Infectious disease top world expert, professor Didier Raoult, discoverer of dozens of bacteria, an MD and PhD, leads a very large lab and institute he created in Marseilles [1]. Raoult’s findings are found in thousands of publications. Among many other things, he identified the causative agents of several diseases and discovered giant viruses… plausibly a new form of life, no less. (No doubt, if Raoult was American, or, a fortiori Swedish, he would already be a laureate of the Nobel Prize!)
When French citizens were evacuated from China by military flights, they were put under Raoult’s supervision.
Very interesting results from France with a treatment combining hydroxychloroquine and a common antibiotic (which has an antiviral, yes, antiviral effect). That compound (and chloroquine itself) have been long known to have effects against some coronaviruses. (Trump himself promoted Raoult’s findings… enabling anti-Trump media to accuse Trump to be “non-scientific”!)
These are the first trial data. Yes this was a small trial, and it was open-label (as people are dying conducting double blind experiments is deeply unethical). However, the results are so striking, these objections can be overridden (larger scale studies have been launched in France).
Coronavirus Marseilles Raoult Work’s show that azithromycin plus hydroxychloroquine cures patients in 5 days. That probably works better, the earlier it’s applied.
26 patients were enrolled in the treatment group, with 16 controls. Six patients dropped out of the treatment group: 3 went to the ICU, one dropped out due to nausea, one left the hospital (apparently recovered?) and one died. No one left the two control groups. 15 male and 21 female patients were treated. 6 of them were asymptomatic, 22 had upper respiratory symptoms, and 8 had lower respiratory tract symptoms (all of those had confirmed COVID19 pneumonia by imaging).
The treatment group got 200mg of hydroxychloroquine sulfate three times a day. Six of those patients were also given 500mg azithromycin in addition. The antibiotic dealt with possible bacterial superinfection. Professor Raoult also uses azithromycin for its antiviral effects.
There appears to be an effect of hydroxychloroquine. The effect of the hydroxychloroquine – azithromycin combination is notably stronger effect: down to zero virus as measured by nasal swab, in five (5) days.
These are two inexpensive generic drugs with a long history of use in humans. Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine both can have notable side effects, for example, cardiopathy. However, that happens only under chronic usage for cramps (that was discontinued in the USA in the 2000s, for this particular pathology). Brought up in Black Africa, I got malaria more than once, and was given longer treatments of chloroquine. The treatment of Raoult is only a few days, and should have no adverse effects. Also, as in the case of malaria, chloroquine can be used prophylactically.
It better work; absent a treatment, COVID19 will be a disaster equal to the “Spanish Flu” of 1918, said, correctly, the Senator head of the Intelligence Committee who admitted to have engaged on insider trading after he was privately briefed. Biden claimed that “Medicare For All, doesn’t work” in Italy. He and his well-heeded PAC and media supporters insisted M4A was the cause of the massacre there.
However, the USA has, relative to its population, fewer ICU and critical respiratory beds than Italy. Simply, because it blocked (non-US) people coming from China on January 31, the US is delayed by ten days the contagion relative to Italy 9the EU incompetently didn’t block this travel). Expect thousands of Americans to die. And don’t expect the disease to threaten less when it’s warmer: SARS-CoV-2 is progressing in tropical areas… Just as SARS-CoV did.
Patrice Ayme
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Didier Raoult (born March 13, 1952) is a French biologist. He holds MD and Ph.D. degrees and specializes in infectious diseases. In 1984, Didier Raoult created the Rickettsia Unit at Aix-Marseille University (AMU). He also teaches infectious diseases in the Faculty of Medicine of Aix-Marseille University, and since 1982 has supervised many M.D. and Ph.D. degrees.[1]
Raoult is a world reference for Q fever and Whipple’s disease.[11]
Since 2008, Raoult has been the director of “URMITE” i.e. the Research Unit in Infectious and Tropical Emergent Diseases, collaborating with CNRS (National Center for the Scientific Research), IRD (Research for the Development Institute), INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) and the Aix Marseille University, in Marseille. His laboratory employs more than 200 people, including 86 very active researchers who publish between 250 and 350 papers per year and have produced more than 50 patents.[2] Didier Raoult is also involved in the creation of 8 startups to date.
Giant Viruses:
Raoult’s team was the first to discover very large size viruses.
In 2003, Didier Raoult identified with Bernard La Scola a giant amoebic virus, mimivirus,[16] and in 2004 established its genome.[17]
In 2016, this team found in mimivirus a defense mechanism preventing the implantation of virophages in the virus plant (MIMIVIRE).[18] Finally, it has been shown that this virophage could be integrated into the cells in the form of a pro-virophage and that it could be associated with transposon-like structures called transpovirons.[19]
They also discovered Marseilleviruses[20] and Faustoviruses.[21]
The discovery of giant viruses seriously undermines the classification of viruses. Didier Raoult has several times reported that giant viruses are of a different nature than other viruses and that they constitute a 4th branch of microbes known as TRUC for “Things Resisting Uncompleted Classifications”
New bacteria:
Since the 1990s, Raoult and his team have identified and described approximately 96 new pathogenic bacteria[9] and showed their implication in human pathologies. Two bacteria have been named for him: Raoultella planticola and Rickettsia raoultii.
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[2] ““With all due respect to Medicare for all, you have a single-payer system in Italy,” Biden said to Sanders. “It doesn’t work there. It has nothing to do with Medicare for all.”
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[This is the Tenth essay of mine on COVID19. The epidemic is rich in philosophical themes, and first of all, our degenerated civilization, and the need to reevaluate all its values!]
Patrice Ayme's Thoughts 