MANILA, Philippines — Citing a “system-wide failure,” Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday called for an immediate overhaul of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease, saying that it should be led by public health officers and not military officers.
Hontiveros said that leaders and members of the IATF should be replaced with public health experts “who actually know how to handle a public health emergency.”
“The extreme call is to abolish the IATF, but during a pandemic, an interagency body is necessary. It must be led by public health experts and epidemiologists. Not by military officers,” Hontiveros said in a sta…
Keep on reading: Hontiveros pushes for IATF overhaul, with public health officers, not military, at helm