“About ten people“contaminated between mid-March and early April. At the IHU Méditerranée Infection in Marseille, headed by Professor Didier Raoult, the covid has been widely circulated in recent months, according to revelations from The Express who collected several anonymous testimonies. In all, seven people were infected, a technician was placed in intensive care and a doctor was hospitalized.

No windows or masks

The case would have been “internally suffocated“and the meetings and seminars were maintained, even if the wearing of a mask and physical distancing are not or little respected, according to the various witnesses interviewed.

Thus, all infected people “worked on the fourth floor, where there is an open space dedicated to doctors and technicians and a secretariat that communicates with Professor Raoult’s office“describes an IHU employee to the newspaper.

“This situation does not surprise me, since not only are there few or no windows in the open spaces, but most of Didier Raoult’s relatives do not wear the mask.“he still confided.

A technician treated with hydroxychloroquine

Among the seven infected people, the technician in serious condition would have been placed in intensive care at the Timone hospital at the end of March. When he arrived, he was on hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, the treatment defended by Professor Raoult but whose ineffectiveness against covid has been demonstrated by several large-scale scientific studies.

This treatment would have been “immediately stopped when (technician) was picked up“, say members of the staff of the Timone and the patient is now well.

A doctor in a state of concern

The hospitalized doctor, a hospital practitioner close to Didier Raoult, would have been at the end of March at the IHU. He was also on hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, but his worrying condition required a visit from Timone doctors, who “placed under Optiflow, a device delivering high flow oxygen“, reports L’Express.

Test under X for Pr Raoult

And Didier Raoult, has he also been contaminated? No proof has been brought in this direction, but a doubt hangs over the IHU. Because the professor would have been declared a contact case in March, which would not have prevented him from leaving for Senegal from March 26 to 31.

On his return, he would have taken a covid test under X, which would have been positive. But impossible to prove that it is indeed his.

The result of a hold

Anyway, the occurrence of a cluster in a hospital is not an extraordinary event. But what poses a problem is the non-compliance with health instructions even though the hypothesis of a cluster in the establishment was no longer to be demonstrated.

A non-respect to which is added the maintenance of a therapeutic protocol criticized by the majority of the scientific community and the absence of vaccination of the personnel. The whole resulting, according to the various witnesses, of a system of control of professor Raoult on the employees of the IHU.

AP-HM inaction

These witnesses also point to the inaction of the AP-HM (Assistance-Publique des Hôpitaux de Marseille), which pays part of the staff of the IHU.

Contacted by the weekly, Yanis Roussel, in charge of communication for the IHU, refused to answer these accusations, even mentioning the possibility of filing a complaint if the weekly were to publish “false information“.