The LR deputy for Bas-Rhin has in recent years taken positions on the fringes of scientific consensus, supporting for example the use of the treatment praised by Didier Raoult during the Covid-19 crisis or defending homeopathy, while their effectiveness was not proven.
A nomination that calls attention to. The arrival of Patrick Hetzel at the Ministry of Higher Education and Research on September 21 sparked a wave of disapproval within the scientific community and in the political circle. The LR deputy for Bas-Rhin, who already knows this ministry well having worked there as general director of higher education and professional integration (DGESIP) between 2008 and 2012, has spoken out several times against the consensus scientific in recent years. In particular by defending the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat patients with Covid-19, or by trying to postpone the delisting of homeopathy.
His former positions have earned him the recent support of figures of disinformation, such as the business manager Silvano Trotta or Florian Philippot, leader of the Patriots, who presents, on the social network “fan” by Professor Didier Raoult, by listing his various polemical statements or by recalling his hostility to compulsory vaccination during the pandemic.
“We can no longer stand these appointments of people who have a background that goes against what the role should be. We cannot, when we are Minister of Research, have positions that are the opposite of science”is indignant Jérôme Marty, president of the union French Union for Free Medicine (UFML-S).
“We must set an example. And the example is to respect science.”
Jérôme Marty, president of the UFML-Syndicatat franceinfo
“When you are a university professor, you are obliged to respect a certain form of rationality”adds Pierre Ouzoulias, archaeologist, research fellow at the CNRS and vice-president of the Senate, who implicitly targets the positions taken by the new minister during the pandemic.
In a letter addressed to Emmanuel Macron on April 2, 2020, and published on X, Patrick Hetzel notably pleaded for a temporary authorization “hydroxychloroquine (…) in the early treatment of Covid, until the results of ongoing clinical trials are known”. Enough to leave some scientists perplexed: “The only way to minimize the risks is to do a clinical trial. Those who say the opposite do not want the good of people”says Dominique Costagliola, epidemiologist and research director at the Pierre-Louis Institute. “We already had treatment trials with hydroxychloroquine on patients in April 2020 and criticisms had been raised”reports for his part Jean-Michel Constantin, president of the French Society of Anesthesia and Resuscitation (Sfar).
No serious scientific study had concluded, at the time, about the effectiveness of the drug widely praised by the former director of the IHU of Marseille Didier Raoult. Conversely, a month after Patrick Hetzel’s request to the Elysée, two studies concluded that hydroxychloroquine was ineffective against Covid-19.
During the pandemic, Patrick Hetzel also opposed the compulsory wearing of masks from the age of 6 at school, noting“negative effects on the development and learning of children as well as serious psychological effects”during questions to the government. However, this measure was recommended by the French Pediatric Society and the High Council of Public Health a few months earlier.
The Alsatian MP then spoke out against the health pass, questioning the Minister of Health at the time, Olivier Véran, in July 2021, on the choice of making it compulsory. Patrick Hetzel had notably mentioned doubts and “a legal problem” concerning vaccines, then in phase 3 of their clinical trial. An argument swept aside by Dominique Costagliola. According to her, claiming that vaccines were then “pexperimental products in the summer of 2021 are scientifically inaccurate. (…) Antiretroviral treatments were authorized before the end of clinical trials, and it saved lives.” recalls the epidemiologist.
“This is one of the arguments repeated by anti-vax conspiracy theorists. It’s a departure from the road”even judge Xavier Lescure, infectious disease specialist at Bichat-Claude-Bernard hospital, professor of infectious diseases at Paris-Cité University. “It’s boring for a Minister of Research who should embody a rational and rigorous approach,” he believes. In reality, the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccine had been demonstrated as early as March 2021, particularly against severe forms of the disease.
“The senators who defended this type of position are those who belonged to the extreme right, a position at odds with scientific rationality and vaguely conspiratorial”notes Pierre Ouzoulias, also admitting that “left-wing elected officials have compromise” on hydroxychloroquine.
“As far as Patrick Hetzel is concerned, there is an accumulation [de positionnements antiscience] which means that there is a suspicion of principle.”
Pierre Ouzoulias, PCF senator from Hauts-de-Seineat franceinfo
In view of the outcry that his appointment has provoked, the entourage of the new minister, who did not respond to our requests, is today asking to “do not put him on trial for witchcraft, by taking glasses from 2024 to judge what was said in 2020”writing The Parisian. “Now that the results of clinical trials [sur l’hydroxychloroquine] are known, he would, necessarily, no longer have the same appreciation of the subject”adds the same source to the daily. But the criticisms are not limited to the topic of Covid-19.
His position on homeopathy is also denounced by the scientific community. In October 2020, Patrick Hetzel supported an amendment to the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) aimed at “create an organization specifically dedicated to the evaluation of complementary and alternative medicines including homeopathy, as well as to setting a reimbursement rate”.
A month later, he co-signed a bill aimed at establishing a two-year moratorium on the reimbursement rate (15%) for homeopathy, rather than its dereimbursement, so as not to rush the sector’s manufacturers. But these texts were rejected and homeopathy, whose effectiveness was judged “insufficient” by the High Authority for Health (HAS), has no longer been reimbursed since January 2021. To give its opinion, the health authority scrutinized several studies relating to nearly 1,200 homeopathic medicines. “There is a scientific consensus that homeopathy should not be prescribed. At best it is of no use, at worst it distracts from a useful treatment”recalls Jean-Michel Constantin, president of Sfar.
At the same time, the MP also fought to have Lyme disease recognized as a chronic disease through a bill tabled in September 2023. However, the chronicity of this disease remains controversial, based on a hypothesis “not scientifically proven“, denounced the Academy of Medicine in 2017.
More recently, during the debate on the bill against sectarian abuses, Patrick Hetzel spoke out against an article aimed at creating an offense of “provocation to abstaining from care” medical. As with the health pass, he first mentioned a “legal reason” before delivering a curious vision of science. “When you look at how scientific advances are made, very often, paradigm breaks (…) are the work of people who are in the minority. So let’s be extremely careful, to also want to develop, in a way, a dogma, which would be that of an official science. I think it is extremely dangerous. he warned before the Assembly.
Anti-system rhetoric that has not gone unnoticed. “Participate in the debate on article 4 of the bill on sectarian abuses [finalement adopté]implying that official science is totalitarianism, and leaving the choice of alternative medicine to patients who have no discernment, I find that annoying. Especially for a minister who has scientific research in his field of expertise“deplores Pierre Ouzoulias.
“I am struck to see that each time he steps up to the plate, it is with conspiratorial reasoning. This accumulation paints the portrait of someone who does not understand how we develop knowledge in the world of science. “
Dominique Costagliola, epidemiologist and research director at the Pierre-Louis Instituteat franceinfo
“There is consistency in his positions: we sense a very conservative linebelieves infectious disease specialist Xavier Lescure. The appointment of Patrick Hetzel is a not isolated symptom of a worrying syndrome. It says a lot about the rest of society, France’s capacity to manage crisis situations, with a tendency towards withdrawal rather than openness. analyzes the doctor.