Go back

Controversial immunologist appointed to Covid-19 committee

  

Didier Raoult, immunologist at Aix-Marseille University, joins emergency group tackling virus

Immunologist Didier Raoult has been appointed to France’s crisis committee of scientists dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.

The announcement was made in a government decree on 3 April. Raoult was appointed alongside 11 other specialists, including two other immunologists, a virologist and an epidemiologist, as well as several researchers from non-medical fields.

Raoult, who heads up the University Hospital Institute Mediterranée-Infection, has reported success in treating Covid-19 with the anti-malarial drug chloroquine. He has, however, had a tempestuous relationship with the government. On 24 March he told financial newspaper Les Echos that he had quit his seat on a body advising the government on its coronavirus response. 

Raoult later said he remained “in contact” with the ministry of health and the president, adding that the “political decision-making process is theirs”.

In a non-peer-reviewed paper published on March 17, Raoult and his team said that “chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have been found to be efficient on SARS-CoV-2, and reported to be efficient in Chinese Covid-19 patients.”

His proposed coronavirus treatment was trumpeted as a potential treatment by US president Donald Trump. During a press briefing, Trump said: “I think it’s going to be very exciting. I think it could be a game changer. And maybe not. Maybe not, but I think it could be.”

Raoult previously came under fire from scientists for his closeness to president Trump and statements to the press where he cast doubt on the existence of man-made climate change.

But Raoult’s work has received some support in the medical community. On 5 April newspaper Le Figaro published an editorial by three retired researcher-doctors, arguing that his treatment should be given “as soon as the first symptoms of the coronavirus appear”.