Since the start of the health crisis, some doctors and researchers have spoken a lot on social networks and the media concerning the Covid-19.
They also take a lot of hits.
And receive death threats.
Despite the alerts, the forums, these doctors regret the inaction of politicians.
And fear that a tragedy will occur as the verbal and physical assault escalates.
"It's crazy that in the 21st century, in France, scientists must have police protection," blows Jérôme Marty, general practitioner in the Toulouse region. This Tuesday afternoon, the boss of the French Union for Free Medicine (UFML) held a press conference alongside colleagues in Paris. The goal? Alerting public opinion to the repeated death threats for months against doctors and popularizers of the scientific discourse on Covid-19.
“We're going to come get you”, “Dr Maboule”… Ridiculous nicknames and explicit threats rain down on Jérôme Marty's answering machine.
As for many colleagues very exposed on social networks since the health crisis.
"We cremate bitches like you."
These sweet words, it is the researcher and infectious disease specialist Karine Lacombe who is the target.
Slanders and insults, when they are not reflections on the tortures to be inflicted on those who vaccinate, also emerge in certain demonstrations or on Twitch.
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“It has been months that we are a certain number of doctors, researchers, scientists, to receive threats on social networks, by mail, by telephone, worries Jérôme Marty. We had a high point with the article in the blog France Soir which delivered names to the pasture. "
Indeed, the old newspaper, bought in 2016 by businessman Xavier Azalbert, emptied of its journalists and become a relay of conspiratorial theses, published an anonymous column on August 22, 2021. Who denounces in the management of the Covid -19 a "swindle" for which "the pharmaceutical industry, corrupt doctors, politicians with a Europeanist and globalist ideology" would be responsible.
The forum falls on a threat: “A trial will have to be held.
The Widow is impatient ”.
“This is the name we gave to the guillotine”, Jérôme Marty is alarmed.
Since then, Didier Raoult has shared this forum on his Twitter page with 850,000 subscribers.
"We will file a complaint individually and collectively, our lawyers will contact each other," says Jérôme Marty.
Act before a tragedy occurs
Verbal aggression is therefore increasing. Especially in recent weeks and the introduction of the health pass. And after the threats, there are the acting out. A pharmacist was attacked during an anti-pass demonstration on August 1 in Montpellier, around twenty vaccination centers were vandalized in one month. Last Saturday, some demonstrators against the sanitary pass in Marseille tagged the letterbox of a certain François Crémieux, the new director of the AP-HM: “Marseille will have your skin! "There is an error on the recipient, it is a homonym who receives the names of birds ...
What these doctors fear above all is the act of an imbalance who would attack a nurse, a doctor, an average pharmacist.
That is why they are hoping for a political reaction, from the government or the opposition, but also an awareness of the society of the gravity of the situation.
With, in sight, “the profiteers of the crisis who disseminate bad information and manipulate vulnerable people, insists Jérôme Marty.
We know that in the United States, 65% of conspiratorial messages came from twelve people.
It's the same with us.
We know them, even though we are not detectives!
We have to take things head-on before a tragedy occurs.
"
The deafening silence of politicians
These collectives believe that this subject has aroused little interest, on the side of elected officials and Orders. "The Council of the Order of Physicians has moved, but belatedly," admits Jérôme Marty all the same. At the end of June, he lodged a complaint against ten doctors, including Martine Wonner and Louis Fouché, one of the founders of the conspiracy site Réinfo Covid. In addition, Didier Raoult has just been pushed to leave the University Hospital Institute (IHU) and Louis Fouché will leave the AP-HP on October 19. According to the citizen collective Citizen4science, Senator Bernard Jomier asked the government a written question on this subject… without an answer. “Two letters were sent to the Ministries of Justice and the Interior,” adds a spokesperson for the citizens' association. A petition to stop harassment has collected 5,000 signatures. "
"Any verbal or physical violence must be punished," continues Karine Lacombe. Beyond the relay, what shocks me is the impunity enjoyed by those who ignite the fuse. Which question the scientific word and make people doubt. Faced with the inaction of justice, it is we who are obliged to file a complaint, but we can spend our days and nights there ... "
Another problem: on social networks, anonymity protects. “I filed a complaint on April 18, 2020, illustrates Damien Barraud, anesthesiologist in Nancy. But Twitter doesn't give me the names of people who threaten me with death. The politicians did nothing to help us! In the worst case, they raise the sauce, like Renaud Muselier and Dupont-Aignan. "And Karine Lacombe scrapes the president in passing - without specifically citing Emmanuel Macron who greeted Didier Raoult - recalling that" some politicians continue to consider that some Marseille doctors are great scientists "...
“During this time, there are people who die from not having been vaccinated,” denounces Jérôme Marty.
This health crisis has amplified the fall in confidence in science and the elites.
"But this crisis is not over and we risk having others," warns François Morel, surgeon and member of the Nofakemed collective.
Science, we're going to need it!
"
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