Fox News host Bill O'Reilly called Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control, the government's "chief propagandist" and called on him to resign because of a lack of candor and transparency about the threat of Ebola.
As part of the "Talking Points Memo" of his program, O'Reilly criticized the government for its handling of the Ebola crisis and of Frieden's honesty about the danger the virus poses.
“He knows that I know he’s not being candid, that he is spinning the situation and not being forthcoming about how the disease is being spread. Frieden should resign,” said O'Reilly, host of "The O'Reilly Factor."
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O'Reilly also called Frieden a "puppet" and a "mouthpiece" during an interview with Fox News contributor Brit Hume.
"What do we want a puppet for? Resign. Have a little dignity, Frieden. Have a little dignity — misleading the American public. Come on, Brit! I mean, this is life and death for some people," responded O'Reilly to Hume's assertion that it might not be Frieden who is making the decisions, according to
Breitbart News.
O'Reilly is not alone in criticizing Frieden's conduct during the crisis.
On Sunday, nurses rallied in Oakland, California, to call attention to the lack of training received by healthcare workers concerning caring for Ebola patients.
"What is really important to note is that the guidelines the Center for Disease Control want us to follow are insufficient and inadequate. We have to get those things corrected," said Bonnie Castillo, a representative of
National Nurses United.
Frieden is also under fire for comments made during his news conference on Sunday that seemed to imply that Nina Pham, the Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola, had broken protocol and, therefore, was responsible for exposing herself to the virus, reports
Medical Daily.
"I think that is just wrong [to scapegoat nurses]," Dr. Gavin Macgregor-Skinner, a nurse with experience in Nigeria training healthcare workers, told
Reuters.
“We haven't provided them with a national training program. We haven't provided them with the necessary experts that have actually worked in hospitals with Ebola," he said of the level of training received by U.S. healthcare workers.
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