The calm reassurances offered by Dr. Thomas Frieden of the CDC that its protocols are effective and its information is “clear and correct” are now a laughingstock. (Note the smirk on his face as "corrects" Megyn Kelley in this video). Amber Joy Vinson, the Dallas nurse who treated Thomas Eric Duncan, actually called the CDC asking if it was all right for her to fly a commercial airliner with a fever of 99.5 and was told to go ahead. Hours after she landed in Dallas, she developed Ebola symptoms.

CBS News Medical Correspondent Dr. John LaPook reports that Vinson called the CDC several times before boarding the plane concerned about her fever.

“This nurse, Nurse Vinson, did in fact call the CDC several times before taking that flight and said she has a temperature, a fever of 99.5, and the person at the CDC looked at a chart and because her temperature wasn’t 100.4 or higher she didn’t officially fall into the category of high risk,” said Dr. LaPook on the CBS Evening News.

As a result, the 132 people who shared her flight as well as hundreds more who used it on subsequent flights, and people who had contact with the passengers who were on board with her, numbering thousands of people, are now worried about possible exposure.

Dr. Frieden says she should not have been allowed to fly, even though his own guidelines permitted it and his own subordinate followed those guidelines:

“Although she (Vinson) did not report any symptoms and she did not meet the fever threshold of 100.4, she did report at that time she took her temperature and found it to be 99.5,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden.  Her temperature coupled with the fact that she had been exposed to the virus should have prevented her from getting on the plane, he said.  “I don’t think that changes the level of risk of people around her.  She did not vomit, she was not bleeding, so the level of risk of people around her would be extremely low.”

Frieden continues to argue, incoherently, that there is no need to ban flights from the Ebola hot zone, and to “screen” passengers from the hot zone at airports. His CDC has just demonstrated why it cannot be trusted. Frieden is to face a House committee today. It should be interesting.

Meanwhle, airline stocks have plummeted on Wall Street, Frontier Airlines has pulled the plane from service and is replacing the seats and grounded the crew. Frieden’s CDC is doing a damn good job of sowing panic. This is epic incompetence.