response': 'We Should Be Concerned'

CBS Medical Correspondent on CDC's Ebola 'Uneven Response': 'We Should Be Concerned'

On Friday’s “CBS This Morning,” Dr. Jonathan LaPook, the chief medical correspondent for CBS News, reacted to a question from co-host Norah O’Donnell over the response by the Center for Disease Control response to the recent Ebola diagnosis in Dallas.

Partial transcript as follows:

O’DONNELL: But he story continues to change day by day. I mean, yesterday it was just 18 people in close contact. Now we’re hearing from health officials that they could be monitoring — he could have been in contact with as many as 100 people. I know they’re casting a wide net but should we be concerned about this uneven response?

LAPOOK: I think we should be concerned because there’s been a huge difference between the theory and the practice. We were told we have a robust health care system here in the United States. That is true. We’re not Africa. That is true. If somebody comes here, they’ll be identified quickly if they’re identified correctly, put into isolation, quarantined, their contacts followed. Things should be controlled. That didn’t happen here. The person came in – the guy said he was from Liberia, there was a problem with the electronic records, handshaking. How about walking down the hall and saying, “Hey, the guy from Africa and has symptoms. And so you need to have redundancy of systems.

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

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