Agnès Buzyn is a French hematologist, university professor, medical practitioner and political figure, served as the Minister of Solidarity and Health in the Philippe Government from 17 May 2017 to 16 February 2020. Buzyn, who specializes in hematology, cancer immunology and transplant, spent most of her career as a medical practitioner, professor and researcher at Paris-Descartes University and at Necker Hospital. From 2008, she assumed many responsibilities as part of Health and Nuclear public institutions: president of the administrative counsel of the Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety Institute ; member of the comity on nuclear energy of The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission ''' ; member of the administrative counsel in 2009, then vice-president in 2010, and president since 2011 of the National Institute for Cancer . Buzyn was appointed Minister of Solidarity and Health under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron, as part of the first government of Édouard Philippe on 17 May 2017, then confirmed on June the 21st 2017 as part of the second government of Édouard Phillipe. She resigned on 16 February 2020 to run in the Paris mayor's election. She is succeeded by Olivier Véran.
Early life and education
Buzyn was born to two Holocaust survivors, her father Elie from Polish Łódź, 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.
In May 2017, President Emmanuel Macron appointed Buzyn as Minister of Health. She had never been involved in party politics prior to being nominated similar to other ministers. Early in her tenure, Buzyn signed a charter to promote vaccination with seven national health service guilds, in an effort to counter growing vaccine hesitancy in France. In 2019, she implemented a HAS recommendation according to which the state health insurance system cease all reimbursements for the use of homeopathic cures from 2021. She later steered through parliament a controversial bioethics law extending to homosexual and single women free access to fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilisation under France's national health insurance; it was one of the campaign promises of President Macron and marked the first major social reform of his five-year term. During France's presidency of the G7 in 2019, Buzyn hosted a G7 Ministers of Health meeting in Paris. She also co-hosted the sixth replenishment meeting of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Lyon. Ahead of the 2019 European Parliament election, Buzyn was considered one of the front-runners to top the candidate list of the La République En Marche party; the role eventually went to Nathalie Loiseau instead. By the end of 2019, addressing concerns that France's free health system was attracting illegal migrants, Buzyn said asylum seekers would have to wait three months before being entitled to healthcare. She assured that restrictions would not apply to children, or emergency care. In February 2020 she resigned to run for Paris Mayor's elections.
Controversy
The Minister of Health and the Minister of Research oversee INSERM where Yves Lévy, Buzyn's husband, was CEO at the time of her appointment. On 29 May 2017, a decree was issued that the French prime minister would carry out acts related to INSERM instead of Buzyn. The French press has called this an unthinkable solution in Anglo-Saxon countries. 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.
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. 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 since June 2014. He remains interim head since his term expired 12 June 2018 and announced on 30 July that he would not run for another term due to the controversy.
