Ventsislav Mutafchiyski

Ventsislav Mutafchiyski graduated as a medical doctor from the Medical University of Sofia in 1990.[2][3] In 1989, he joined the Bulgarian army with a rank of Lieutenant.[2] From 1991 to 1993, he was Head of Medical Service at IV Kilometer Division.[2] In 1996, he completed a specialization in general surgery.[2] Between 1997 and 2002, he was Assistant Professor at the Clinic for Vascular Surgery at MMA.[2] From 2000 to 2003, he was Senior Assistant Professor at the General Surgery Clinic at MMA.[2] In 2005, he specialized in military surgery and became a doctoral student the same year. He graduated in 2011 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2012.[2] In 2014, he became Head of the MMA Surgery Department. In the same year, he became Deputy Head of the Academy. Since 2015, he has been Professor of Surgery.[2]

Since 2017, Mutafchiyski has been acting as the Head of the Military Medical Academy. On 7 February 2018, by decree of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria and with order by the Minister of Defense was appointed Chief of the MMA and Chief Doctor of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria.[4] On 6 May 2019, by decree of the President of Bulgaria was conferred the highest rank of Major General.[5]

Mutafchiyski is married. His wife Elena is a psychiatrist and they have twin sons Mark and Alexander (born 1994). Both sons graduated in the United Kingdom, Mark in Economics and Alexander in Law.[6]

After the outbreak of the COVID–19 pandemic in the country, Mutafchiyski was appointed Chairman of the National Crisis Management Staff on 24 February 2020.[7] The general started holding daily briefings where he reads out statistical updates and takes questions from reporters. He quickly became popular and is arguably the public figure most closely associated with the fight against the pandemic in the country.[8]

Mutafchiyski has been consistently advocating the need for social distancing as the only proven measure that can slow the spread of the coronavirus and prevent a collapse of the healthcare system.[9] As early as 13 March 2020, he stated "The key word for all measures is social distancing and self-isolation".[9] On 10 April 2020, he was worried that "there were bunches of 7-8 people on the streets" and has linked this to a spike in infections the following week.[10][11] Because the Bulgarian government did not officially shut down church services as done in neighboring Balkan countries, Mutafchiyski watched the Easter services only on TV, and was pleased that social distancing measures and the low attendance were sufficient to prevent the churches from becoming a source of contagion, despite reports that the number of people attending the Alexander Nevsky liturgy alone were in the hundreds.[12] His expectations were for another spike in infections related to increased inter-city travel during the Easter holidays.[13]

On 1 May 2020, the general was hailed as a hero by Le Temps for handling the pandemic in Bulgaria, despite critical attitudes on his decisions in Bulgarian media,[14] and was highly praised for refusing to report discriminatory ethnic statistics against the Roma minority of Bulgarian citizens.[14]

• 2000 Radusha Refugee Camp, North Macedonia[2][3]

• 2003 Medical evacuation of victims of the terrorist attack in Kerbala, Iraq[2][3]

• 2004 (January) Medical evacuation of the victims of the terrorist act in Kerbala from Landstuhl Hospital, Germany to the Military Medical Academy, Sofia[2][3]

• 2004 (May) Medical evacuation of servicemen from Landstuhl Hospital, Germany to Military Medical Academy, Sofia[2][3]

• 2006–2007 Surgeon at the Spanish Military Field Hospital, Arena Base, Herat, Afghanistan[2][3]

• Coronavirus disease 2019
• COVID-19 pandemic