interview The magazine “Complément d’Enquête” and its journalist Nathalie Sapena investigated the former director of the IHU Didier Raoult for several months
< img class=”aligncenter” src=”https://thegaltimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/marseillenbsp-nbsp-didier-raoult-ne-cyberharcegravele-pas-but-il-a-des-lieutenants-qui-fontnbsp-f76478d. jpg” alt=”Marseille: “Didier Raoult does not cyberstalk, but he has lieutenants who do”” />
Didier Raoult at a press conference in April 2022 — Christophe SIMON/AFP
- The magazine “Complément d’Enquête ” devotes an issue this Thursday to Didier Raoult.
- The investigation dissects in particular the functioning of a Twitter loop, targeting anti-Raoult and composed of pro-Raoult tweeters and relatives of the former director of the IHU.
- In this issue, the magazine also reveals the existence of a request for a sanction against Didier Raoult, never applied. And for good reason: for some unknown reason, the letter making this request vanished.
He officially quit. took up his post less than three months ago, but his name still sparks so much ink. This Thursday, “Complementary investigation” devotes an issue to; the former director of the Marseille IHU Didier Raoult, with exclusive revelations. In her investigation, carried out with Martin Lavielle and Frédérique Prigent, Nathalie Sapena returns in particular to the organization of pro-Raoult on social networks to defend the scientist against his defenses. tractors… and reveals that, unlike the will of the government, the director of the IHU has never been sanctioned. The cause? A dark story of a mysteriously missing letter… The journalist returns for 20 Minutes to this investigation and behind the scenes.
Why be interested in? Didier Raoult ?
I wanted to try to take a step back from everything that happened. Myself, I’ve covered health for years and years. I am familiar with these subjects. And I was in some confusion. And I think I’m not the only one. When I started to investigating Didier Raoult, last March, people around me asked me: “So? Do you believe it? You don’t believe it? Is he a charlatan or a great scientist?” So I wanted to understand what was going on.
Why have you devoted part of your investigation to the defenders of Didier Raoult, in particular on social networks?
I left with a medical prism. I wanted to look for understand Didier Raoult, seek to investigate studies around hydroxychloroquine. And in fact, all the people I contacted were terrified, from Agnès Buzyn to ordinary people on Twitter, to be taken to part by very active tweeters. I’ve rarely made a survey where so few people have accepted to speak. What Agnès Buzyn, who is one of Didier Raoult’s scapegoats, is going through is incredible. She has had a bodyguard since confinement and the launch of hydroxychloroquine. Since she was targeted by the pro-Raoult, she no longer goes out alone in the street without her son. She suffered physical attacks. The cyberbullying of pro-Raoult people is a vice in which people are caught. Didier Raoult does not cyberbully, but he has lieutenants who do it for him. In the investigation, the journalist Ariane Chemin speaks of an army. It’s all about true.
Your investigation dissects, in particular, the operation of a Twitter loop, including members of the IHU and pro-Raoult…twittos
It’s a group that was the IHU’s disinformation bridgehead. The IHU was not satisfied with to defend chloroquine in scientific circles. They also flooded Twitter and all social networks of false information. This group has had a speaking role. As soon as someone criticized Didier Raoult, these members were responsible for making the tom-tom around the communication of the IHU. It’s one of its former members who explained to me. the functioning of the group, baptized; CIA. This man is an enrolled tweeter. in this group. He is a conspirator and pro-Raoult, very lively and has a lot of followers. He repented after a few months and threw everything away. It’s at justice to say if there is cyberbullying. [According to Nathalie Sapena’s investigation, this man is the subject of a complaint for cyberstalking against a woman who had criticized Didier Raoult.]
In this group, whose administrator is the boss of France Soir, there is in particular Yanis Roussel, who was in charge of the communication of Didier Raoult, and who explains that he is part of it only to watch. Eric Chabrière, another close friend of Didier Raoult, who is notably the subject of a complaint by Didier Raoult’s daughter for harassment and whose trial is scheduled for January, is on the other hand more active .
And since I’ve tried to join Eric Chabri&erere to ask him very specific questions, a fortnight ago, ç come up on my side. I get bullied. I get insulted. For now, I don’t care. But I don’t know how far ça can go. There is a kind of excessively unhealthy climate.
You also reveal in your investigation that the Ministers of Health and Research had written and signed a letter in 2017 requesting disciplinary action against Didier Raoult for having silenced the cases of harassment within the IHU. But Didier Raoult has never been sanctioned…
More specifically, during the investigation, I obtained the a whole series of letters. It’s a whole procedure that starts with the Ministry of Research, which then forwarded to the Ministry of Health. But I don’t know what happened. The letter was never received by the body in charge of these procedures, which are very rare. When I said ça à àgrave; Agnès Buzyn and Frédérique; Vidal, the two ministers fell from the cabinet.