Before the commission of inquiry, Didier Raoult strangles the executive

• The commission of inquiry on the coronavirus of the National Assembly heard this Wednesday Professor Didier Raoult.
• The Marseille epidemiologist has returned to his controversial hydroxychloroquine treatment.
• It also torpedoed the government's screening strategy and the scientific council.

"You are one of the faces of the health crisis," says Brigitte Bourguignon, LREM MP. The president of the commission of inquiry on the coronavirus of the National Assembly and his other members heard this Wednesday Professor Didier Raoult, defender of the controversial hydroxychloroquine. The self-proclaimed "Mozart" of epidemiology has abandoned his famous white blouse for the occasion for a suit jacket and a plaid shirt.

The tone has not changed: provocative, even a presumptuous hair, as when he slides, smiling at his listeners: "I recommend that you read my book". For more than three hours, the director of the Marseille Infection Mediterranean IHU answered parliamentarians' questions, with his sense of formula. "All I'm telling you is on the internet, it's easy, you can check."

Didier Raoult curls the scientific board

Didier Raoult strangled the Covid scientific council, created in mid-March to advise the government in the management of the health crisis, and from which it very quickly withdrew. “It was not scientific advice. I have one in Marseille that makes the whole world dream, I only have stars in their field. This is not a bunch of guys who are used to working with each other and who argue saying "and you, what do you think?" ", He says. "I told them:" if you want to make a real scientific advice, I give you the list of the ten best in France on the coronavirus ", there, there was none".

The Marseille epidemiologist accuses the members of this council of having taken political decisions beyond them. "We had to determine what the scientific progress was, it was not for us to think about containment, no one knows how to answer that. Political decisions do not concern us. I wanted to talk about science, medicine ", but" in this scientific council, I was a UFO or an extraterrestrial (...) I am not a man of meetings, I am a man of data ".

"We could do the tests"

Eric Ciotti, LR deputy from the Alpes-Maritimes and general rapporteur of the commission launched the professor on screening. "Everyone recognizes that you have been a pioneer in testing at the Marseille University Hospital".

"I do not agree with the decision not to generalize the tests, when in March, the WHO asked countries to test massively," replied Didier Raoult. At the time, Olivier Véran defended a “rational, reasonable and reasoned use of tests”. But according to Didier Raoult, this decision of the Minister of Health cannot be explained by a lack of equipment. “There was a mechanism that was done: since we cannot do the tests, the tests are useless. But it was not true. We could do tests, ”criticizing the“ totally archaic ”organization.

Didier Raoult denounces a “fault” on hydroxychloroquine

Didier Raoult of course returned to the inextricable debate around hydroxychloroquine, of which he was one of the main promoters. "I don't know Trump and I don't know Bolsonaro, I was not the one who told them to use chloroquine," he said. The epidemiologist claims to have never known "such tensions". “It has taken on an extraordinary scale. There are challenges at a level that I have never known in my career, I have never seen that, and I am not a pigeon of the year. ”

"I remind you that hydroxychloroquine, in 2019, 36 million tablets were distributed without prescriptions! And suddenly we decide that we no longer have the right to use it? Who helped to decide that made a mistake ", condemns @ raoult_didier. # DirectAN # COVID19 pic.twitter.com/UqgLx48iKJ

Didier Raoult denounced a “total bankruptcy” of the evaluations on his treatment in France, brushing aside a question on the lack of randomization in his own studies. "Randomization is a phenomenon, a kind of standard closely linked to the pharmaceutical industry, which does not convince me." The doctor regretted that the government decides to stop the administration of hydroxychloroquine, after the study of The Lancet, which he describes as "false".

“Care has gone into the background. We have even seen bans on the use of drugs that have been distributed by billions of tablets. I remind you that in 2019, 36 million tablets were distributed without prescriptions! And suddenly we decide that we no longer have the right to use it. Whoever helped decided that, I assure you, he made a mistake ”.

Influence of conflicts of interest in public positions in the COVID-19 era: the case of Gilead Sciences.https: //t.co/EjL4Rr4PZt pic.twitter.com/B9K8WfErrC

Conflict of interest charges

In passing, Didier Raoult also wondered about remdesivir, the experimental drug from the American laboratory Gilead Sciences, prescribed in several countries. "I recommend that you do a proper investigation of Gilead and remdesivir. If you look at the structure of Gilead, it works with few products, few staff, but which has a considerable influence ", he denounced, before accusing the detractors of chloroquine of conflict of interest with Gilead .

"When I first talked about chloroquine, I was threatened several times by the one who received the most money from Gilead in six years." And to wonder about the "stock market game to increase the value of Gilead, because in any case, the drugs, we would not have had them". Faced with requests for clarification from deputies, the microbiologist referred them to the consultation of the Transparency Health database, which lists the links of interest between companies and actors in the health sector.

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• Deconfinement
• National Assembly
• Confinement
• Marseille
• Covid 19
• Didier raoult
• Coronavirus