France's populists have latched onto a doctor who advocates hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for covid-19
, outside a brand-new medical institute on a busy boulevard in Marseille, a single-file queue snaked along the pavement. Amid a national shortage of covid-19 tests, local residents had heard that the city’s Institut Hospitalier Universitaire, linked to the main public hospital, was offering to test anybody with even mild symptoms.
A contrarian microbiologist with long druid-like silver hair, Mr Raoult has become a cult figure in France’s second-biggest city. A fan tattooed an image of the professor on his arm. A former patient drove a publicity van emblazoned with the doctor’s face around the city. L’Olympique de Marseille, the local football club, displayed a banner declaring “Marseille and the world behind Prof.
On one level, Marseille’s new hero reflects a natural yearning for hope at a time of anguish, and for clarity in the face of scientific uncertainty. Mr Raoult has treated nearly 4,000 patients. His most recent study put those who tested positive for covid-19 on the two-drug cocktail. It reported no deaths among those aged under 74, and said 98.7% were “cured”.
Yet the controversy over Mr Raoult’s treatment also exposes deep fractures in French society. The capital’s elite ridicules the professor—“a charlatan who thinks he is God”, sniffed a philosopher. The Paris medical establishment pours scorn on his results. They are not randomised clinical trials but hospital-based observational studies, lacking a control group. He represents none of the Paris-based French health bodies.
Mindful of this following, Mr Macron flew to Marseille during lockdown to listen to the professor. Three large randomised controlled trials, in Britain, America and Spain, found no benefit from hydroxychloroquine in treating covid-19. The French government, meanwhile, has zigzagged on authorising clinical trials. The, however, are undeterred. A poll shows that only 39% of the French have a positive image of Mr Raoult, but in the region around Marseille he scores 60%.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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