“Patterson, right? On the long Covid, you say?” In front of her screen, Elisabeth Bik sighs. The expert pushes down her glasses, frowns and taps on her keyboard. Since 2014, this former microbiologist has been tracking down “bad science”, and “bad scientists”; those who, according to her, fake, arrange, exaggerate. Then she pins them on her Twitter account, one of the most followed in the field.
His biggest catch: Didier Raoult. Elisabeth Bik was one of the first to denounce the falsifications in her articles on hydroxychloroquine. The clicking of the keys quickens, then stops: “You’re right. Dr. Patterson’s study and prescriptions are a problem.” From her office in San Francisco, she gives her verdict: “It’s always the same. They claim to have a cure. Publish to strengthen their credibility. And use their articles to widen their audience”.
Faced with the long Covid, some scientists are trying to set themselves up as “saviors”, with controversial publications in support. Like Didier Raoult before his fall, they too prescribe with a vengeance, and denounce “office science”, too slow and cautious in the face of the suffering of patients. At the risk of suffering the same fate as their Marseille predecessor.
“80% chance of success”
The most fashionable? Bruce Patterson, former director of Stanford’s virology department. This American biologist, on his own since 2009, would have found a test, a remedy, and an explanation for these prolonged symptoms which handicap millions of patients. On the site of his Center for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic Covid, a telemedicine establishment, the biologist claims to have “supported […] more than 30,000 Covid long” in two years. With success for 80% of them, according to figures from his institute. Almost enough to announce “the end of the epidemic” of Covid long.
His own chloroquine? Maraviroc – for which he filed the patent in 2021 for use in the context of Covid-19 – and statins. Molecules designed against AIDS and hypercholesterolemia. Not eccentric, a priori: “Certain white blood cells keep a Sars-Cov-2 protein. They would make the immune response last. Patterson is trying to inhibit them. But these are only hypotheses”, summarizes Jérôme Larché, doctor “referent Covid long” at the ARS of Occitanie.
Like Didier Raoult, Dr. Patterson has indeed carried out a study on his treatment. Published very late, on February 8, and in Frontiers in Medicine, a second-tier review, it covers only 18 patients, with no control group. “We can conclude from this that it would be interesting to launch clinical trials on a larger scale, nothing more”, warns Jérôme Larché.
Copied and pasted in his studies
In this publication, certain declarations, in particular on the activities and the possible conflicts of interest of Bruce Patterson, are vague. Graphs lack legends, the data is not all accessible. Other studies, this time on the tests developed by the biologist, seem to include copy-pasted. “Many warning signs”, underlines the intractable Elizabeth Bik.
What if, despite everything, his intuition was the right one? “These people ignore the history of medicine. If we have kept procedures, it is because it is better to give up finding the right treatment rather than take the risk of damaging it”, condemns Hervé Chneiweiss, president of the Inserm Ethics Committee. “We must not ignore any leads, but they must be put through the mill of scientific evaluation. Otherwise, some patients, suffering and disoriented by the lack of certainty, can rush into dangerous therapies”, insists Antoine Flahault , epidemiologist at the Institute of Global Health in Geneva.
Like any medicine, maraviroc can cause side effects – in this case, serious kidney and heart problems. Sick from having to sleep after a few minutes of reading in broad daylight, Cédric, 48, still tried. “I’m not fooled, I saw immediately that he had a commercial interest, and I knew it could fail. But his CV reassured me. The other doctors repeated me so much that they did not could do nothing for me. Patterson, it was my only way out”, says this maritime expert from Marseille. Breathing hurts him, living tires him.
Against the long Covid, French institutions recommend a set of rehabilitation and psychiatric support. A process that can confuse many patients, when they do not come up against the disbelief of general practitioners who are uninformed about the disease, and its dozens of different symptoms. In his condition, Cédric even tried unconventional therapies: plants, acupuncture, oxygen therapy. But nothing worked.
€340 per test, not counting the prescription
To benefit from the “Patterson protocol”, you must first be tested. His start-up IncellDx, a diagnostic company based in California, claims to hold the Holy Grail: a long Covid screening. “It’s the sinews of war, assures Jérôme Larché. How to prove that a pill is effective if you are not sure that the patient is really suffering from this disease? To date, there is no recognized positive marker, which slows down research and forces us to diagnose by elimination.”
Recent studies have shown that some patients have an abnormal number of cytokines in the blood, molecules involved in the inflammatory reaction. Bruce Patterson claims to have identified a characteristic rate. A result that no independent body has been able to confirm so far. But that hasn’t stopped the doctor from marketing his “artificial intelligence-enhanced” screening. It is available in a dozen countries around the world. Cost of blood analysis in Europe: 340€.
Initially, IncellDx only operated in the United States. Cédric went to Miami for his blood test in November 2021. On his return, the father of the family manages to import the molecules from India. In Marseille, no one agreed to prescribe blindly – Raoult created a precedent. Cédric starts treatment in January 2022. “I regained energy, but after three weeks the effects plateaued. Was it placebo? My chest pains have since disappeared anyway, and I have less diarrhea .” Total cost: several thousand euros.
“wash” the blood
During his research, Cédric also came across Beate Jaeger, a doctor of internal medicine who also draws crowds to her clinic in Mülheim, Germany. 50,000 people are already on its waiting list. Thousands have already been taken care of. His idea ? “Wash” the blood of patients, by diverting a therapy usually used as a last resort in patients with particularly high cholesterol levels. She hooks her patients up to a machine the size of an oven, draws their blood, sends it through filters, and then sends it back to them. Without any scientific proof of the effectiveness of this therapy against long Covid.
The second time, Lilas, 32, felt unwell. It was September 2021. Two nurses slipped between the pipes and lifted his legs, before interrupting the intervention. Fifteen sessions later, Lilas’ long Covid has not disappeared, but the young Frenchwoman is convinced that the cure has been useful: “From the first sessions, I had the impression of being able to breathe better. I I could talk on the phone without choking. That sort of brain fog cleared up. But since then I’ve had Covid-19 again, and my condition has deteriorated again.”
Beate Jager also relies on assumptions that may seem justified. “What is proposed is to purify the blood of inflammatory molecules. We know that long Covid patients have increased inflammatory activity. But the process is extremely invasive, and unlike Bruce Patterson, Beate Jager does not even have not bother to publish”, comments Jérôme Larché. Apheresis can cause ischemia, myocardial infarction or even respiratory arrest. And is expensive: several hundred euros per session. Lilas spent around 20,000 euros, including trips.
embryo cells
In the summer of 2022, a Cypriot establishment modeled on Beate Jaeger’s therapy was closed by the authorities, after the discovery of human embryo cells, suspected of being sold as a remedy. “Some establishments that practice apheresis in the context of Covid-19 think they are holding a cash cow”, warns Jérôme Larché. Not enough to harm the activity of Beate Jaeger, who has announced that she is moving to a larger clinic to accommodate more patients. She promised that she would launch a clinical trial. No more news since.
To make themselves known and attract customers, Patterson and Jaeger both play on the same lever: a few appearances on television or in popular newspapers, in which they are careful not to say too much about their results. They focus above all on their CVs and the suffering of patients, which the public authorities tend to deny. “We are in the midst of a pandemic. The sick cannot wait”, pressed Bruce Patterson on the American television channel NBC News, March 12, 2022. Du Raoult in the text.
The other media battle
If Didier Raoult had extensive media coverage at the start of the health crisis, discussions around the self-proclaimed long Covid pioneers remain more confidential, on YouTube and social networks. A video still made people talk about it this summer. A political YouTuber, Tatiana Ventôse, boasts without restraint about the Patterson treatment and urges Social Security to reimburse maraviroc. It already has 200,000 views, and runs regularly among patients, some of whom have even launched a petition.
While it is difficult to say how many French patients have already yielded to the sirens of Patterson and Jaeger, some experts fear that in the long term patient associations will try the experiment. “It has happened that this kind of profiles, like Doctor Perrone with Lyme disease, impose their methods, carried by a large community of people in suffering”, illustrates Alexander Samuel, doctor in molecular biology, and French scientific popularizer. The blogger systematically warns the leaders of the patient communities when a researcher who is a little too “visionary” tries to emerge.
Overly optimistic studies and statements on the long Covid, Matthieu Lestage, who is part of the office of After J20, sees them pass regularly. To guard against this, the association, which represents French patients, has set up a scientific council. “Practitioners like Patterson and Jaeger often rely on relays to advertise, notes the spokesperson. A discovery as great as a treatment for long Covid will make headlines everywhere. And I bet it won’t. the act of a hero, who cries victory alone against all.” Contacted by L’Express, neither Bruce Patterson nor Beate Jaeger responded to our requests.