Coronavirus: Didier Raoult, the exceptional infectious disease specialist who could change everything

Dangerous optimist or future Nobel Prize in medicine? Since February 25 and the publication on social networks of his video entitled “Coronavirus: towards a way out of the crisis? », Professor Didier Raoult, infectiologist, director of the Institut hospitalo-universitaire Méditerranée infection, in Marseille, unleashes passion. At 68, this son of a military doctor and a nurse has been sailing for weeks against official speech.

Relying in particular on the work of Chinese scientists and doctors, whom he considers "the best virology specialists in the world", he would have found the remedy for Covid-19. His solution: use chloroquine (more specifically, one of its derivatives, hydroxychloroquine), an anti-malaria agent used since 1949, in combination with the only antibiotic that works on viruses, azithromycin. "These are old molecules, with no major toxicity problem, and immediately available," he explains in his videos that have become "viral". "It is effective on positive cases of infection with this new coronavirus," he adds. Covid-19 is probably the easiest infection to treat. So there is no need to get excited, you have to work. "

VIDEO. What is chloroquine, a miracle cure for coronavirus according to Professor Raoult?

A first clinical study on 24 infected patients

After a phase of in vitro studies, the researcher has conducted in recent weeks the first clinical test on 24 infected patients, with this combination of the two drugs. And he says it works! On March 16, he announced that, six days after starting treatment, three-quarters of these patients had seen their viral load drop dramatically. The remaining 25%, still carriers of the virus, do not develop a complication towards bacterial pneumonia, nor an acute respiratory distress syndrome. While 90% of those who have not been treated are still carriers after six days.

Promising results ... immediately controversial. And qualified as "fake news", at the end of February, by Les Décodeurs, the detox site of the newspaper Le Monde. Then for almost two days by the Minister of Health himself. An anonymous "virologist" denounced, on March 21, on the Mediapart blog, the practices of the Marseille infectiologist, even claiming that chloroquine is not as harmless as claimed by Didier Raoult. Adding that "this professor is supported by Le Point et Valeurs actuales, newspapers of the extreme right. With his account 2,000 articles, it is typical of the mandarins ”. Extremely virulent.

Without filter, he lambails "birds of TV sets"

However, if Didier Raoult is not very well known to the public in France, he is one of the few world specialists in viruses and infections. "He has more than thirty years of experience in the field," confirms Philippe Halfon, head of the internal medicine division at the European Hospital in Marseille and researcher in infectious diseases, specialist in chloroquine derivatives, in particular for their potential effects about cancer. "He is a character who has always been out of the ordinary," he adds. And it is above all a pioneer in research on infectious diseases and a great visionary, who bet on his experience to demonstrate that his treatment idea works on Covid-19. "

With his long hair, his very assertive ego, his multicolored shirts and his sometimes provocative speeches, Professor Didier Raoult is far from the traditional image of the doctor with polite words. Physically, he looks more like the "Doc" in Back to the Future and, verbally, it's downright Dr. House! Without a filter, he lashes out at the “TV set birds” who “speak like in bars and know nothing about it”.

He acts! And declares that it expects nothing from the new large-scale clinical trials, finally authorized by the government, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) and the Personal Protection Committees (CPP) for four potential treatments, including his own. "From the moment when a remedy has been shown to be effective, it is immoral not to administer it right away," claims the professor from Marseille.

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Always quick to rush into the stretchers, he has not hesitated to publicly disclose the dosage he recommends for treating Covid-19 ... And to slam on March 24 the door of the Scientific Committee set up by Emmanuel Macron, in denouncing a policy of containment "outdated since the 19th century" and an almost nonexistent screening strategy.

VIDEO. Chloroquine debate: "Patients must benefit from this approach"

"He doesn't work alone at the back of his garage!"

To the credit of Professor Didier Raoult, major discoveries and many battles already won against his detractors - including Inserm or the CNRS! He was one of the first to study giant viruses, to identify hundreds of new pathogenic bacteria, to seek treatments - notably thanks to chloroquine - against Q fever, endocarditis, or even lymphomas ...

"Judging him on his physique or accusing him of acting for political ends is scandalous," says the legal officer of the CHU of a large metropolis. Professor Raoult does not work alone at the back of his garage! He heads a team of 800 researchers, doctors and students in one of the six university hospital institutes in France. It's an egg! And it is precisely because he publishes a lot, in the best international journals, that his results can be considered very serious. In fact, from the United States to Morocco, many countries have decided to trust their treatment with chloroquine without waiting for the end of clinical trials.

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"The toxicity of these two molecules is known and therefore controlled, since these drugs have been on the market for many years", continues the lawyer. Treating patients without delay, as the researcher recommends, would therefore be less risky with these two old molecules than with a new one. "Yes, these two drugs have known side effects," says a toxicologist. But, faced with the urgency to save as many lives as possible, the benefit-risk balance tilts in favor of this treatment. What we do not know, however, are the side effects of the association of these two molecules. "

Chloroquine costs almost nothing

Will the lung lesions go away? Will patients be immune? What will be the effects on people who are already very weak? No one knows, but there is no question of improvising. The regulations are strict: ethics committee, exclusion of fragile patients, etc. "I agree with Professor Raoult," adds Jean-Dominique Michel, health anthropologist. Taking refuge behind a procedural fundamentalism is ethically indefensible when we speak of a drug that we know by heart, which has demonstrated its effectiveness on other coronaviruses, when lives are at stake! "

Didier Raoult, he laughs at the procedures. His doctrine: being a doctor means mass screening and systematically treating positive patients in order to stem the epidemic. “No longer having the virus changes the life prognosis. If you are no longer a carrier, you are saved, ”he says.

He assures him that tomorrow the whole world will use his drug cocktail to treat this virus. What is certain is that, if he manages to "save the world", Didier Raoult will not make his discoveries a personal fortune, nor the wealth of other labs and scientists. Chloroquine, which has long since fallen into the public domain, costs almost nothing. And, as the researcher laughs loudly, it is, however, possible that his therapy will come to thwart the plans of all those who hoped to win a Nobel Prize thanks to the discovery of a new molecule or a vaccine . Farewell, therefore, to the tens of billions of dollars in revenue that new treatments could have generated.