While the mother of one of the Ebola stricken nurses gives an update on her daughter's condition, INSIDE EDITION spoke with the bestselling author who was the first to warn us of the disease.
We're getting the latest on the condition of Nurse Amber Vinson straight from her mom.
Her mother said on Good Morning America, “She's doing okay, just trying to get stronger.”
Amber was hospitalized with Ebola after flying from Dallas to Cleveland and back to prepare for her wedding. Her mom, Debra Berry, spoke to Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts.
Roberts asked, "Do you and the family feel good about the treatment she is receiving?"
Berry replied, "We are very confident that Emory Hospital is taking good care of Amber. We are very happy that she is there."
Now, INSIDE EDITION is hearing from the famous author who predicted the Ebola crisis before it happened.
Author Richard Preston wrote The Hot Zone 20 years ago. It was the first book to warn us about Ebola.
He told INSIDE EDITION’s Deborah Norville, “Ebola is a monster. It's a certain kind of monster. It doesn't have a face. You can't see it. It is not conscious. It doesn't have an entity. It is kind of a swarm, in a way, and right now its discovering and exploring the human species.”
See More of Deborah's Interview with Richard Preston
Now, with America facing the Ebola crisis, The Hot Zone is back on the bestseller lists.
He said, “Our health care system for all its technology was not ready for Ebola."
Norville asked, “You're not suggesting those health care workers are to blame for their own infection?”
“It was not the fault of the health care workers. It was the fault of the people who organized their training and equipment,” he said.
He says the video of a sidewalk being decontaminated in Texas demonstrates how mistakes were made in the initial response to Ebola.
Preston said, “You don't take a high pressure water hose to spray down sidewalks. That is the perfect way of spreading the Ebola virus into the air.”
He says that while the current Ebola crisis may be striking fear into everyone, things could get much worse.
Norville asked, “How can the Ebola virus become more dangerous?”
“As it multiplies inside a human body, as it jumps from one body to the next, it's steadily mutating and how could it mutate to become more dangerous? Well, it doesn't have to go into the air to become more dangerous for all of us. For example, it could find one way or another to spread faster among people,” he said.
But the author who first told us about the Ebola monster says it can be defeated.
He said, “We do not need to panic. Do I look like I'm panicking?”
