For the first time since an article by Paris Match in which he is accused of sexual and moral harassment by infectious disease specialist Karine Lacombe, the famous emergency physician Patrick Pelloux responded. He spoke on Sunday on his Instagram account. In a short message he said he “was stunned to learn from the journalist of Paris Match the accusations of K. Lacombe and the rumors relayed in this article. » Patrick Pelloux “strongly contests” these accusations, considering that this is “defamation”.
However, he does not “wish to react further today in order to preserve the serenity of useful debates around sexism and sexual violence”. The article from Paris Match and the open testimony of Karine Lacombe, a face known since the Covid-19 pandemic, having in fact sparked an impressive wave of testimonies already described as “#MeToo Hospital”.
Already accusations this fall
Still in his message on Instagram, Patrick Pelloux, made famous by his summer rant in the middle of the heatwave crisis in 2003, says he thanks his “relatives, my colleagues, my colleagues and all those who have given me their support these last days “.
In a Paris Match investigation published on Wednesday, Karine Lacombe, head of the infectious diseases hospital department at Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris, accused Patrick Pelloux of “sexual and moral harassment”. In October, she had already described in a book – at the time without giving her name – the “lustful gaze, wandering hands” and the “dominant behavior” of this senior doctor, whose reputation was already “well established “.
Patrick Pelloux had already ensured in Paris Match having “never attacked anyone” but admitted having been “rude” in the past. The union of Paris hospital interns launched a call for testimony on Friday.