INTERVIEW
Since the start of the coronavirus crisis, the discussions on a possible efficacy of hydroxychloroquine, advocated by Professor Didier Raoult, have not ended. And since politicians got involved, like Donald Trump who revealed on Monday taking it because he "hears very good things about it", or Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, who swears that by this, the situation is even worse.
Is this to make us lose sight of the fundamental medical principle of not harming patients above all? "Yes", answered this Wednesday in "Sans Rendez-vous" at the microphone of Europe 1 Francis Berenbaum, rheumatologist at the Parisian hospital Saint-Antoine. He criticizes Didier Raoult and political figures who "add confusion to the debate" on hydroxychloroquine.
>> LIVE - Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation
"We don't listen or follow the only thing that should be"
"Unfortunately, when you have [scientific] personalities like Didier Raoult, a great specialist in his field, who leaves on non-scientific considerations about this molecule, we end up" in a great confusion, he estimates. But we cannot "throw the stone at the people who follow him: when we hear a great scientist, we want to agree with his opinion". However, this is a situation in which "everyone loses" points the rheumatologist. As for the politicians who come to put their grain of salt by advocating treatment without having any medical knowledge, this will "simply add confusion to the debate".
"In the end, you don't listen to or follow the only thing that should be: well-done scientific studies that calculate the benefits and risks of a drug."
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> Coronavirus: 5 mistakes not to make with your mask
> Coronavirus: the French Academy has decided, it will now be necessary to say “the” Covid-19
> Gatherings, trips, sport: what remains prohibited despite the deconfinement
> Deconfinement: what you need to know about returning to work
> Deconfinement: what hygiene for self-service bikes, scooters and scooters?
All the studies have shown the lack of clinical efficacy "
And in this matter, the judgment of Francis Berenbaum is final: an evaluation of a drug "cannot be done by a doctor alone in the area", he recalls without mentioning the name of Didier Raoult. Only "the various studies carried out can allow this. And despite all that we have heard, all have shown the lack of clinical efficacy of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine". If he says he can understand that "people try to see the positive aspects" of these molecules, he insists that the "risk-benefit balance is clearly against a prescription".