“17,000 deaths is a low estimate,” judges the head of the pharmacology department at Bordeaux University Hospital

Mathieu Molimard also points to the responsibility of political figures who promoted the use of this drug during the health crisis.

“Promoting hydroxychloroquine with its potential dangers was irresponsible and unworthy of our political figures”, castigates Mathieu Molimard Thursday January 4 on franceinfo. The head of the pharmacology department at Bordeaux University Hospital spoke about a study, published in the scientific journal Biomedecine & Pharmacotherapy, which shows that hydroxychloroquine is linked to nearly 17,000 deaths in six countries in spring 2020 , in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic.

franceinfo: Does this study confirm what we already knew but which many did not want to hear at the time?

Mathieu Molimard: Since March 2020, we have been saying that this treatment cannot be effective and that it is dangerous, but we have been inaudible. In March 2020, pharmacovigilance centers warned about the use of hydroxychloroquine specifically in the context of Covid, because cardiac damage, drops in potassium, in addition to azithromycin can worsen the toxicity of hydrochloroquine .

After a month of use in France, there were eight reports of cardiac arrest in pharmacovigilance, which meant that this drug was no longer prescribeable in the city from the end of March and from the month of May it was no longer possible to prescribe it outside of clinical trials. Despite this, the IHU of Marseille [dirigé par le professeur Didier Raoult] continued to prescribe it until December 2021, without the necessary clinical trial authorizations. So it was expected, we have known since 2021 that there were 11% deaths in hospital.

“This study massively underestimates the number of deaths since it does not take into account deaths at home or in nursing homes. It does not take into account Brazil or India, which followed this recommendation from the IHU , saying they had a miracle cure.”

Mathieu Molimard, head of the pharmacology department at Bordeaux University Hospital,

at franceinfo

The figure of 17,000 is a low estimate. If we add India, which has a billion people, if we add Brazil, if we add all the epidemic waves, we well exceed 100,000 deaths.

France has 200 deaths. The treatment has not been used that much in our country?

We were lucky in that the doctors weren’t too keen on it. We heard a lot about the pro-hydroxychloroquine but they only represented a tiny minority of doctors and fortunately. The doctors naturally tested it for a few days or weeks to find that it wasn’t working and it was stopped at the end of March, thanks to the authorities who became aware of the risk. There were only 15% of prescriptions in France, compared to 60% in the United States. We have been relatively protected thanks to the quality of our doctors and also the interventions of the public authorities, who have curbed this use despite excessive media pressure.

Do these data highlight the dangers of hasty use, without clinical evidence, of old drugs?

The risk of the medicine is linked to the indication and the people to whom it is given. It is not linked to an absolute risk. If we give it to someone who is more at risk, we have more risks and more deaths. This is a basic rule: you should not give medication when you do not have formal proof of its effectiveness, because you are putting 100% of patients at risk for a hypothetical benefit.

Many political figures at the time promoted hydroxychloroquine. President Emmanuel Macron even went to Marseille to meet Didier Raoult. Should we learn lessons from this today?

I would like us to learn lessons from this but I am absolutely not convinced that they will be understood. We will probably have exactly the same phenomena during a future epidemic. People have transformed a public health problem, a pharmacology problem, into a political problem. Promoting hydroxychloroquine with its potential dangers was irresponsible and unworthy of our political figures. Denigrating vaccination, as some have done, is also irresponsible and does not take into account the health of our fellow citizens.

This political-health scandal risks recurring: the lessons have not been learned, the education of the population is insufficient in terms of benefits and risks. At school, no one learns that medicines are dangerous, everyone considers them to be candy. There is insufficient training for doctors and there is no reliable information site on which everyone can rely. I fear that we are not vaccinated against anxiety, gurus and charlatans.