This is the end of the most spectacular scientific romp of the Covid-19 epidemic. Remember: while the pandemic was in full swing in 2020, Didier Raoult and his team from the IHU in Marseille had published work which seemed to demonstrate the miracle effectiveness against the coronavirus of an “old” drug, hydroxychloroquine , associated with another molecule.
There followed a rush for the cocktail but also, very quickly, warnings from the scientific community who found the study shaky, even fraudulent. This study was retracted yesterday by Elsevier, its publisher.
Also read:
Raoult and hydroxychloroquine: much trouble for nothing
Retracted, what does that mean?
Retracted means disavowed. Scientifically, this means that its content is no longer valid. In other words, that it was fake. This is what Elsevier recognized after having dissected everything.
What does Elsevier, the publisher, criticize about this study?
The fact that the experiment was modified to achieve predefined results. To give a few examples, the sample was too small: 26 treated patients and the control group, that is to say untreated patients to compare the evolution of cures, did not correspond to the scientific rules. Deceased patients were excluded from the analysis because their fate did not correspond to the expected result. The data was grossly manipulated. Didier Raoult’s teams failed to explain all these facts when asked.
Elsevier eventually admitted that it should never have published this study. We can really regret that he retracted it so late, but he was the subject of threats of trial from Didier Raoult and his team, an argument that is anything but scientific.
Would it have changed anything if the study was withdrawn earlier?
Yes, this study, which can now be described as fraudulent, wasted precious time in the treatment of the epidemic at the global level. It transformed into a totem, defended by fans, including politicians and elected officials, who had made Didier Raoult a sort of guru, in defiance of scientific and statistical evidence. Worse: it has since been shown that the treatment caused an excess mortality of 11% in the people to whom it was applied. According to some pharmacology specialists, tens, even hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide are due to the treatment. This madness, which also swept away certain media, had serious consequences.
It’s a pitiful end to Didier Raoult’s career.
The work he has continued to publish on Covid-19 and hydroxychloroquine has all been tainted with serious bias. Another study which involved more than 30,000 patients was retracted in 2023. It is even the subject of a trial by the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products.
Didier Raoult, microbiologist with an oversized ego, who became a conspiracy theorist star, was automatically retired in August 2021, banned from the scientific community, symbolically suspended for two years by the Order of Physicians. He will now have to answer for illegal tests in other research files. He still has fans. People who are still unreachable despite the incredible amount of evidence.
