CDC chief takes the hot seat

Lawmakers are set to grill the top U.S. health official in charge of containing Ebola, as criticism mounts of the Obama administration’s effort to fight the virus in Dallas.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Thomas Frieden will testify before a House subcommittee one day after officials announced that a second healthcare worker had contracted Ebola and taken a commercial flight the day before being hospitalized.

{mosads}The hearing at the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight comes as Republican lawmakers intensify pressure on the Obama administration to ban travel from countries most affected by the Ebola epidemic.

At least two Republicans have also called for Frieden’s resignation, and the number could swell after the hearing.

New detail about errors and miscommunications in the CDC’s response to Ebola is raising questions about whether the administration failed to act quickly enough to prevent more infections.

President Obama canceled his travel plans for Wednesday and Thursday after news that the second healthcare worker, identified by family members as Amber Vinson, traveled on a commercial flight on Monday.

Frieden later said Vinson should not have traveled due to her extensive contact with the Ebola index patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, who died Oct. 8. Later reports indicated the CDC had approved Vinson’s travel because her fever was not above 100.3 degrees at the time.

Public health officials are now seeking to contact people who traveled on the same flight out of concern the virus could have spread, and Frieden said he would pursue new actions to limit travel for people in close contact with Ebola patients.

The missteps come at a crucial time for the White House and Senate Democrats, who are locked in a grueling battle against Republicans for control of the upper chamber.

With just weeks until the midterm elections, the administration is now in crisis mode over Ebola, as polls show Americans are paying attention to the issue.

Obama promised a “much more aggressive response to Ebola” on Wednesday afternoon after a hastily arranged meeting of Cabinet officials and agency heads responsible for public health.

But it is Frieden, the face of the response, who will feel the heat Thursday with his first visit to Capitol Hill since the summer. After a quiet period of weeks with Congress out of town, lawmakers are showing intense interest in the administration’s Ebola response.

“So far, traveler self-reported screening procedures and hospital infection control measures have been demonstrated failures,” Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), who will lead Thursday’s hearing, said in a statement.

“The public is anxious for the administration to execute a domestic plan that covers all aspects of public health protection, and we stand ready to assist in accomplishing this critical goal,” he said.

Four other officials, in addition to Frieden, are set to testify on topics ranging from the status of an Ebola vaccine to travel-related precautions.

The officials are: Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health; Luciana Borio, assistant commissioner of counterterrorism policy at the Food and Drug Administration; Robin Robinson, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority at the Department of Health and Human Services; and John P. Wagner, acting assistant commissioner, Office of Field Operations, Customs and Border Protection at the Department of Homeland Security.

The hospital at the center of the outbreak, Texas Health Presbyterian, has also come under stiff scrutiny, though no one from Dallas will testify in person on Thursday.

Daniel Varga, a representative of the hospital’s parent company, submitted testimony in which he apologized to lawmakers. Varga will provide testimony via videoconference.

“Despite our best intentions and a highly skilled medical staff, we made mistakes,” Varga said. “We did not correctly diagnose [the first patient’s] symptoms as those of Ebola. We are deeply sorry.”

— This story was last updated at 12:56 p.m.