Luc Montagnier, 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine, for the discovery of the AIDS virus, February 12, 1997 in Paris Pierre BOUSSEL
The scientist Luc Montagnier, Nobel Prize for the discovery in the 1980s of the AIDS virus, died at the age of 89, long discredited by the scientific community following having multiplied the unfounded assertions, in particular once morest vaccines.
The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron hailed in a press release Thursday evening “the major contribution of Luc Montagnier to the fight once morest AIDS, which remains one of the great medical and scientific challenges of the 21st century”, and sent his condolences to his family and relatives.
The Elysée, returning to the genesis of his career, recalled “his pioneering work, his tireless fight” which earned him “in 2008 this supreme consecration: a Nobel Prize in medicine, shared with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi”.
The Minister of Higher Education, Frédérique Vidal, had expressed a little earlier in a press release her “emotion” in the face of this disappearance.
Luc Montagnier died on Tuesday at the American Hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, and his death was confirmed to AFP on Thursday by the city hall, which assured that it had his death certificate, following information from the Liberation newspaper.
But the news had already been running for more than 24 hours on the Internet, relayed by personalities and customary sites of false information, such as that of the online media FranceSoir.
AFP had significant difficulties in obtaining confirmation of this information. The close family of Mr. Montagnier did not communicate on his death to the main media. As for the institutions of which he had been a member, such as the Pasteur Institute or the CNRS, they might not be able to verify the announcement.
This situation testifies to the very particular stature of the scientist. Former star of French research, he had been ostracized from the scientific community for ten years by a series of aberrant positions.
“Today we salute the decisive role of Luc Montagnier in the co-discovery of HIV. A fundamental advance which will unfortunately follow several years of scientific drifts that we cannot hide”, reacted the association Aides, engaged in the fight once morest AIDS.
It was for having led the team that isolated the AIDS virus, HIV, that Mr. Montagnier won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008, alongside his collaborator Françoise Barré-Sinoussi but without the third man of this discovery, Jean-Claude Chermann.
Made in the early 1980s, when the AIDS pandemic was exploding with no hope of short-term survival for patients, this discovery was the first step that led some fifteen years later to treatments allowing to live with the disease.
However, she was the subject of a long controversy over her paternity with the team of American researcher Robert Gallo. MM. Montagnier and Gallo had finally agreed on the idea that the first had isolated the virus, but that the second had established its direct link with AIDS.
– Saluted by Didier Raoult –
This controversy heralded many others. Shortly following obtaining his Nobel Prize, Mr. Montagnier began to defend scientifically discredited theories, such as the so-called “water memory”.
The researcher also made many unfounded comments once morest vaccination, a position that gave him visibility during the Covid-19 crisis, particularly in circles skeptical regarding the seriousness of the disease or the effectiveness of vaccines. .
The first reactions to the death of Mr. Montagnier came from “vaccino-skeptical” figures such as the far-right politician Florian Philippot, at the origin of weekly demonstrations once morest the vaccine pass.
“He was dragged through the mud when he had seen right on the Covid”, declared Mr. Philippot on Wednesday on Twitter, denouncing “the strange slowness of the media” to relay the information.
Virologist Didier Raoult, himself widely discredited for his positions in favor of ineffective drug treatments once morest Covid, hailed the researcher’s “originality” and “independence” on Twitter.
He felt that they had both earned Mr. Montagnier the Nobel Prize and “the incredible hostility of his colleagues”, judging that Mr. Montagnier’s final positions had been the subject of attention ” disproportionate”.
jdy-cel / cbn
