Of the Covid-19, finally, there was almost no question. Didier Raoult showed up at 2:30 p.m. flanked by two of his lawyers, Brice Grazzini and Massimo Bianchi. For an hour and a half, in an amphitheater of the IHU (The University Hospital Institute for Infectious Diseases) in Marseille, the infectious disease specialist, dressed in his traditional white coat over a plaid shirt, responded freely to the press, installed in the stands for the occasion.
“I don’t really understand what happened to us,” he said. Didier Raoult first said he was as much “surprised by the success”, in particular of his 150 videos having generated nearly 120 million views, as by “the violence and harassment” that followed. The current director of the IHU has endeavored to demonstrate that he has lost none of his scientific relevance, despite the multiple accusations against him. Its continuation by the order of the doctors? “I have been criticized for my lack of courtesy towards colleagues, and it is quite possible”, he conceded with a smile, the order having indeed blamed him for this reason, although it would have been also summoned for “charlatanism”. “But never have I been accused of being a bad doctor or of having prescribed hydroxychloroquine”, he defended himself.
By the way, the investigation of the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM), for “wild trials” of treatment against tuberculosis, it came to nothing, he assured, if it was not a complaint by Didier Raoult against Mediapart that revealed the affair. A second was filed for François Crémieux, the director general of the AP-HM for publication in the institution’s newspaper and a third aimed at people “internal to the AP-HM” who had fraudulently accessed his medical records, those of his wife, and some of the patients. And it is there that seemed, after all, to reside the essence of his intervention.
Systematic complaints “as soon as one brings to one’s honor”
In this passive-aggressive exercise, his advice warned. “The time has come for the truth to be legally established. I have been instructed to file a complaint systematically when his honor is undermined, ”explained Massimo Bianchi. A first round will be played on June 14 at the Marseille Criminal Court against Karine Lacombe, head of the AP-HP department, who explained “that legal proceedings had been initiated against Professor Raoult for false testimony before the National Assembly. It is defamation and it will be pleaded, ”assured Brice Grazzini. Similarly, Professor Sthal, from the Grenoble University Hospital, will appear, says the lawyer, for slanderous denunciation in April 2023. Among others, yet another complaint, targets the Dutch microbiologist Elisabeth Bik and Boris Barbour, boss of the platform pubpeer which makes it possible to note the scientific studies. “An emblematic complaint from which a harcelosphere has developed,” said Brice Grazzini.
Didier Raoult, whose departure as head of the IHU is expected for the month of September, also spoke about his future. “I wish to be replaced” on this date, he commented, warning his successor against the risk of being “stricken with hubris”, a notion of ancient Greece which qualifies excess and pride, particularly related to new responsibilities. “I prefer that this choice [celui de son successeur], is done independently of me because I don’t want to be responsible for any future failure,” he added. Didier Raoult would however like to keep an office at the IHU in order to complete his work and the publication of two books.