the Professor Pierre-Edouard Fournier, a specialist in infectious diseases at the IHU Méditerranée Infection, will replace the controversial Didier Raoult at the head of the Marseille university hospital institute on September 1. The IHU announces it this Wednesday, after the validation of its board of directors.
The directors therefore validated the choice of a commission specially set up for this succession and chaired by the former boss of Renault, Louis Schweitzer, while the unions had notably expressed many reservations. Out of 18 voters, in addition to a vote against and a blank vote, the three state representatives abstained, without explanation, AFP learned from a member of the board of directors wishing to remain anonymous.
An internal succession
Prof. Pierre-Edouard Fournier, medical biologist, is already part of the IHU. He has in particular led the PCR testing laboratory on a large scale that the IHU had managed to set up in Marseille as soon as the Covid-19 epidemic arrived in France. Within the institute, he is part of the Vitrome team (Vectors – tropical and Mediterranean infections) which monitors infectious diseases. He is also responsible for the sequencing platforms and the biobank of the IHU.
This is under the supervision of Didier Raoult that he defended his thesis in 1999, devoted to the study of Rickettsioses, intracellular bacteria that cause typhus in particular. Given these “links” with Didier Raoult, the CHSCT of Aix-Marseille University announced on Tuesday “reprove” this choice. For the Health, Safety and Working Conditions Committee, Professor Fournier “does not mean a break in the mode of governance“and does not guarantee”a serene future in terms of scientific and medical probity“.
The University of Aix-Marseille “takes note of this appointment”
After his appointment, Aix-Marseille University “takes note of this appointment“: “we remain vigilant and the visits of the CHSCT will continue“, reacted its president Eric Berton, interviewed by AFP. “Today, there is an exceptional tool made by an extraordinary man. To replace him, it was complicated, after two years of turbulence. The IHU must regain its scientific and international credibility“, analyzed for his part another member of the Board, the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, Renaud Muselierwith AFP.
Created by Professor Raoult in 2011, the IHU had been shaken for more than two years by incessant controversies, in particular around the hyper-media figure of its director, accused of “charlatanism” by some of his peers for having promoted , without scientific validation, of a treatment of Covid with hydroxychloroquine. However, these charges had been dismissed, as had those of taking “undue risk“for patients.