Every evening around 7 p.m. for the past week, Professor Jérôme Salomon takes stock of the Covid-19 epidemic in France and around the world. Director General of Health since January 8, 2018, he is number 2 of the Ministry of Health, after Minister Olivier Véran. Appointed by the former Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn, he replaced Benoît Vallet, who became an advisor to the Court of Auditors.
The French have already had the opportunity to see Jérôme Salomon intervene, especially this summer during the heat waves, during which he made a health point, also giving precautions of use.
“The DGS must particularly focus on prevention and promotion of health throughout life and in all settings,” said the doctor in an interview just after his appointment. He said he wanted to develop “anticipation, quantitative assessment of health risks and management and communication skills”.
Works “on emerging diseases and epidemics”
He is a doctor by training, as indicated by his CV posted online by the Ministry of Health. “Jérôme Salomon is Professor of Universities – Hospital Practitioner in Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the AP-HP University Hospital Raymond Poincaré de Garches” in the Hauts de Seine, since 2002. He has also been head of the Clinique des Hôpitaux de Paris Île-de-France from 1999 to 2002, and worked at the Institut Pasteur from 2010 to 2013.
His research work gives him special legitimacy in this Covid-19 crisis. He has indeed worked “on emerging diseases, epidemics, antibiotic resistance and has a strong experience in managing health crises”. He notably worked on influenza A H1N1.
Jérôme Salomon contributes closely to the most important French health institutions. He is chairman of a working group of the High Health Authority on Lyme disease since 2017 and member of the board of directors of Santé Publique France since 2016.
A regular in ministries
The practitioner also presents a substantial CV on the political side. According to his profile published on the Linkedin platform, he started in the early 2000s as an adviser to the office of the Minister of Health, at the time of Bernard Kouchner, under the government of Lionel Jospin.
“He was the last of the band, he was extremely bright and looked more serious than the others, a real deadpan!” says Bernard Kouchner in The echoes.
As recalled Release, before working with Agnès Buzyn, he was a health security advisor to Marisol Touraine, Minister of Health during the quinquennium of François Hollande. He is also one of Emmanuel Macron’s close advisers during the 2017 presidential campaign. He had also been approached as Minister of Health, but the president preferred Agnès Buzyn to him, writes Huffington Post.
His position in the ministry currently leads him to represent France before the World Health Organization or to be a member of the High Council for the future of health insurance. In addition, he has “the responsibility of designing and leading the prevention policy resulting from the national health strategy”, writes the Ministry of Health.
–
