A greatly increased sanction. The national disciplinary chamber of the Order of Physicians decided on appeal to ban Didier Raoult from practicing medicine for two years, for having promoted hydroxychloroquine during the Covid crisis, according to a decision consulted by Release this Thursday, October 3, confirmation of information from Parisian. Initially, the muse of anti-vaxxers was simply blamed. The decision was taken during a hearing which was held on June 21, but the content of which was made public on Wednesday October 2. It will apply from February 1.
According to Dr. Gilles Munier, representative of the Order of Physicians, the reprimand received by the Marseille microbiologist in December 2021 – meaning in medical jargon that the doctor had “misbehaved” – was indeed a sanction “too lenient with regard to the breaches identified”. Because concretely, Didier Raoult was accused of having promoted hydroxychloroquine in order to treat Covid-19, and that “without established scientific data”. “What amounts to charlatanism” had thus affirmed the rapporteur of the disciplinary chamber during the hearing. He was also accused of having violated numerous articles of the public health code.
In doing so, the controversial Marseille doctor “did not base his public positions on confirmed data, did not exercise caution and promoted an insufficiently proven treatment”we can read in the decision. The practitioner from the Marseille University Hospitals – AP-HM is accused of having conducted a clinical study described as «sauvage» on thousands of patients, all without any green light from the National Medicines Safety Agency.
The national disciplinary chamber also condemns the professor for “non-confraternity” while holding “comments going beyond the scope of freedom of expression”. He would then “harmed by comments devoid of consideration of the measures taken by the health authorities for the purposes of protecting public health”, details the decision.
However, the president of the national disciplinary chamber judges that Didier Raoult did not “run unjustified risk” to the patients to whom he prescribed this molecule, since he “knowingly excluded from treatment those with the highest risk factors.” Excluded since September 2022 from the management of the IHU of Marseille, Didier Raoult also remains the target of a judicial investigation concerning these same “wild” clinical trials.
“Problems of form”, according to Raoult’s lawyer
Joined by ReleaseMe Fabrice Di Vizio, lawyer for Didier Raoult, claims not to have had access to this decision at present. However, while he was able to read some of its elements in the press, the lawyer judges that it presents “problems of form”. “This decision explains to us that Didier Raoult carried out wild clinical trials. But this argument was never raised at first instance. He therefore sees himself condemned for something that is not in the initial complaint. Logically it would have been necessary to re-file a new complaint, which was not the case. he says he knows.
Me Fabrice Di Vizio finally ensures that this decision presents “at least two grounds for appeal to the Court of Cassation”. First, according to the lawyer, the Order of Physicians “judge Didier Raoult guilty for a criminal investigation which is however still ongoing, and for which the professor has not yet been summoned”. “This is not acceptable,” he says. The lawyer also adds that the instance “does not take oral explanations into account” from the microbiologist, another reason. Me Di Vizio affirms that he will speak “during the day” with his client regarding a possible appeal to the Supreme Court.
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