Agnès Buzyn

Agnès Buzyn
Minister of Solidarity and Health
Assumed office
17 May 2017
President Emmanuel Macron
Prime Minister Édouard Philippe
Preceded by Marisol Touraine
Personal details
Born (1962-11-01) 1 November 1962
Paris, France
Spouse(s) Yves Lévy
Children 1
Mother Etty Buzyn
Father Élie Buzyn

Agnès Buzyn (born 1 November 1962) is a French physician serving as the Minister of Solidarity and Health in the Philippe Government since 17 May 2017.[1]

Life

Buzyn was born to two Holocaust survivors, her father Elie from Polish Lodz, who survived Buchenwald's death march at age 16, and left for British Palestine after World War II. He became an orthopedic surgeon in Paris and married a French Jewish woman, Etty, whose family hid in France during the war; she became a well-known psychoanalyst and writer.[2]

Buzyn is a qualified doctor, hematologist and university professor. She has been head of the French National Cancer Institute and other public health executive boards. In 2016, she was nominated as president of the French High Health Authority, as the first woman.[2] For several years she was a senior physician and researcher at the Paris Necker Children's Hospital, teaching hematology and transplantation at the Paris VI University.[2]

From 2008 to 2013, she chaired France's Agency for Nuclear Safety and Protection against Radiation (IRSN), a position which involved reassuring the public after Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011.[3]

In May 2017, President Emmanuel Macron appointed her as minister of health. Buzyn had never been involved in party politics prior to being nominated similar to other ministers (culture minister Françoise Nyssen, Olympic fencing champion Laura Flessel and TV star Nicolas Hulot).[4]

Personal life

Buzyn was married to Pierre-Francois Veil, son of health minister and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil, who died in June 2017. They have 2 children together.[2]

Buzyn is married to Yves Lévy, with whom she has one child. Levy is an immunology professor and has been heading the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) since June 2014. He remains interim head since his term expired 12 June 2018 and announced on July 30th that he would not run for another term due to the controversy.[5]

Controversy

As the Minister of Health and the Minister of Research oversee INSERM, there has been an obvious conflict of interest. On May 29, 2017, a decree was issued that the French prime minister would carry out acts related to INSERM instead of Buzyn.[5] The French press has called this an unthinkable solution in Anglo-Saxon countries.[6] However, Buzyn is a member of the search committee charged with auditioning the INSERM director candidates. Several candidates decided not to run for office upon learning this information.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Angelique Chrisafis in Paris. "France's Macron selects his government from left, right and centre | World news". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 RINA BASSIST Agnes Buzyn - Stepping into Simone Veil’s shoes The Jerusalem Post, September 20, 2017
  3. ↑ "Factbox: Ministers in new French government". Reuters.com. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  4. ↑ Chrisafis, Angélique. "France's Macron selects his government from left, right and centre". theguardian.com. The Guardian. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  5. 1 2 France may be back, but the old ways persist for INSERM. The Lancet, Volume 391, Issue 10138, p 2390. retrieved 16 June 2018
  6. ↑ Eric Favereau Le mari de la ministre de la Santé peut-il rempiler à la direction de l'Inserm? Liberation, 22 May 2018, retrieved 16 June 2018 "Une solution à la française, totalement boiteuse. Dans les pays anglo-saxons, une situation similaire n'aurait jamais été possible."
  7. ↑ Buzyn fait-elle du «chantage à la démission» pour que son mari reste à la tête de l’Inserm ? RT France, 13 May 2018, retrieved 16 June 2018
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.