Didier Raoult : how it defends its controversial methods

In an interview with the Express, the director of the IHU Marseille is back on the chloroquine, its popularity and its ambitions... [updated may 29, 2020 at

Didier Raoult : how it defends its controversial methods

In an interview with the Express, the director of the IHU Marseille is back on the chloroquine, its popularity and its ambitions...

[updated may 29, 2020 at 11: 40 am] New output media for the controversial Pr Raoult, director of the IHU Marseille... In an interview with the Express, made before the repeal of the decree authorizing the chloroquine against the Covid-19, the infectiologist has defended insistently its protocol. "In Paris, in their forties are dead. In Marseille, there is not. You splash ? We, at the IHU, we had a death under 70 years of age who had received treatment hydroxychloroquine and azythromycine, and none below 60 years", has he supported. According to him, his colleagues describing the use of chloroquine to treat the coronavirus are not "doctors". "For an epidemic short and limited in time as is the Covid-19, they think of it as if it were aids. [...] With the Covid-19, it is completely idiotic to want to randomized clinical trials. The epidemic will be over, that we still won't get the results...", he explained.

Asked about his sudden popularity born during this health crisis, Didier Raoult is said before any "libertarian". "But I do not know who supports me, and I don't care. You believe that my popularity I'm interested in ? Absolutely not. I am a stoic, and the only thing that matters to me is the opinion of myself," he defended. The multi-faceted man has developed : "I do three trades. I am a doctor. This morning, I made consultations, and seen my patients. My role is they are satisfied. I am a teacher, and my role is to train people. I teach my students to think. Finally, I am a researcher. This is the time that will determine my place".

A new study on 3 737 patients

on Wednesday 27 may 2020, the famous infectiologist has published a new study on its protocol-based hydroxychloroquine (HC) and Azithromycin (AZ). "We report, retrospectively, the clinical management of 3 737 patients, of whom 3 054 (81,7 %) treated with HCQ-AZ for at least three days and 683 (18,3 %) patients treated with other methods ", is it exposed on the website of the IHU Marseille. The average age of the subjects was "45 years, 45 % were male and the mortality rate was 0.9 %." The authors insisted : "neither torsades de pointes (ED, heart rhythm disorders), nor sudden deaths have been reported." Convinced by their response to treatment, the medical team concluded : "An early diagnosis, an early isolation and early treatment with at least three days hydroxychloroquine-Azithromycin used to obtain a clinical outcome and a contagiousness significantly better in patients with Covid-19 than the other treatments." According to them, the next challenge will be "the long-term monitoring of the screening of fibrosis [editor's NOTE : pulmonary infection]."

This new publication comes at a time when the decree authorising the prescription of chloroquine against the coronavirus has been repealed. This setback is consistent with the results of a study on chloroquine in the Lancet. The antiviral drug would be ineffective against the Covid-19 and potentially toxic.

"The future is always unpredictable."

beyond the topic of chloroquine, opinions and little consensus Didier Raoult are causing controversy. For several weeks, the researcher ensures that the epidemic is "coming to an end". It has récemmentr reaffirmed with upright positioning. The professor explained that the majority of seasonal illnesses have a curve in "U" and the Covid-19 is no exception. According to Didier Raoult, there will be no " second wave "for reasons highly complex and extremely difficult to understand." However, when asked about a resurgence of the epidemic in the stand-alone, the virologist has shown himself to be prudent : "the future is always unpredictable."

On the political front, the director of the IHU welcomed the decision of the government to have put in place the containment. "If the containment has helped to manage the fear, then it was a very, very good political decision. It has prevented dangerous driving", he said. In addition, the Pr Raoult has swept away all political ambitions. He said : "If I had to do the policy, I would have been. It is an insult, moreover, to think that I could do politics, because that would mean that I am not doing my job."

"star world"

This son of a military doctor is a man of ideas and positions, prior to exposure to the general public for his work on the chloroquine. Infectious diseases physician had issued notice polemics, particularly on the global warming. Recently in the Obs, it was justified : "I am a stoic. The only thing that matters is the esteem of myself. With my experience and that of my family, even if the majority of people say that something is true, I give myself the right to doubt and put everything in question. The warming, on a personal basis, I don't see it. My job is to be lucid." In 2016, in a column published in The Point, the director of the laboratory took a position against the ban of the veil in the universities. "My laboratory of the faculty of medicine of la Timone, in Marseille, currently has 115 foreign level course thesis and post-doctoral students. Among those, women wear a headscarf, others are in a miniskirt and fishnet stockings, and everyone is working together," he said.

Date Of Update: 29 May 2020, 05:57
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