Earnest: ‘Likely’ that Additional Healthcare Workers at Dallas Hospital Will Get Ebola

Earnest: "Likely" That Additional Healthcare Workers At Dallas Hospital Will Get Ebola (RealClearPolitics)

CHRIS JANSING, NBC NEWS: Can you get more specific on that because part of preparedness is knowing what you're going to face. Which is why the World Health Organization has put out projections for West Africa to which America and other countries have responded. But has the president been given or asked for specifics about the projections for infections in the United States?

JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE: I don't know the answer to that, Chris. I know that this is something that the CDC has looked at. Again, I don't know what the specifics are of those projections, if they exist, but --

JANSING: But would they be important to understanding what we have to have in place to deal with it? 

EARNEST: Well, let me answer that question a couple different ways. Again, projections are less important because the risk of a widespread outbreak of Ebola in the United States is exceedingly low. We don't anticipate that's going to happen. What we do anticipate is certainly possible maybe even likely is that some additional cases of Ebola will occur. It is possible, again, maybe even likely that there will be additional healthcare workers from this hospital in Dallas who treated Mr. Duncan who may contract -- may have contracted the virus. So that's why we are actively monitoring the health of other healthcare workers that came in contact with him.