Ebola Fears Grow, 3 Possible New Cases; `Pot Mom` Takes Drastic Action
DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN HOST (voice-over): Tonight, Stephen Collins` scandal, accused of molesting three girls. You`ll hear what he said on a recording made without his knowledge. One of his "7th Heaven" co-stars is here exclusively with reaction. Plus, another pot mom takes drastic actions to help her suffering child. She`s packing up and moving to Colorado. She`ll tell us why as we debate the issue. Let`s get started.</s>PINSKY: Good evening. I`m here with my co-host Samantha Schacher. We have news in the Stephen Collins case tonight.</s>SAMANTHA SCHACHER, CO-HOST: That`s right. The wife`s attorney has given us a statement rather and we`re going to get into what she said tonight.</s>PINSKY: First up, though, possible new Ebola infections in the U.S. as the first patient with this disease in our country dies. Take a look.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`ve been told by the hospital that Thomas Eric Duncan has passed away. Yesterday afternoon, they had so much hope because his blood pressure was going up, his temperature was going down, both of those good signs. I think that the family will have a lot of questions for this hospital. They want to know why he was sent home when he arrived with a fever. They`ll want to know why he -- it took nearly a week to get him an experimental medication. They`ll want to know why he didn`t get blood products from someone with Ebola. Other patients have gotten blood products from people with Ebola.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The dog of an Ebola patient in Spain has been euthanized. There have been protests on the street and online to save Excalibur.</s>PINSKY: Back with Vanessa Barnett, HipHollywood.com, Loni Coombs, attorney, author of "You`re Perfect and Other Lies Parents Tell", and HLN`s very own, Jane Velez-Mitchell, host of "JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL". Sam has breaking news, as well, right?</s>SCHACHER: Yes, Dr. Drew. OK. So I have the reports right here in Los Angeles. A, quote, "possible Ebola patient was brought to the emergency room because he had traveled from Liberia." The hospital said he tested negative for the virus. Also in Texas, a man was brought to the hospital with possible Ebola symptoms. He`s a deputy who reportedly had been in the apartment where Thomas Duncan had been staying, and had contact with his family. He reportedly had several possible symptoms of Ebola. And as of late, there may be two more related to that Texas case.</s>PINSKY: Now, Sam, from my perspective, I know people get worked up about the fact there are new cases being reported, but this is good news, everybody, this is our system working. The guy here in Los Angeles, they took him out of the airport right to the hospital across the street. He did not have detectible virus, so he was not infectious, everybody. But they`re going to watch him to see if he develops the condition and keep him isolated in the meantime. Now, there`s the story in the tape you saw about the Spanish nurse`s dog who was euthanized earlier today. Sam, we got tweets about that too, right?</s>SCHACHER: Oh, my gosh, Dr. Drew. Yes. OK. Very emotional. Tracy Landia`s (ph) tweets, "This is unfortunate but it`s for the greater good and had to be done." From Dr. Gregory Smith, "No real evidence if dogs can infect humans with Ebola, but panic is setting in and people are not taking chances." And, finally, this one from Tom Gara, "On some level, I guess we`re all just a Spanish dog named Excalibur, abandoned by our protector, inexplicably tormented by higher powers."</s>PINSKY: My goodness. So, Jane, we`re getting grandiose in our philosophical sweep on this one. But let me -- Jane, I wanted you to talk about this because we know how passionate you are about animals. And here`s what I know about Ebola and dogs, they can get the virus from humans and they can excrete it and they could be contagious, though there`s not been documentation to my knowledge. What say you on this topic?</s>JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN HOST: Yes, there`s been no documentation, from what I`ve read, that any dog has passed on Ebola to any human. This is a very emotional subject. I`m an animal rights activist and I have compassion for the dog, for the human companions of the dog and to the protesters. But I certainly think what they should do is take all that energy they`re putting into this one dog and put it to the millions of dogs that are killed every year in the United States and around the world because there are homes for them, the millions and millions of dogs that are roaming the streets starving because nobody does spay and neuter programs. And the 9 billion animals in the United States that are consumed for food every year in factory farm conditions. So, we have a double standard. We get emotional about one dog, but when you talk to somebody about oh, the way that pigs and cows and chickens are treated in factory farms, oh, well -- I don`t want to hear about it. That`s the vast majority of animals suffering.</s>PINSKY: Listen, the way human brains works baffles me. One tragedy is a catastrophe, but a thousand is an incident. Loni, what do you say about what Jane said?</s>LONI COOMBS, ATTORNEY: Well, I agree with what she said. She made great points, and I also think that what happened in the case in Spain, a lot of people are upset about it, I think it had to be done. I know the dog haters are going to hate me for that. But when it`s coming to a choice between human and animal life, and we don`t know at this point yet how dangerous it is for dogs to have. We know chimps can carry it and also pass it. We know that there are other animals. We don`t have enough studies done yet to know if dogs can or cannot pass it, but they can have it in their urine, in their feces and their drool. And animals, dogs, pets, that`s what they do. They pass --</s>PINSKY: And that is a concern, Vanessa. That is a concern. This is the whole issue, the virus getting out of a biological system into the environment into another biological system.</s>VANESSA BARNETT, HIPHOLLYWOOD.COM: Right. It is a very valid concern, and we`re all sitting here wanting us to quarantine people immediately when they get off planes but we don`t do anything about this dog. People are dying of Ebola. If we need to take this one dog out, and yes, I love dogs, I adopted a dog. I understand what that -- that dogs are family members. I get that. But we don`t have enough information. At this point, it may be a knee jerk reaction, but it needs to happen, because we don`t even know if we the technology to detect it in dogs. Like we just have to be safe.</s>PINSKY: That`s right. Sam?</s>SCHACHER: Really quickly. Listen, if the dog really did have Ebola, of course, I do think that the dog should have been put down, especially for his own --</s>PINSKY: Didn`t they find Ebola? Didn`t detect it?</s>SCHACHER: I don`t think they even tested the dog, nor did that quarantine the dog properly. Lest give the dog the benefit of the doubt. This poor girl, the owner of the dog, is fighting for her life. If that were me, I would want to continue to be sedated because my best friend --</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: I think the protesters should go to the bullfighting ring and try to stop bullfighting in Spain.</s>SCHACHER: I agree 100 percent agree with you, Jane.</s>PINSKY: One quick thing, let`s focus on humans for one second if we could. And, Loni, I want to ask you about the care Thomas Duncan received. People are not focusing on the major gaffe on this case, which was the fact that his treatment was delayed. Not only delayed, he was sent away potentially infectious back into the community. But let`s just look from the standpoint of delay in treatment. This is a disease that`s got to be treated early and aggressively. He did not get that treatment.</s>COOMBS: Right, right. And that`s because the hospital turned him away. He went to the hospital. He told them he had been in Liberia. He had a fever. So, he did everything he could and they said, go home, go take these antibiotics. The doctors say if you get here as soon as possible, there`s good chance we can treat it. Those first three days --</s>PINSKY: Critical, critical.</s>COOMBS: -- critical time that he was out passing it around potentially.</s>PINSKY: Maybe, maybe.</s>COOMBS: Potentially, but at least he wasn`t getting treatment.</s>PINSKY: Nothing else for sure, it was bad for him. Vanessa?</s>BARNETT: That`s not including the 10 additional days it took him to get the aggressive medicines that other people get immediately.</s>BARNETT: Listen, I don`t want to -- you`re right, that`s a question, and we don`t want to second guess them because we aren`t there treating and who knows what they were dealing with at a time. Jane, I`m going to give you last thoughts. I`m going to wrap this up and bring the behavior bureau. What do you got?</s>VELEZ-MITCHELL: It`s not a competition between humans and animals. We`re all on the same side. There`s a crisis. We have to solve it. It`s going to be very difficult. We know for example that Ebola does exist, can exist in monkeys. OK? Ebola has had an outbreak in monkeys. So, we have to look at the facts. But I feel very concerned about this whole epidemic and the idea of containment and the idea of how we`re going to screen people coming in from other countries as to whether or not they have it, because apparently when it`s asymptomatic, they could be carrying it in the incubation period, then get to the United States and then have symptoms.</s>PINSKY: That`s what`s going to happen. I mean, that`s why -- I think the TSA has been asleep at the wheel. But at least now at the airports, there`s going to be aggressive screening, we`re going to see change in that. Already here in Los Angeles, they got one guy in the hospital who went through that screening process. I say I applaud that. Let`s get on this. Next up, Ebola screening ordered, as I said, for five U.S. airports. You will hear what a reporter went through at an airport. I think it wasn`t so good. Later, how far would you go to help your sick child? A mother will tell us why she`s moving across the country. Back after this.