Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credits: Loic Venance/AFP 15:40 pm, September 19, 2023

Michaël Rochoy, a general practitioner in Outreau, Pas-de-Calais, was suspended for two weeks by the Order of Physicians for accessing Emmanuel Macron's vaccination data in 2021. The doctor claimed to have done so in order to alert on the ease of the process.

A general practitioner was suspended for two weeks by the disciplinary chamber of the order of doctors of Hauts-de-France for consulting the vaccination status of Emmanuel Macron, AFP learned Tuesday from the organization and the practitioner, confirming information from the site Egora. Michaël Rochoy, a general practitioner in Outreau (Pas-de-Calais), is sanctioned for "breach of his ethical obligations", writes the disciplinary chamber in its decision.

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15 days suspension

He had consulted the information on the vaccination against Covid-19 of the President of the Republic twice, in July and August 2021. The doctor will be suspended from November 1 to 15, the decision said. Pro-vaccination activist and pro-wearing of masks during the Covid-19 crisis, Michaël Rochoy claims to have discovered during a consultation that he could access the vaccination file of one of his patients without entering his social security number, and then tested this procedure with the name and date of birth of Emmanuel Macron.

In the President's file, he had noted a discrepancy between the vaccination date mentioned and the one made public by the Chair. An error that he had reported to the Elysee, because it was "likely to discredit the president and vaccination," he told AFP. "I looked at this information when I shouldn't have, but I didn't reveal it to anyone," he said.

However, he had made them public in an interview with the medical information site Egora, published in December 2021, after a first summons by the order. He "does not contest it" specifies the disciplinary chamber of the order of doctors of Hauts-de-France. It stresses that "these data were covered by medical confidentiality". For the doctor, the vaccination of the president "was in all the press", so it is a "non-disclosure of non-secret administrative information".

By way of comparison, he recalls that "Didier Raoult, for all of his work, received a reprimand". Professor Raoult was sentenced in December 2021 for having communicated "information that was not based on any confirmed data" by promoting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment against Covid-19. Michaël Rouvroy will not appeal. "I don't want to drag this case out for a year and a half," he said.