Luc Montagnier, Nobel laureate in medicine for the discovery of the AIDS virus, died on Tuesday (8) at the age of 89 in a hospital in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris (FRA), announced this Thursday (10) the city’s mayor, Jean-Christophe Fromantin.
The French researcher, who later became a controversial figure in the scientific community, was awarded in 2008 for the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 1983 along with his colleagues Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Jean-Claude Chermann.
However, his image has been tarnished in recent years after allegations that generated great controversy and led to his being rejected by his peers.
Since 2017, he has made several statements against vaccines and most recently reappeared talking about Covid-19. His views were refuted by the scientific community, but won the sympathy of the anti-vaccination movements.
News about Montagnier’s death had been circulating on the internet since Wednesday (9), but could not be confirmed at first, as the family did not speak to the press and the main research bodies to which he belonged said they could not confirm the information. .
This unusual lack of information surrounding such a well-known figure appeared to be a reflection of Montagnier’s recent standing in the scientific community.
“Decisive Role”
“Today we commend Luc Montagnier’s decisive role in the joint discovery of HIV,” said Aides, the French association for the fight against AIDS.
“This was a fundamental step, but unfortunately followed by several years during which he walked away from science, a fact that we cannot hide,” he added.
Montagnier made his key discovery about HIV in the early 1980s, when AIDS cases began to skyrocket and infected people had little chance of survival.
His findings laid the groundwork for treatments for the disease, launched 15 years later, that would allow people with HIV to lead near-normal lives.
The discovery was followed by a long-running dispute between Montagnier and the team of American researcher Robert Gallo over its authorship. Eventually, they agreed that the Frenchman had isolated the virus, while the American had established his direct link to AIDS.
His stances against anti-covid vaccines, while raising his public profile during the pandemic, also found little support among scientists.
The initial tributes came from fringe political and scientific figures with anti-vaccination views. Among them is the far-right politician Florian Philippot, who calls weekly protests against vaccines across France.
“They dragged him through the mud even though he was right about Covid,” Philippot said of Montagnier on Twitter.
Virologist Didier Raoult, marginalized among researchers for advocating anti-covid treatments without scientific evidence, praised Montagnier’s “originality” and “independence”.
The only immediate reaction from French President Emmanuel Macron’s government came from Research Minister Frederique Vidal, who said she was “moved” and offered condolences to the Montagnier family, not to mention her recent scientific positions.
