A news that makes a lot of noise. The announcement, in mid-August, of the will of the Public Assistance-Hospitals of Marseille and Aix Marseille University, founding members of the IHU Méditerranée Infection, not to renew the contract of the now famous microbiologist, Didier Raoult, at the head of the prestigious institute, does not only make people happy.
The professor believes he is being pushed out for his controversial remarks on the management of the Covid-19 epidemic and vaccination. However, “if he is a scapegoat, it is only time that passes, since it is the retirement age that strikes him. This is not a political decision, nor a desire to harm him, ”nevertheless assured the Minister of Health and Solidarity, Olivier Véran, on Tuesday, at the microphone of BFMTV, indicating that the decision was“ purely local ”and that an international jury would choose his successor.
There is no age limit in the IHU statutes. https://t.co/kaa9O17OKK
– Prof. Chabriere (@EChabriere) August 24, 2021
A justification deemed inadmissible by many defenders of Didier Raoult on social networks, like Eric Chabrière, former collaborator of the epidemiologist, also pushed towards the exit by the new director of the AP-HM, François Creamy. “There is no age limit in the statutes of the IHU,” he protested on Twitter. An argument taken up by many Internet users and some political representatives on social networks, like
Florian Philippot.
FAKE OFF
On this file, Professor Chabrière makes a point: in the statutes of the IHU, accessible online, there is no mention of an age limit applying to the director of the institute.
Didier Raoult has nevertheless reached retirement age for several of these functions. As a hospital practitioner, this limit is set by the public health code at 67 years. As a teacher-researcher and university professor, she is 68 years old. According to information from World, the professor made a request for combined employment and retirement with the AP-HM, an arrangement that the public entity has not, according to the daily, not planned to grant him.
As the IHU is managed by a private foundation, these age limits do not however apply to the functions performed by Didier Raoult. An argument conceded by François Crémieux, director general of the AP-HM, who specifies in World : “He could stay on, but it is unreasonable for the IHU to be headed by someone who is no longer either a hospital practitioner or an academic. “