He is, with the bodyguards and the president's aide-de-camp, the collaborator who closely follows the Head of State in all his travels.
It is called "the shadow of the president".
His name, like his face, is unknown to the general public.
Jean-Christophe Perrochon is the chief medical officer of the Presidency of the Republic, he depends on the army service.
It is he who monitors the health of the Head of State on a daily basis, along with three other doctors placed under his supervision, so as to take turns seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, even during vacations.
He who supervised Emmanuel Macron's PCR test this Thursday, after the first symptoms appeared on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.
The man studied in the field.
A former emergency doctor in the army health service, he was notably responsible for soldiers wounded in theaters of war.
He joined the particular staff of the Elysee Palace in 2014 and succeeds Sergio Albarello, to whom François Hollande criticized too close links with the right - and particularly with the UMP of the time.
When he came to power in 2017, Emmanuel Macron decided to keep this doctor who inspired him with confidence.
“He's a rather affable personality, very discreet.
I run into him from time to time, but we never spoke to each other ”, confides an employee of the Palais.
"It's a grave"
“He is a very attentive man, with absolute discretion.
It's a grave, ”abounds the former communications advisor to François Hollande Gaspard Gantzer.
Recognizable, too, by this enormous backpack that he carries around constantly, and inside which are all the medical effects necessary to provide first aid in an emergency.
A discreet personality who also wants to be the president's guardian angel.
As evidenced by this scene that occurred on April 9, when Macron went to the IHU in Marseille to meet Didier Raoult.
In the previous days, the head doctor made a preparatory visit with the collaborators of the famous professor.
With one objective: to make the president avoid at all costs places of contamination, linked to the presence of Covid patients or to test laboratories.
So he inspects the planned route, claims that we avoid any crowd on D-Day.
When the visit finally takes place, Jean-Christophe Perrochon intervenes with Didier Raoult's medical team and asks him to stand ... and especially away from the Head of State in the teacher's office, where a long exchange.
“You know, I've been working on infections for decades.
So it's going to be okay, I know what to do ”, pointed, visibly upset, Didier Raoult.
Not enough to impress the chief medical officer of the Elysee who will nevertheless accept the chairs ... but by asking the participants to sit around Emmanuel Macron with the necessary distance.