French doctor Didier Raoult at the hospital
The French doctor, Didier Raoult, is the Director of the IHU Méditerranée and winner of the Departmental Grand Prize for Research. Last year, he made headlines across the globe when he approved chloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Didier Raoult also discouraged the use of Bill Gates’ coronavirus vaccines. According to the French doctor, some people find it clever to want to put chloroquine aside because of personal interests and gain and, therefore, call on Africans not to take Bill Gates’ COVID-19 vaccine.
Later, the corrupt mainstream media and the World Health Organization declared the true statement made by the French doctor about Bill Gates’ vaccines to be fake. Below is an interview he made with Olivier Gaillard.
If we take a snapshot
of what has been happening over the past year, what lessons can we draw from
it?
Raoult: We can say that our Western societies are very fragile in the face of unexpected and chaotic situations, probably because we have not experienced extreme situations for a very long time.
This shows that we have no training and little memory. We have difficulties or even an inability to respond to these challenges. For example, our production capacities are very weak. For example, we do not have factories to manufacture gloves, masks, uniforms, etc.
This highlights the fact that we have moved to a society where "doing" has been forgotten, and where the proportion of jobs in the service sector has risen to 80%.
Can we talk about a second rebound?
D.R.: Infectious diseases that rebound have never been seen before. Even for the Spanish flu, which occurred in two phases, we don't know if it was a mutant that generated this second phase or not. So no, it is not the rebound of the same virus. After the summer, we saw that another epidemic appeared with what is called variant 4, and which is still ongoing. It is this variant that is currently circulating.
There are different epidemics with different variants. Is the new variant more dangerous or more infectious?
D.R.: We can't know. The first one we identified, which came from Africa, was much less severe. And it died out by itself. Variant 4 gives the same mortality as the first epidemic. But this mortality is very low.
At IHU, it is 1 in 1,000. Where does this mutant come from?
D. R.: There could be several factors, but it could most likely come from massive farms of mink, which are extremely sensitive to this virus. Outbreaks develop very easily if you have large concentrations of animals that are similarly susceptible, as with bats.
There are 6 groups of mutants that came out of the minks, which have been sequenced and reported. The mink have caught this virus from humans, and they are passing it on to humans. The Danes and the Dutch, who have large mink farms, have studied this phenomenon.
Does the current vaccine work on these mutants?
D.R.: We don't know yet. We'll see. But this vaccine is neither the devil nor the good Lord. You're not going to stop the epidemic with a vaccine that's targeted at a protein in a virus. It decreases the number of cases.
In the short term, it should protect the vulnerable from immediate accidents. In the long term, more caution is needed. Vaccinate target subjects for whom the benefit may be reasonable.
Should I be vaccinated?
D. A.: It's a question of personal risk/benefit calculation. In people who have a great benefit from being vaccinated, that is, those who really have a risk of getting the disease and having a severe infection, frankly, it is reasonable.
But the benefit for someone who is 20 years old to be vaccinated against this disease is relatively modest. Afterward, it is necessary to demonstrate that the benefit for society is proven, that contagiousness will be stopped, that there will be no more carriers, and that it is a much more complex decision to make.
What is the solution?
D. A.: We must continue to try therapies, to evaluate available treatments, and for which there are elements that suggest that they can work. The state must evaluate drugs that are not profitable because, today, no one does trials with them anymore. It is the industry that organizes the trials.
But we must get back into the habit of using this heritage of medicines, a molecular heritage that is extraordinary. Yes, we must continue to try these therapies and organize them, to try other treatments, and stop thinking that therapeutic relief will only come from new inventions.
There is a very clear separation between the world of the richest people who are used to having new molecules and are reluctant to consider the role of older molecules objectively, and the countries which, in any case, have no choice because they cannot afford a 2,000 euro treatment.
Are you optimistic about the future?
D.R.: I am always optimistic. It is my nature.
Short biography of Dr. Didier Raoult
Didier Raoult, born on March 13, 1952, in Senegal, is a French biologist and professor of microbiology. A physician by training, he specializes in infectious diseases. He and his team have discovered more than sixty new viruses, including mimiviruses (or giant viruses).
He is "ranked among the top ten French researchers by the journal Nature for the number of publications (more than a thousand to his credit) as well as for the number of citations of his work," according to the business daily Les Echos in 2008.
Moreover, according to the ISI Web of Knowledge source, Didier Raoult is the researcher who publishes the most in France to date (June 2012). He is a world reference for Q fever and Whipple's disease. Moreover, in 2014, still according to ISI Web of Knowledge, Didier Raoult is the 7th most cited microbiologist in the world.
He is also part of the list of the 400 most cited authors in the biomedical universe.
