Letter to the President of the National Medical Association

Mr. Benoît Dejemeppe
President of the National Order of Physicians
Place de Jamblinne de Meux 34 — 35
1030 Brussels

February 13, 2022

Sir,

I was 71 years old in October 2021 when I had a serious covid that could have cost me my life according to my daughter-in-law, an oncologist at the University Hospital of Liege where I was hospitalized. I believe that you and the College of Physicians that you lead are responsible for the disastrous situation in which I found myself and for which I am still paying the consequences today through persistent fatigue. Indeed, during the first stage of the disease, those first eight days when I had a cough and fever, I had no access to any early treatment and, of course, no doctor to prescribe it. On the eighth day, what had to happen was that I was admitted to the emergency room of the University Hospital of Liege where I finally stayed for ten days to recover from excessive inflammation and pneumonia following the viral infection (one night in the emergency room and nine nights in the infectious diseases department), being treated with oxygen therapy and dexamethasone. When I returned home, I still had an oxygen concentrator for five days. I should point out that, apart from age, I had no risk factors and that, on the contrary, among other preventive measures, the arrival of this virus had encouraged me to lose the ten kilos of excess weight that I had two years ago.

I still find it hard to believe that in Belgium today, two years after the beginning of the epidemic, covid patients are still reduced to staying at home without any treatment, except for paracetamol, which only treats the symptoms and has its own set of inconveniences, as well as communicating with their doctor by phone. The majority of doctors, under your injunctions, have in fact reneged on their Hippocratic oath and, like yourself, are thus responsible for a large number of deaths, such as that of an 82-year-old friend who was in good shape — Paul Lannoye, you must know him, he was a Member of the European Parliament — and an excessive number of seriously ill patients like myself. Those who, like Dr. Alain Colignon, have remained faithful to him are under incredible pressure to fall in line (which one?) and do not have, or have difficulty in gaining access to these harmless but effective antiviral molecules such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, as shown by the many countries where they are sold over the counter and widely used.

I beg you to do your mea-culpa while there is still time (it would also be in your interest) and to receive Dr. Alain Colignon and the doctors who defend their beautiful profession in the respect of the Hippocratic oath and of which he is in fact a respectable and respected spokesman.

With my best regards,

Francis Leboutte