Didier Raoult is no stranger to controversy. For months, his defence of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a cure for coronavirus has divided the medical world. Being labelled controversial is one thing, but being called a liar is another, according to his lawyer Brice Grazziani.
"Professor Raoult has been subjected to a lot of abuse during this whole crisis," Grazziani said Wednesday. "As long as it remained within the scope of scientific debate, he never said anything. But this is the final straw."
What's the background?
On 1 July, Martin Hirsch, the director of the Public Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP) wrote a letter to the President of the National Assembly, alleging that Raoult had given "false testimony" during a parliamentary hearing into France's handling of the coronavirus crisis.
The virologist from Marseille told lawmakers in June that the Covid mortality rate for intensive care units in Paris Public Hospitals was 43 percent compared to only 16 percent in Marseille.
Raoult also pinpointed the negligence of Paris hospital staff who let an 80-year-old Chinese patient from Hubei province where the coronavirus pandemic originated, go home. The patient became the first person to die of Covid-19 outside Asia.
"These statements, which seriously damage the AP-HP, made under oath, seem to me to amount to false testimony," Hirsch said ahead of his intervention at the coronavirus commission of inquiry on 6 July.
What's happening now?
On Wednesday 29 July, Raoult filed a complaint against Hirsh.
His lawyer Grazziani disputed Hirsch's "false testimony" claim, insisting that the mortality figures presented by Raoult came from epidemiological data published by the Paris hospitals themselves.
"When he (Hirsch) wrote that letter, he knew full well that he was asking the National Assembly to drag Didier Raoult before a court for a punishable offence of up to five years and a 75,000 euro fine," Grazziani said.
Raoult "could not let this drop".
What has the reaction been?
At the end of June, an intensive care unit doctor in Paris hit out at Raoult's criticism of the hospital body, saying "we cannot sit back and allow Didier Raoult to say that we did not treat patients and we let people die."
"This is not a match between Paris and Marseille," Raoult's lawyer insisted.
Grazziani said his client had never targeted doctors but merely presented figures showing the "lack of means in fighting the pandemic".
