- The emblematic and controversial Didier Raoult, head of the IHU Méditerranée Infection, is publishing a book on epidemics this week.
- He evokes the Covid-19 pandemic in a rather reassuring way.
- "It tends to minimize this epidemic," says Professor Vincent Dubée, infectious disease specialist at the Angers University Hospital.
Is the Druid-Looked Doctor a Prophet? The bearded face of Professor Didier Raoult has appeared in all media since the start of the coronavirus crisis. You will soon come across it in the “books” section of shopping centers: the Marseille scientist publishes a work entitled Epidemics, real dangers and false alerts *, already available as an e-book. Its editor Elsa Lafont promises an "exceptional document, the only book in the French edition currently in place", in a France paralyzed by confinement.
A book written in an emergency, in February. It was first Didier Raoult who contacted Elsa Lafont. "We have talked a lot about the coronavirus," she says. After reflection, she recontacts him: "I said to him:" There is a subject on pandemics, how viruses circulate, their real or fantasized dangerousness ... It would not be bad to make a book on this theme. " "
"He tends to minimize"
"We are going," replies, in essence, the researcher, who begins to dictate the book - 176 pages, all the same - to his secretary. "He likes to write a lot and has a very fast handwriting," says a collaborator. He did this in his spare time. "
"It's not the writing that takes time, it's the investigation," recalls Elsa Lafont, who has already published five popularization books for the Marseille researcher, including Your health, all the lies , sold 50,000 copies , "A great success" according to her. In the current context of panic, this book will undoubtedly meet with great success. Especially since the passages devoted to the coronavirus are very reassuring.
We suggested to Professor Vincent Dubée, infectious disease specialist at the University Hospital of Angers, to comment on extracts. While specifying that Didier Raoult is "an immense researcher, on the initiative of important discoveries", the specialist delivers a fairly severe criticism. "Since the beginning of this story, he has tended to minimize this epidemic ... He must go and see resuscitation services, in particular in Paris or in the East", he reacts by reading a paragraph where Didier Raoult says that "global hysteria" began with the onset of the epidemic in China, while "mortality was lower than that initially announced. "
For @ 20Minutes, @mibosredon visited the Covid-19 unit of the intensive care unit of the Bordeaux University Hospital, where severe cases of #coronavirus are placed on respiratory assistance. We lift the veil "about what this disease really is". https://t.co/QkDbayveKL
- Marion Pignot (@ pignot1) March 17, 2020"The figures vary depending on the level of saturation of the healthcare system," answers Vincent Dubée. Italian researchers have pointed out that on March 17, 7.2% of those infected in Italy had died, while at a comparable stage of the epidemic in China, 2.3% of infected patients had died. "This case fatality rate is difficult to estimate correctly because it depends on the number of tests carried out," specifies Vincent Dubée.
For him, it is "a pity" that Didier Raoult "did not postpone the publication of this book, because on the question of excess mortality, the facts prove him wrong. The Marseille scientist undoubtedly wanted to reassure the French. According to the back cover of his book, “the panic comes in large part from the exaggerations of the press, which knows that fear sells. Obviously, the publishing houses also know this.
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* Epidemics, real dangers and false alarms, Michel Lafon editions (8.99 euros).
- epidemic
- Marseille
- Coronavirus
- Covid 19
- Health
- Didier raoult