Coronavirus: Before the National Assembly, Didier Raoult castigates the "methodologists"

Professor Didier Raoult, during his hearing before the National Assembly, June 24, 2020. Thomas COEX / AFP

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Professor Didier Raoult was heard this Wednesday, June 24 by the commission of inquiry on the coronavirus of the National Assembly. 

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Didier Raoult has said it several times: he opposes what he calls "methodologists", the partisans of evidence-based medicine, that is to say medical research as it is practiced for over 100 years. It was on this topic that the most interesting exchange took place during its three hours of hearing before the parliamentary commission of inquiry.

Asked about his refusal to conduct a clinical trial studying the effects of his dual therapy according to current protocols - randomized trials -, Didier Raoult simply replied that they did not convince him. Everything else comes from this epistemological disagreement. Too bad if the studies he has published since the start of the pandemic are very far from convincing the international scientific community, Didier Raoult does not do science in the same context.

Same reasoning on the management of the crisis in France. According to the director of the IHU Méditerranée Infection, in Marseille, methodologists were in charge. Therefore, their decisions do not find favor in his eyes. It is for this reason that he explains that he left a scientific council undermined, according to him, by conflicts of interest.

One point should, however, be unanimous: the question of screening. His institute tested massively and very early when the rest of the country was in short supply. But for the rest, Didier Raoult continued to pose alone against the rest of the scientific and medical world. 

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