L’Express has placed the defense of rationality at the heart of its DNA. This is why, every week, we highlight the benefits that research bring to society, without ever hesitating to make our contribution to the fight against scientific disinformation. We have chosen, this year again, to extend this commitment by supporting researchers who share these fights thanks to a dedicated event: the Awards for Science and Health Personalities.
Relive the entire Science and Health Symposium of L’Express 2025 here
Professor of medicine, pharmacologist, pulmonologist, head of service at the university hospital center in Bordeaux, Mathieu Molimard is also a member of the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SFPT). For almost five years, he has become one of the figures in the fight against medical disinformation. He distinguished himself by clear positions, never hesitating to oppose doctors and researchers who propagate info, including Professor Didier Raoult. His commitment earned him defamation campaigns of great violence. But that did not start his determination. Recently, he even obtained, with the help of many other researchers, the withdrawal of the very first study by IHU in Marseille (IHUM) which claimed that hydroxychloroquine was effective against COVVI-19. And he does not intend to stop there.
L’Express: Professor’s first study on hydroxychloroquine was invalidated at the end of last year. How did you welcome the news?
Pr Mathieu Molimard: This withdrawal is the Minimum minimorum. It was essential, because this article represented the foundation of the Card Castle that was the belief that hydroxychloroquine heals the COVVI-19. But there are still dozens of IHUM studies that must follow. I am thinking of that carried out, without authorization, on students from the University of Aix-Marseille who had to take vaginal samples. And also to other studies on hydroxychloroquine, including that on more than 30,000 patients, also conducted without authorization. This is the biggest wild clinical trial in history.
L’Express revealed a report denouncing serious ethical shortcomings and multiple errors [MFP2] From Didier Raoult, whom the University of Aix-Marseille (AMU) tried to hide. The president of the university, Eric Berton, assured that these practices belong to the past. What do you think?
Mr. Berton pushes dust under the carpet by minimizing the problem of scientific disbelievers. Researchers who investigate the work of the IHUM have shown that nearly 700 of their studies have potential irregularities. These are not seven or eight studies as Mr. Berton affirms! There is an abscess and, instead of treating, the local authorities are content to place a compress. This supplue and worsens. However, all of this has been known since 2018 and the first report of the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) which had led the INSERM and the CNRS to withdraw their approval from IHU in Marseille. Nothing has been done and the drifts continued to COVVI-19 and hydroxychloroquine. The IHUM is dying, its international reputation is deplorable. We risk amputation. It would be a great loss, because there are excellent researchers in this institute.
Who should act?
François Crémieux, the president of the University Hospitals of Marseille (AP-HM), tried. But it was not supported. Neither by the Directorate General of the Care Offer (DGOS) nor by the Ministry of Health and that of research. All control systems have failed. Everyone seems to have resigned. It is a failure at all levels of the state.
There are current judicial inquiries, because the public prosecutor has been seized by many authorities, including the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) and IGAS. I wait for justice to do its job. Until then, the authorities should clean up. Many IHUM researchers involved in fraudulent studies are still stationed and continue to strut by claims that their work is impeccable. It is provocation.
You have become a figure in the fight against scientific disinformation, but you are not alone in this fight. Who supports you?
I want to salute all the pharmacologists in France, who have known from the start that hydroxychloroquine cannot walk against COVID-19, as well as the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, which has issued an alert on this subject from March 2020.
I also had the chance to meet people from civil society or scientific fields that are not mine and that I would never have imagined knowing. Some have helped me a lot. All this work of combating disinformation would not have been possible without them. I am thinking in particular of Doctor Amélie Boissier-Descombes, who received the most infamous attacks and with whom we have implemented the gallery qualifying the study on the 30,000 patients of the IHUM “The largest wild clinical trial in history”.
There have also been many other researchers and doctors who rose up against fraudulent studies and medical disinformation. We did not necessarily work together, but we hugged our elbows. When I see all those people who fight for scientific truth, I find faith in humanity.
You have been targeted, sometimes very violently, on social networks. Are you worried?
What we have observed for a few years is unheard of. We were accused of being paid by the pharmaceutical industry simply because we saw that hydroxychloroquine did not work. We were intimidated, insulted. I even saw something new born: gap procedures in science, in other words trials launched by disinformators aimed at intimidating and silencing. Scientific journals have even received lawyers from lawyers threatening them to drag them into justice if they took off in IHUM. For my part, I also had my dose of harassment and I still receive death threats. Fortunately, I have the support of my management, the hospital and the University of Bordeaux, in particular.
Why is the fight for rationality to this point important?
I want science to be respected, that studies that do not follow ethical and legal standards to be withdrawn. This is necessary if we do not want to know the same endangers of public health during a next health crisis. My current battle is to find a way to effectively combat disinformation in health. The French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics is a learned company with a small budget based essentially on the contribution of its members, but we have launched the Pharmacofactonline content that responds directly to the info found on social networks. And we are working on a project to develop artificial intelligence tools that could help us in this mission.
The next step is that of education. I am convinced that the success of disinformation proves that many people do not have the minimum culture necessary to understand the functioning of drugs. I have a circle of reflection, The “Giens Workshops”and one of the workshops of this year aims to determine what is the minimum to teach at school. I also dream of an open platform which would offer factual data validated by a scientific council, with a transparent system and a fair for questions for journalists, doctors and the general public.
Have you ever been tempted to give up?
There are days when I get up and say to myself: “The authorities do nothing. Why am I bothering?” But I never wanted to give up, no. I am tough and I don’t let myself go. I will file a harassment complaint against several people. In this context, I was helped by relatives, and sometimes even by anonymous people who ask for nothing. There is solidarity with people who engage in the fight against health disinformation. This is what makes you get up every morning and that we continue this fight.
An article in our special file “Personalities of L’Expresss the 2025 prices for science and health”, published on March 13.
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