The former director of the Marseille University Hospital Institute for Infectious Diseases contradicts in particular his comments from 2021, where he explained that there were “no fewer deaths” among the vaccinated.
By
Steve Tenre
Published update
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Didier Raoult goes back on some of his statements. The former director of the Marseille University Hospital Institute for Infectious Diseases gave an interview to the Youtube channel of former presidential candidate François Asselineau, known for his skepticism about the usefulness of the vaccine.
Asked about this, Didier Raoult assured that he “had no therapeutic religion“, and “people who are vaccinated die less than people who are not vaccinated“. He thus contradicted himself with respect to old remarks, made in 2021: “Among the vaccinated, there are no fewer deaths“, he said, a few months after having explained to Paris Match that “vaccines are not always the right solution“. The vaccine “decreases the risk of mortality, he says today. That doesn’t mean it prevents contagion. (The Covid) is a scenario quite close to the flu, which we have known for a very long time. If we could eradicate the flu (with a vaccine), it would be known!»
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“That’s what leads, it’s scary!”
Didier Raoult, however, persisted in his criticism of the management of the crisis, recalling that there was “6,000 deaths among people under 45 across Europe“. “There was a population to protect, like people in nursing homes, they had to be treated (…) and we did not take good care of them.“And to lament that the”political power had taken hold of medicine“. In March 2020, Didier Raoult had declared to Provence that the Covid-19 would probably not kill 10,000 people. “10,000 dead is a high number. Currently we are at less than 500. We will see if we reach 10,000 but that would surprise me.”
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During the interview, the professor takes the opportunity to fire red balls at certain figures of the crisis, such as the former Minister of Health Olivier Véran or the former president of the Scientific Council Jean-Francois Delfraissy. “All the people who have come to explain science to me have produced in their whole scientific life less than me in a month. In the end, they report on what I do, it leaves me speechless“, he quips. Before slashing: “And that’s what directs, it’s scary!»
“600 to 800 people” saved
Finally, Didier Raoult returned to the supposed effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, which he has not stopped promoting since the start of the health crisis in 2020. He explains that he compared “groups” of patients, some treated with hydroxychloroquine and others not, with data from Insee. Thus, he believes with his team to have saved “600 to 800 people” out of the 30,000 supported between 2020 and 2021. “There are three times fewer deaths (with hydroxychloroquine) in early treatments, and 45% fewer deaths among hospitalized people“, he certifies.
However, the National Medicines Safety Agency recently recalled that hydroxychloroquine does not constitute a treatment for Covid-19. Her “use exposes patients to potential adverse effects that may be serious“, she writes in a press release dated April.