Leachon ‘deaf to collegial advice’, says Galvez

Dr. Tony Leachon was let go from the National Task Force Against (NTF) COVID-19 over his “preemptive” release of some information that jeopardized communications between the government’s coronavirus task forces, Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said Wednesday.

The chief implementer of the government’s coronavirus response said Leachon did not heed cautions against the release of information prior to official announcement, causing “unwarranted misunderstanding” between the NTF and the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Diseases, “two entities that should be working together.”

“He has been cautioned but remained deaf to collegial advice. Constructive criticism among colleagues is most welcome to assure improvement but this should have been done internally to maintain unity of effort,” Galvez said in a statement.

“I maintain my respects for Dr. Anthony Leachon and thank him for his services rendered to the NTF albeit very short,” he added.

Leachon earlier announced that he was asked to resign from the NTF over tweets critical of the Department of Health’s (DOH) coronavirus response.

“I left NTF due to my differences with DOH policies e.g. lack of sense of urgency, problems in COVID data management, and transparency in communication process. That’s life. That’s how it is,” he said on Twitter.

Last week, Leachon lamented how the DOH seemed to “lose focus in everything” in the country’s fight against the coronavirus menace.

“People are demanding for accountability from DOH. The IATF and NTF have been doing their best to prevent this pandemic to escalate. But we couldn’t turn a blind eye to the dropped balls. People are waiting for positive results. It’s time,” he said. -NB, GMA News