Incomprehensible, worrying, dismaying? Adjectives are lacking when we learn about this affair. A great specialist in the AIDS virus, recognized epidemiologist and biostatistician, Dominique Costagliola is a respected figure in the scientific world. She was also one of the figures on the front line during the Covid-19 pandemic, notably by participating in the coordination of research efforts against the virus, which earned her the 2020 Inserm grand prize.
It also stands out for its “cash” discourse, its independence and its scientific rigor in the media and on the Internet. This is why she was a favorite target of conspiracy circles and received thousands of emails and messages on social networks containing insults, death threats, even promises of a “Nuremberg 2.0” [NDLR : un projet de procès défendu par les milieux complotistes qui comparent les responsables des politiques sanitaires à des dignitaires de l’Allemagne nazie].
“I started to be attacked when I won the Inserm grand prize. Some took it as a response from the institute to Didier Raoult’s attitude and began to defame me, remembers Dominique Costagliola This was accentuated when, in March 2021, I wrote an article in The Conversationin which I explained that there was no data showing the effectiveness of ivermectin against Covid.” A few days later, the site FranceSoir, known for its anti-vax and pro-Raoult positions, as well as for spreading false information, publishes two articles claiming that Dominique Costagliola forced Professor Andrew Hill, author of a meta-analysis on ivermectin, to change the conclusions of his study.
In the absence of proof, the site advances conjectures: the international organization Unitaid, which financed the meta-analysis, would have gone through Dominique Costagliola to change the conclusions. All illustrated by a photo of the researcher handing a file to Marisol Touraine, director of Unitaid since 2019. And too bad if the photo dates from 2013, when the latter was still Minister of Health. FranceSoir also quotes Tess Lawrie, a British doctor convinced of the effectiveness of ivermectin and who assures that Dominique Costagliola forced Andrew Hill’s hand. “The circle is closed,” concludes FranceSoir.
Investigation for influence peddling, search at 6 a.m.
At the height of the storm, Dominique Costagliola would have appreciated the support of health institutions, even the justice system. Instead, she was rewarded with a search of her home, Thursday December 2, 2021, at 6 a.m., during which the gendarmes explained to her that the prestigious National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) had opened an investigation into her against for “influence peddling”. The eminent scientist could not believe her ears or her eyes, especially since she was suffering from a secondary cataract that day. “I couldn’t properly read the document detailing the purpose of the search,” she remembers. “And the gendarmes didn’t give me time to consult it, even though they normally have the obligation to do so.”
The situation began to become clearer a few minutes later, when the inspectors downloaded from his computer the documents containing the keywords “Marisol Touraine”, “Unitaid” and “Inserm”. The researcher having worked for forty years for the national institute, the mass of files is colossal. “Plus, they didn’t know anything about Macintoshes, I had to explain to them how to do it,” she recalls. As of 1:30 p.m., downloads are still in progress. The gendarmes leave for lunch, not without asking their host for a good address, and leave all their equipment there. “I don’t think they thought I was guilty of much,” analyzes Dominique Costagliola. So why a search? The keywords obviously suggest a link with the FranceSoir “articles”. Were the latter, lacking proof, able to justify a PNF investigation?
Classification without further action
The biostatistician learned the end of the story only on February 7, when her lawyer had requested the PNF on multiple occasions. “I finally received a copy of my file. It states that the investigation was triggered following a complaint from the BonSens association, received on April 6, 2021,” she explains. What is the link between BonSens and FranceSoir? Xavier Azalbert. The latter is the Publication Director from FranceSoir but also the president and head of publication of BonSenswhich he co-founded with other figures of the French complosphere (Alexis Lacout, Christian Perronne, Silvano Trotta, etc.). The two structures are used to passing the buck: if, in this case, an article on the site inspired the association’s complaint, the (numerous) legal proceedings initiated by BonSens are almost systematically reported by FranceSoir, who devoted some 120 articles to the association. “The circle is closed”, one would also be tempted to say.
Reading the file also told Dominique Costagliola that the investigation had been completed months ago. “The complaint was dismissed on May 22, 2023, all this without me ever being questioned by the gendarmes or even notified of the dismissal,” she denounces, still stunned. Questioned by L’Express, a judicial source assures that the PNF was aware of “the non-neutrality of the people who filed a complaint”, but certifies that the prosecution would never have launched a procedure based solely on articles from FranceSoir.
This same judicial source adds that BonSens’ complaint contained an additional document: “A recording of a video call between Professor Andrew Hill and Professor Tess Lawrie, who would be close to the BonSens association.” This conversation “suggested possible influence peddling concerning the conditions in which a pharmaceutical laboratory would have obstructed the emergency approval of ivermectin”, the judicial source justifies. During this discussion, Andrew Hill also indicated that “Ms. Costagliola intervened to give her opinion on the interpretation of the data collected and on the draft conclusion of her study.” BonSens further accused the French researcher of having benefited from several contracts from pharmaceutical laboratories that may have an interest in ivermectin not receiving emergency approval.
An incriminating case apparently sufficient to cast doubt on the PNF, which opened a preliminary investigation. A few months later, the investigators noted that the file was empty and decided to stop the charges. “The PNF considered that the first elements collected as part of the investigation, in particular following the search, had not made it possible to confirm the allegations made by the complainants, it was therefore not necessary to hear Ms. Costagliola, continues our source. This absence of a hearing explains why she was not the recipient of a notice of dismissal without further action in May 2023.” A “usual practice in this area”, it is specified. It remains that the lawyer of the researcher had asked for news in October 2023 and was only informed five months later. A delay justified by “difficulties in finding the procedure (sic)“, according to the judicial source.
Insults during the trial
Dominique Costagliola, for her part, is surprised by a form of double standards. Because the researcher also filed a complaint, in March 2021, for cyberharassment and death threats against Eric Chabrière, former right-hand man of Didier Raoult, and against other Internet users supporting him. “Since then, nothing has happened. All I know is that my complaint filed in Paris was transferred to Marseille and is still being analyzed,” she says.
Meanwhile, even though BonSens has been aware of the closure of the case since last May – which the judicial source confirms to L’Express – FranceSoir continues to spread false information. The site has in fact reshared on its X account (ex-Twitter), one of his articles accusing Dominique Costagliola of influence peddling, Friday March 1, 2024. That day, the biostatistician went as a witness to the trial between the former director of the IHU of Marseille, Didier Raoult, and Guillaume Limousin, a mathematics professor who has denounced the microbiologist’s slip-ups since the start of the pandemic.
In addition to the FranceSoir tweet, the researcher was also the target of people who came to support Didier Raoult. In the middle of the trial, some did not hesitate to utter insults and vulgarities towards him. From the public benches, Eric Chabrière notably launched: “Soon a filming with Marc Dutroux?” Questioned by the president of the court, he justified his remarks by the fact that “people behind him said even worse”, reports Christian Peltier, Guillaume Limousin’s lawyer. Not enough to destabilize Dominique Costagliola, who still testified. A reminder that the fight against medical disinformation, exhausting and violent, requires as much patience as courage.
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