4 April/5 April 2020 ★ FTWeekend 3
CO R O N AV I R U S
L E I L A A B B O U D— PA R I S
France’s Paris Match magazine usually
reserves its covers for rock stars, actors
and royalty. Last week it featured a dif-
ferent kind of celebrity: Didier Raoult, a
long-haired,iconoclasticvirologistfrom
Marseille, who has championed an old
malaria drug as a potential cure for
coronavirus.
The 68-year-old prize-winning spe-
cialist has gained fame outside his field
since posting a YouTube video in late
February predicting that treatment
with chloroquine would bring about the
coronavirus“endgame”.
The post had ripple effects far beyond
the Méditerranée Infection Foundation,
the research centre run by Dr Raoult,
generating an enthusiastic response
from US president Donald Trump and a
run on pharmacies globally as people
stockpiledthelow-pricedgenericdrug.
Yet Dr Raoult and his team have con-
ducted only two relatively small studies
of 122 patients, which experts have dis-
missedasflawedindesignandtherefore
inconclusive. While scientists are now
studying the impact of the drug in
larger, more controlled trials, some of
them have criticised Dr Raoult as a self-
promotertakingrisksinapandemic.
None of this matters to his new-found
fans,whoseehimasabrillianteccentric
whose hypothesis will ultimately be
provencorrect.
“Didier Raoult is
theonlyresearcher
in the world who
has a lead to save
us,” blared a Face-
book group in his
honour that nearly
400,000 people
havejoined.
French meme
makers have gone
into overdrive, Pho-
toshopping his head
on to the bodies of
football stars and
depicting him as the
druid Getafix from the
Asterixcartoonbooks.
For many in France, Dr Raoult has
become an authoritative voice on the
health crisis. His weekly videos often
rack up a million views each, far more
than the nightly official government
pressconference.
In a country wracked by divisions
exposed by last year’sgilets jaunespro-
tests, he is seen by some as more trust-
worthypreciselybecauseheisperceived
asnotbeingpartofthePariselite.Hehas
beenhailedbypoliticiansontheright.
As Renaud Muselier, who heads the
Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, put
itinaninterviewwithNouvelObsmaga-
zine: “What? Because he has long hair, a
beard and he’s from Marseille, he
doesn’t have the right to be the world
numberoneinhisfield?”
The frenzy has had repercussions.
Doctors around the world are already
using chloroquine to treat Covid-
patients, which they can do by prescrib-
ing it “off-label” or outside its approved
usesformalaria,lupusandarthritis.
To stave off shortages, generic drug-
makers such as Mylan are ramping up
production. Meanwhile hundreds have
lined up outside the Méditerranée
Infection Foundation to be tested and
treated.
Françoise Barré-
Sinoussi, a Nobel Prize-
winning scientist advis-
ing France on Covid-19,
toldLeMondenewspa-
per it was unethical to
give people false hope
before there was
proof. “Some of them
could be carrying the
virusandriskspread-
ing it,” she said of the
crowds. “It’s ridicu-
lous.”
In the US, Dr
Raoult’s message
about chloroquine
was amplified on
Twitter by Tesla billionaire Elon Musk
and relayed by pundits on Fox News. It
culminated in Mr Trump tweeting the
drug had a “real chance to be one of the
biggest game changers in the history of
medicine”. That prompted Anthony
Fauci, Mr Trump’s health adviser, to
warn against getting excited about what
hecalled“anecdotalevidence”.
Dr Raoult has fed the frenzy by taking
his findings public without waiting for
sanction from peer-reviewed journals.
He defends the approach as in keeping
with the spirit of the Hippocratic oath
sworn by doctors, especially in a fast-moving health crisis where people are
dying.“Adoctorcanandmustthinklike
a doctor, and not like someone obsessed
with methodology,” he wrote in an opin-
ionpieceinLeMonde.Waiting weeks or months for the
resultsofdoubleblind,placebo-control-
led studies during a pandemic when an
old drug might work fine was akin to
ceding to the “moral dictatorship” ofprofit-seeking pharmaceutical compa-
nies,hewrote.
In a recent video, Dr Raoult said the
centre had tested about 50,000 people,
found 2,400 infections and treatedaround 1,000 people with a hydroxy-
chloroquine and azithromycin combi-
nation. The treatment worked best
when people were given the antiviral
relativelyearly,saidDrRaoult,meaning
beforetheyneededoxygensupport.
Scientists in Europe and globally are
nowstudyingtheprotocolinlarger,con-
trolledtrials.Onetrialof1,300high-risk
patients at 36 French hospitals looking
at hydroxychloroquine aims to “end the
controversy”inthecomingweeks.
Another trial of about 3,200 patients
in eight European countries will com-
pare outcomes from standard hospital
care for Covid-19 against four experi-
mental treatments. Hydroxychloro-
quine will be tested along with Gilead
Sciences’ remdesivir, and combinations
ofantiretroviralsusedtotreatHIV.
Andre Kalil, an infectious disease spe-
cialist, said it was important to wait for
more complete studies as chloroquine,
hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin
could “cause serious side-effects to the
liver and heart”. He said: “People are
taking unsafe and unproven drugs, and
the risk of dying from these drugs may
behigherthandyingfromCovid-19.”Research.Pandemic hope
Maverick French doctor stirs cure frenzy
Proposed use of old malaria
drug to treat Covid-19 garners
support and heavy criticism
Under the microscope:
Didier Raoult’s claims
have been labelled
unethical by some experts.
Inset, on the cover of
Paris Match— Gerard Julien/AFP/GettyHE BA SA L E H— C A I R O
Human rights activists have accused
Algeria of exploiting the coronavirus
outbreak to crack down on opponents
who have been at the forefront of more
than a year of mass anti-regime
protests.
While weekly demonstrations have all
but ended as people are prevented from
gathering and also fearful of contracting
Covid-19, the authorities have extended
the imprisonment of an opposition
leader, arrested a prominent journalist
and summoned dozens of activists for
questioning,civilsocietygroupssay.
“The authorities are taking advantage
of the fact that the international com-
munity has something else to focus on
and are distracted by the coronavirus,”
said Ahmed Benchemsi, north Africa
researcheratHumanRightsWatch.
The north African state has witnessed
huge protests since February 2019, with
hundredsofthousandsofAlgerianstak-
ing to the streets at least twice a week to
demand the departure of the military-
backedregime.
Last week, Karim Tabbou, an impris-
oned opposition leader, was hauled
before a judge to face a sudden trial the
daybeforehewasduetobereleased.
He was handed a one-year sentence,
which means he will spend at least
another six months behind bars. Nei-
ther he nor his lawyers knew about the
courtappearanceinadvance.
The charges related to “incitement to
violence” and “harming national secu-
rity” and refer to speeches he made crit-
icisingtheroleofthearmyinpolitics.
The authorities also detained journal-
istKhaledDrareniaweekagoonsimilar
charges. Mr Drareni, who publishes a
website covering opposition news, has
morethan140,000Twitterfollowers.
He is also the Algeria correspondent
for Reporters Without Borders, the
internationalpressadvocacygroup.
Daikha Dridi, an Algerian journalist
andcolleagueofMrDrarenionRadioM,
an independent internet broadcaster,
said his arrest was unexpected. The
arrests appear to be part of a larger
campaign against dissent, Ms Dridi and
otherssaid.
The National Committee for the Lib-
eration of Detainees, an Algerian civil
society group, said dozens of activists
across the country had been summoned
to appear at police stations in recent
days.
After the coronavirus pandemic
spread to Algeria, prominent figures
within the opposition movement,
including Mr Drareni, called for a sus-
pensionoftheanti-governmentdemon-
strations.
The protests erupted after Abdelaziz
Bouteflika, announced his intention to
extend his 20-year presidency by con-
testing elections, despite him being
incapacitated by a stroke. In a bid to
quell the demonstrations, the military
forced Mr Bouteflika to resign, but the
leaderless protest movement managed
to maintain its momentum and pressed
foracompleteoverhauloftheregime.
Activists say that as the regime
expectsmorepublicdiscontent,itwants
to silence critics who were vocal during
thepastyearofdissent.
“I think they will continue settling
political accounts [with opponents],”
saidMrBenchemsi.“Thecoronavirusis,
for now, sucking up all the media oxy-
gen. They believe whatever they do will
beundertheradar.”Human rights
Activists accuse Algeria of
using crisis to quell dissent
‘A doctor can and
must think like a
doctor, and not likesomeone obsessed
with methodology’APRIL 4 2020 Section:World Time: 3/4/2020 - 18: 09 User: john.conlon Page Name: WORLD2 USA, Part,Page,Edition: USA, 3, 1