Donald Trump relies on his work to affirm that chloroquine can cure Covid-19, some big names in health support him but many of his colleagues judge his methods severely. The portrait of Professor Didier Raoult, an extraordinary researcher.
- He conducted a 24-person trial which he says demonstrates the effectiveness of chloroquine in treating Covid-19
- His peers criticize him for an approach that is not based on scientific evidence
It is indeed an extraordinary character that this 68-year-old professor who, under his white mane, looks more like the Gallic druid of the village of Asterix or, for those who have other references, a Californian hippie at the time of the Flower Power, far from the image we have of an eminent scientist!
Didier Raoult could have never worn a white blouse. Barely an adult, he began by roaming the seas as a sailor in the merchant navy before returning to the ranks under the injunction of a military doctor dad and… becoming passionate about his medical studies. And more particularly, moreover, for all that already concerned infectious and tropical diseases, as if that reminded him of the taste for his naval and exotic adventures.
A band leader
He is today cataloged as one of the best French researchers, ranked in the top three for his numerous publications in major scientific and medical journals. His great pride is undoubtedly the “Méditerranée Infection” university hospital institute in which, at the head of 800 employees, he works on an impressive collection of killer bacteria and viruses. In his “baby”, this institute which has already succeeded in identifying more than a hundred new pathogens, he is perceived as a gang leader among his teams, some of whom have been loyal to him for more than 30 years.
However, this extraordinary character also has a great character. “He has a very high level of self-esteem”, says one of his friends modestly. He is also a man who takes few precautions to say what he thinks, which some even consider “arrogant”. After all, someone who says that “the most successful researchers are found in Southeast Asia and more in the West” don’t just make friends…
Trump relies on his work
Friends, however, in the midst of controversy over the value of the trial he has just conducted in Marseille with 24 people and which he uses to affirm that chloroquine is an effective treatment against Covid-19, he discovers new, and not least. Donald Trump himself, for example, who called his work “very encouraging” and relied on them to want to make this drug immediately available in the United States. Others too, elected like the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi who authorized the prescription of chloroquine in the hospital of his city, or doctors like Jean-Luc Harousseau, former president of the High Authority for Health (HAS), the support today.
Enough to make him forget that his recommendations on the use of this anti-malarial to fight against the coronavirus were first qualified as “fake news” by the Minister of Health. Many of his colleagues continue to challenge his work “not reviewed by his peers”. He defends himself by replying that some would have “hard to admit that a new disease can be treated by old molecules”… An innuendo that weighs heavily in the mouth of one who has the reputation of “take few precautions to say what he thinks.”
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