Created by Professor Raoult in 2011, the IHU had been shaken for more than two years by incessant controversies, in particular around the hyper-media figure of its director, accused of “charlatanism” by some of his peers for having promoted , without scientific validation, of a treatment of Covid with hydroxychloroquine.
Professor Pierre-Edouard Fournier, specialist in infectious diseases at the IHU Méditerranée Infection, will replace the controversial Didier Raoult at the head of this Marseille university hospital institute at the heart of numerous controversies for two years around the Covid-19, announced Wednesday the IHU.
Despite the many reservations, expressed in particular by unions who doubted the ability of this internal candidacy to drive real change, the directors therefore validated the choice of a commission specially set up for this succession and chaired by the former boss. of Renault, Louis Schweitzer.
The three state representatives abstained, we learned from a member of the board of directors wishing to remain anonymous. The University of Aix-Marseille, one of the six founding members of the IHU, “takes note of this appointment”: “we remain vigilant and the visits of the CHSCT will continue”, reacted its president Eric Berton, questioned by AFP .
“Today, there is an exceptional tool made by an extraordinary man. To replace it, it was complicated, after two years of turbulence. The IHU must regain its scientific and international credibility”, analyzed for its part another board member, the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, Renaud Muselier, told AFP.
“The past is the past, now the IHU is looking to the future,” said Michèle Rubirola, first deputy mayor of Marseille, in charge of health issues, at the exit of the council.
Created by Professor Raoult in 2011, the IHU had been shaken for more than two years by incessant controversies, in particular around the hyper-media figure of its director, accused of “charlatanism” by some of his peers for having promoted , without scientific validation, of a treatment of Covid with hydroxychloroquine.
In December, he had thus received a reprimand from the order of doctors for having communicated “information which was not based on any confirmed data”. The charges of “charlatanism” had however been dismissed, as well as those of taking “unjustified risk” for patients.
The CHSCT of Aix-Marseille University announced on Tuesday “to reject” this choice
A medical biologist, Professor Fournier distinguished himself by directing the large-scale PCR test laboratory that the IHU had managed to set up in Marseille as soon as the Covid-19 epidemic arrived in France.
Within the institute, he is part of the Vitrome team (Vectors – tropical and Mediterranean infections) which monitors infectious diseases. He is also responsible for the sequencing platforms and the biobank of the IHU. It was under the supervision of Didier Raoult that he defended his thesis in 1999, devoted to the study of Rickettsioses, intracellular bacteria at the origin of typhus in particular.
Given these “links” with Didier Raoult, the CHSCT of Aix-Marseille University announced on Tuesday “reprove” this choice. For the Health, Safety and Working Conditions Committee, Professor Fournier “does not mean a break in the mode of governance” and does not guarantee “a serene future in terms of scientific and medical probity”.
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© Agence France-Presse