InvestigationOutreacher for some, very hardworking for others, the flagship epidemiologist of TV shows has acquired an extraordinary visibility during the pandemic, with a gift to arouse controversy.
He is everywhere. We saw it on BFM-TV, The Parisian, RMC, Classic Radio, Young Doctors, RT France or even Le Petit Bleu d’Agen. He was filmed on set, at his office, in the street, in his room, and even in a taxi. At 36, Martin Blachier has established himself in one year as the most visible scientific expert on Covid-19. According to the count of Decoders, since its first appearance in the columns of Echoes on April 2, 2020, the public health doctor and co-founder of Public Health Expertise (PHE), a consulting and epidemic modeling company, has been interviewed as an expert 467 times in thirteen months – count stopped at the end of April, and already exceeded.
This “good customer” for the media has its times. Sometimes alarmist, he fears a second wave in spring 2020, or is one of the first to recommend the mask in business in July. Most often reassuring, he considers the outdoor mask unnecessary and infantilizing, disputes the figures of Public Health France during the second wave, or even minimizes the impact of variants in the third.
Sometimes he’s right. He affirmed very early on the cyclical nature of the epidemic and anticipated the risk of divorce with the population by dint of excessive measures. At other times, he is wrong, as when he denies the existence of clusters in schools, bet on a “Wavelet” in September or does not anticipate the suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine. But he is pragmatic, and does not hesitate to adjust his positions, depending on the context, even if it means appearing to contradict himself.
“Respond to all invitations”
The doctor and business manager is invited everywhere: we counted his presence in 66 different media. And again, he assures the World have declined several interviews for lack of time.
Why such omnipresence? The medical prediction company he co-founded in 2012, PHE, Explain to be “Mobilized” for “Meet the need for understanding and prediction”, and assume “Respond to all media invitations”. A nice spotlight for this company of about fifteen health statisticians, whose core activity consists in selling health models to the pharmaceutical industry and to public authorities. For example, the company has worked with the National Cancer Institute to model colorectal cancer screening strategies in France.
Martin Blachier does not hide it: it is he who gave the scoop to Opinion, before any scientific publication, of the modeling study on the different deconfinement scenarios, and their impact in terms of mortality, which placed it on the media radar in April 2020.
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