IF the coronavirus pandemic has seared anything into the public mind, it is the fact that our public health system and health infrastructure are sorely lacking: 1) an agency to formulate, design and coordinate public policy to address a national health emergency or pandemic and 2) a central agency for disease control and prevention; similar to what most modern states have.

As things stand today, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases is too ad hoc, provisional and unprofessional to serve as our principal policy-making tool for managing a health crisis such as a pandemic. There is more policing than policy design and evaluation in its operations.