All Hands On Deck: White House Convenes 27 Person Ebola Meeting

The Daily Caller ^ | October 26, 2014 | Derek Hunter

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Suffering a crisis of confidence over his leadership on Ebola a week before the midterm elections, President Barack Obama assembled a massive staff meeting on the issue at the White House Sunday.

Including the president, there were 24 people in physical attendance at the meeting CBS News said was convened “to discuss a nationwide policy for health care workers returning from West Africa.” Vice President Joe Biden joined via telephone, and Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thomas Frieden and US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power joining via video teleconference.

Sunday, the New York Times reported President Obama was unhappy with the 21 day mandatory quarantine for health care workers returning from Ebola-impacted nations announced by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Behind the scenes, Obama has been pressuring the governors to lift the policy.

The quarantine made national news when its first subject, a nurse named Kaci Hickox, wrote a scathing op-ed on her forced confinement.

Attendees at the White House meeting include everyone from Secretary of State John Kerry and adviser Valeria Jarrett, to White House Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri and new Ebola Czar Ron Klain.

Here are the participants and their titles, courtesy of Mark Knoller of CBS News:

1. The President
2. The Vice President (via telephone)
3. John Kerry, Secretary of State
4. Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Defense
5. Eric Holder, Attorney General
6. Sylvia Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services
7. Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Secretary
8. Denis McDonough, Chief of Staff
9. Shaun Donovan, Director of the Office of Management and Budget
10. Amb. Samantha Power, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations (via video teleconference)
11. Valerie Jarrett, Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement
12. Susan Rice, National Security Advisor
13. Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
14. Neil Eggleston, Counsel to the President
15. John Holdren, Director of the Office of Science and Technology
16. Ron Klain, Ebola Response Coordinator
17. Thomas Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (via video teleconference)
18. Katie Fallon, Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs
19. Jennifer Palmieri, Director of Communications
20. Marisa Lago, Assistant Secretary for International Markets and Development, Treasury Department
21. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease
22. Nancy Lindborg, Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance, U.S. Agency for International Development
23. Suzanne George, Chief of Staff of the National Security Council
24. Brian Egan, Deputy Counsel to the President
25. Rand Beers, Deputy Assistant to the President for Homeland Security
26. Jeffrey Prescott, Deputy National Security Advisor to the Vice President
27. Gayle Smith, Senior Director for Development and Democracy, National Security Council

[Kakaze]

a nurse named Kaci Hickox, wrote a scathing op-ed on her forced confinement.

Selfish bitch.

They seem to want to go over and and return as "heros' when if they were really heros they would self quarantine before ever setting foot back in North America, you never help a virus jump a continent.

[BunnySlippers]

Thank you.

[uncitizen]

Isn’t that him, #16?

[wtd]

Coordinating global PR to save face/election, since none of these actions will provide one iota of benefit to the security of the health of US citizens.

• DailyCaller: Released Ebola Nurse, Kaci Hickox Works for CDC; her lawyer is a White House visitor

• WSJ: EU Ebola Chief to Visit Affected Region Christos Stylianides to Travel to Africa Next Month (hmmmm, at the same moment that Samantha Powers is there? Whats up with that? Who knew, EU has Ebola Czar too!)

• BBC: Ebola: Visiting envoy, Samantha Power condems response

[BunnySlippers]

Yes, someone pointed it out. I thought he,d be closer to the top but ...

[molson209]

Just think of all the wasted Money in that room

[Huskrrrr]

Perfect!

[Nifster]

Ron Klain is no where to be seen is he

[firebrand]

Lots of fancy titles to decide what they should say to the people.

We’ll lose track of them if we close the border, as if they will not rush to the local ethnic enclave anyway and bury themselves there for good.
It’s not based on science, for all you dummies who never went beyond dissecting frogs.
It’s bad for the economies of these nations, similar to the pro-choicers’ argument that to have the baby is inconvenient.
It’s not airborne (neglecting to mention that it’s transmissible by droplet, like from a flushing toile0t and many other ways).
And most ludicrous of all, no more health workers will want to go there if we stop commercial flights, as if the United States were not capable of providing transport for these workers.

Anything else?

Also, NYC is sounding real competent, with pictures of Bellevue in the paper showing a thousand lighted window, while the capacity in the ebola ward is 16.

I really don’t like the self-righteousness of those who are “less hysterical than thou.”

They seem determined to get this epidemic going.

[sjmjax]

Some video footage captured of the meeting....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZBdxvego1E

[Oztrich Boy]

Be wary about putting hands on the deck

Ebola can survive on surfaces for almost TWO MONTHS

[reefdiver]

3 weeks of waiting is nothing but an inconvenience. This is a painful killer Obama is wrong on this. I support the states

[kenf3]

Where is Josh Earnest? Intentionally excluded so he can deny it was a political meeting during next press conference?

[kiryandil]

It must be annoying for the Sunni pantload to have to actually do something besides voting “Present” for a change...

[gaijin]

SO THEY **HAD A MEETING**

So what? I don’t understand why this is huge, momentous news.

People have meetings ALL THE TIME, about all manner of low-priority stuff.

How does THEIR having a meeting make a clear show that they’re taking Ebola really, really seriously...?

Hashtags, calls, meetings: SO WHAT...?

[JimSEA]

Remind me again, which of those listed participants has actual knowledge of Obola?

[kiryandil]

Also, NYC is sounding real competent, with pictures of Bellevue in the paper showing a thousand lighted window, while the capacity in the ebola ward is 16.

There's word that Bellevue had to transfer its ICU patients to another hospital...

[bigbob]

Since one was Biden, that only counts for half (half-wit). And he phoned it in, so maybe even less.

[Gator113]

Perfect.....

[bigbob]

Probably. But next to The Won, I’ll bet his boss did most of the talking, since this was obviously a meeting about PR and “getting everyone on the same page”.