NICKIE
Hi. Good morning and thank you for taking my call.
REHM
Surely.
NICKIE
And thank you, Diane, for having a very calm-level conversation as opposed to what has been happening in the mainstream media, full of hyperbole and excitement. The purpose of my call is to ask specifically to what extent did perhaps institutional bias in the healthcare system -- based on class, race gender -- impact the treatment of Mr. Duncan in the Dallas facility, when you compare the treatment that he received -- that is, he came in, was sent home, was given antibiotics, sent home -- as compared to the treatment of the medical workers who were flown and airlifted here to the United States and given experimental drugs.
NICKIE
And to that extent, I'm wondering what kind of drugs is Mr. Duncan receiving in Texas? And also, how critical we should be of the response of the local government in terms of just cleaning the facilities with which they imposed the family to stay in that infected apartment?
REHM
I think there are lots of people who've had concerns about that, Larry.
GOSTIN
Yeah, I'll leave Tony to answer about what medications, if anything, that he's been getting. I don't think, necessarily, this is a class issue. I do think it's a question of lack of preparedness. And one of the -- I've been pondering this, Diane. And many of your questions have suggested this, is, you know, why did -- why were there seemingly elemental mistakes that occurred there? Why weren't we prepared. But first of all, I do think we're going to learn from it. And I do agree with public health authorities that we're well prepared. But consider this -- there are nearly 3,000 local health departments across the country that have enormous variability in terms of their capacity, their training, their human resources and the like.
GOSTIN
And so, we are a federalist system. And locals are there -- now, the CDC and NIH and others are impeccable. And they came in and they helped straight away. But that's, I think, at bottom, it's just enormous variability in the United States.
REHM
And the fact of the matter is that you're contradicting yourself. You say, on the one hand, we're well prepared. On the other hand, mistakes were made...
GOSTIN
They were.
REHM
..and perhaps will continue to be made. There's no way to stop humanity from making mistakes. But back to the question of how Mr. Duncan's treatment has differed from that of the health professionals.
FAUCI
Well, Diane, you've got to realize that that's apples and oranges here, because Mr. Duncan is the only person who came into the country with Ebola unwittingly. The other two were prepared medevacuations. So you really can't compare that. You have to compare what happened with Mr. Duncan with the thousands of people that walk into the busy emergency rooms throughout the country.