We could think of an umpteenth “dead cat” strategy or how to create a diversion on a subject by advancing another more shocking file. A strategy once theorized by Boris Johnson, then mayor of London. “Suppose you lose an argument. The facts are overwhelmingly against you and people are focusing on reality, even on you. Your best bet in these circumstances is to perform a maneuver that a great activist describes as ‘throwing a dead cat on the table, mate’”, he wrote in an op-ed. Telegram.
To understand the usefulness of this theory, we must return to the year 2023 and more exactly to the date of May 28. In the columns of World, a Tribune was born with as signatories names now known to the general public: Professor Alain Fischer, President of the Academy of Sciences or Dominique Costagliola, member of the Academy of Sciences. A dozen learned societies accuse the former director of the Marseille IHU Didier Raoult of having conducted “the largest known” wild “therapeutic trial” by testing “his protocol” on 30,000 people. In this forum, the signatories indicate that “the ethical and scientific standards built over decades” have been violated.
Shoot the messenger…
After this publication, Didier Raoult – now retired – returned to the front of the media scene, describing the text as “a forum for fools”. Facing him, several opponents and health professionals have also traveled the sets, studios and other newspapers. Among them, Amélie Boissier-Descombes. If she is not a signatory, she is the coordinator, we learn on the set of Bruce Toussaint. She would also be the president of the Association of Victims of Unauthorized Clinical Trials. In this name, she testifies on France Info, BFM TV or even in the Express.
Very quickly, the character annoys and provokes the anger of the pro-Raoult clan, already well organized on the Twittosphere since the start of the health crisis. In a few hours, the past of the opponent resurfaces and all is not good to take. Neither the criticisms of her physique, nor the medicine evening photos worthy of the greatest faluchars where Amélie Boissier-Descombes appears. The goal ? To discredit her and draw her a troubled and unprofessional past.
But who is the messenger?
In its past, Twitter even goes back to 2011. Twelve years earlier, then a student, Amélie Boissier-Descombes would have entered the third year of medicine after training as an engineer. At the University of Brest, she would have been excluded in the fourth year for “attempted fraud in the exam”, relays the rumor advanced by the lawyer Fabrice Di Vizio – fervent defender of antivax during the health crisis.
An official-looking document even circulates on the social network notifying the young woman of a “two-year exclusion from the University of Western Brittany accompanied by the cancellation of the exam session”. However, a detail is wrong, the document is intended for “Madame X” and the name of Amélie Boissier-Descombes does not appear there. Contacted by 20 minutesthe University of Brest explains the document is too dated to have the slightest trace of it in its archives.
Title confusion
Jump in time and we return to the year 2023. The current situation of Amélie Boissier-Descombes also awakens some passions on the Twittosphere. While she is presented as a “general practitioner” on BFMTV, her status comes to light. On the directory of doctors, it appears as “medical student”. Among the documents, his entry into the third cycle – the famous medical boarding school – also resurfaces. She would have actually been registered for the National Classifying Tests (ECN) in 2019 and would have been ranked in the 8000th place in the rankings. Another way to mock and discredit the young woman. With a lack of class, surely.
By searching the directory of interns, Amélie Boissier-Descombes appears well as an intern in occupational medicine at the CHU De Poitiers. Logical because the internship takes place over a period of three to six years, depending on the specialty. Four in the case of occupational medicine. The account is good, since Amélie Boissier-Descombes presented her thesis on April 11, she confirms to us. She is therefore no longer an intern, but a Doctor of Occupational Medicine and Head of Department, still at the University Hospital of Poitiers.
An unofficial association
A final shadow appears on the board, that of the association of which Amélie Boissier-Descombes is president: the Association of Victims of Unauthorized Clinical Trials. If a Twitter account was in May 2023, no digital presence is displayed when we type the name of the association. It also does not appear in the Official Journal, where associations are generally declared. “We do not find at this stage any trace of association with this title or published in the Official Journal of Associations (JOAFE), or even a priori in the national directory of associations”, confirms the Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (DILA ), one of the services of the Prime Minister.
On the side of Amélie Boissier-Descombes, we explain that it is quite possible to be an association without filing the statutes. “An association can exist without a legal presence, it is legal”. “It was essentially a marketing tool to tell the victims “you can express yourself”, explains the entourage of Amélie Boissier-Descombes.
Between facility of the media and violence of the networks
Beyond the simple person, this affair questions the media treatment of the Raoult affair. Have the media been interested in the very existence of this association chaired by Amélie Boissier-Descombes? Perhaps not, as evidenced by the qualification of “general practitioner” given on the set of Bruce Toussaint. You should probably see here a snowball effect of the media: since a guest is present on this set, you have to have him too. But sometimes this game is dangerous and causes damage.
Faced with this observation, the solidity of the Raoult clan also emerges, but also its violence. The silence for months of many health professionals is the perfect example, as explained in a previous interview by the journalist of “Complément d’Enquête”, Nathalie Sapena. “Pro-Raoult cyberbullying is a vice in which people are caught. Didier Raoult does not cyberharass, but he has lieutenants who do it for him, ”she reminded our microphone.
A wave of cyberbullying later, Amélie Boissier-Descombes decided to leave social networks. “Perhaps for a while. Maybe forever,” she tweeted. Complaints are also considered later.