His interlocutors expected salient outings, they were not disappointed. Heard Wednesday June 24 before the National Assembly's commission of inquiry on the management of the coronavirus crisis, the controversial professor Didier Raoult severely criticized the organization, according to him "completely archaic", of tests for Covid- 19 in France, centralized around the Institut Pasteur.

"I am not a prophet, even if I am bearded." Didier Raoult also disappointed the deputies who wanted to know the "feeling" about the future of the Covid-19 epidemic of the Marseilles researcher, who on the other hand had strangled the management of the crisis by the authorities and the conflicts of interest in the research.

Possible tests to do, according to the interested party

"The idea that we could not do the tests was not true," said the microbiologist specializing in infectious diseases, who set out to test massively in his institute, including people without symptoms , in reverse of the official strategy at that time.

Multiplying hard-to-verify assertions, historical digressions and philosophical quotes, Didier Raoult repeatedly over the three hours of hearing questioned "conflicts of interest" within the medical research bodies and the Scientific Council created March 11 to inform government decisions.

A short-lived member of this council, he explained that he left him because the questions discussed there, such as confinement, "did not concern him", regretting that the choices of therapeutic recommendations were made outside of this instance.

Conflict of interest

The researcher also questioned the excessive use of mathematical modeling, a "belief (...) that ends up being religion".

Professor Raoult also renewed before the commission of inquiry the assertion that certain detractors of hydroxychloroquine are financially linked to the Gilead laboratory, manufacturer of remdesivir, another molecule whose effectiveness is tested in the treatment of Covid-19.

"I'm not saying they were bought for that," he tempered, referring to "an ecosystem", "familiar relationships" "likely to change the judgment of things".

He said he himself had been threatened by "the one who had received the most money from Gilead in six years", without naming him.

Faced with requests for clarification from deputies, the microbiologist notably referred them to the consultation of the Transparency Health database, which lists the links of interest between companies and players in the health sector.

>> To see: News in drawing: hydroxychloroquine, Donald Trump and Professor Raoult

"Extremely serious accusations"

"You have laid extremely serious charges," summed up Eric Ciotti (LR), rapporteur for the committee, assuring that its members would "explore this path" and "draw all the consequences". Unknown to the general public a few months ago, this scientist who readily presents himself as an "anti-system" has become omnipresent in the media and on social networks since he proclaimed, on February 25, that the antimalarial chloroquine was "probably the cheapest and easiest treatment to treat coronavirus. "

An optimism far from being shared by health authorities and a large majority of scientists, who emphasize that this molecule has not been proven to be effective in the treatment of Covid-19 and warn against its undesirable effects.

"Medical decisions" (…) "preempted by politics"

During his hearing, the Marseille researcher, who had for the occasion swapped his eternal white blouse for a gray jacket and a plaid shirt, regretted that in this health crisis, "medical decisions" had been "preempted by the policy ", reference to the ban on the prescription of hydroxychloroquine in the treatment of Covid-19 for city doctors, ban then extended on May 27 in hospital, except in the context of clinical trials.

"Whoever said that we could not use it, he made a mistake. (...) That the State seizes tasks which are usual care in the place of doctors and forbids them things that are trivial, I don't agree, "he argued.

Didier Raoult was little rushed on this point, while several members of the commission of inquiry publicly supported his "protocol" associating hydroxychloroquine, a derivative of chloroquine usually used to treat autoimmune diseases, and the antibiotic azithromycin.

Last deputy to question him, the geneticist Philippe Berta (MoDem) almost managed to get him out of his hinges by questioning him about his "pseudo therapeutic trials not admissible by anyone". "I am a great scientist, I know what an essay is," exclaimed the researcher.

With AFP

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