Ebola fears continue with many asking who was the guy with the clipboard wearing no protective gear during the transport of an infected nurse? INSIDE EDITION explains.
The 29-year-old nurse stricken with Ebola boarded a private charter plane in Dallas. She was covered head-to-toe in yellow hazmat gear. The people caring for her also had protective clothing, but one guy is coming into question. He was wearing a shirt and slacks and carrying a clipboard.
Twitter erupted with anger over the image.
“Who is the idiot with the clipboard?” was one comment.
It turned out Clipboard Guy is a supervisor from Phoenix Air, operators of the plane specially equipped to transport patients with Ebola and other infectious diseases.
INSIDE EDITION’s Lisa Guerrero spoke with ABC News Chief Medical Editor Dr. Richard Besser in Dallas.
She said, "A lot of people were very concerned when they saw the man with the clipboard with all of those other workers who were in full hazmat suits, but he was not."
Dr. Besser replied, "He was not. The reason he was not is his job is to make sure everybody else was doing the right thing. The thing about Ebola is you can only catch Ebola by having direct contact with someone who is sick, with their body fluids. So, he was doing the right thing and making sure they were too."
Phoenix Air is also defending the clipboard guy.
Phoenix Air Vice President Randy Davis told INSIDE EDITION, "This particular gentleman who was serving as the Medical Safety Coordinator that day is highly experienced in these missions. He has been part of the planning and execution from the very first one we did 10 weeks ago. Our system works."
Clipboard guy actually boarded the plane taking Nurse Amber to Atlanta.
Meanwhile, two passengers who were on a commercial flight with Nurse Amber on October 13 are putting themselves in voluntary 21-day quarantine.
INSIDE EDITION obtained exclusive video shot on board that Ebola flight by those two passengers, Taylor Cole and Axel Goode, were assigned seats 13B and 13C on the Frontier Airlines plane. Today, they were informed by authorities that they were within three feet of Nurse Amber's seat.
INSIDE EDITION's Diane McInerney asked Cole, "When you learned you were sitting within three feet of this woman, what went through your mind?"
Cole said, "I am pretty angry about it. Who decieded to let somebody who had been in direct contact with Patient Zero, that had been taking care of him, get on a flight and risk my life?"
Goode said, "Being that close in an enclosed plane for three hours, I mean, it has got me worried, for sure."
Watch Goode's Interview with INSIDE EDITION
It turns out Amber had contacted the CDC before traveling. Incredibly, someone at the CDC gave her the okay to fly because her temperature was only 99.5 degrees, which did not meet the threshold for fever. That is 100.4 degrees.
Dr. Besser told INSIDE EDITION, "She called the CDC, told them what is going on, they said it was okay to fly. That was a big mistake."
Nurse Amber admitted herself into Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital the day she landed in Dallas. But the plane was still in service on October 14th when it flew a planeload of passengers back to Cleveland. The airbus A320 then went on to Fort Lauderdale, back to Cleveland, on to Atlanta and back again to Cleveland.
The plane was decontaminated twice but is out of service for a deep clean. All seats and carpets are being replaced.
