France’s Nobel winner for co-discovery of HIV virus, Luc Montagnier is dead.
Gatekeepers News reports that French scientist Luc Montagnier, who won the Nobel prize for medicine for his co-discovery of the HIV that causes AIDS, has died aged 89.
Mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine northwest of the centre of Paris, Jean-Christophe Fromantin told AFP that Montagnier died on Tuesday, adding that he was in possession of the death certificate.
The deceased shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with his colleague Francoise Barre-Sinoussi for their “discovery of human immunodeficiency virus” (HIV), which causes AIDS.
However, Montagnier was sidelined by the scientific community in later years as he took up positions judged to be increasingly outlandish, notably against vaccines.
His outcast status only increased during the COVID-19 pandemic when he claimed the virus was laboratory-made, adding that the vaccines were responsible for the appearance of variants.
Although reports of his death had been circulating online over the previous 24 hours, AFP was not immediately able to get them confirmed as his family did not speak to major news organisations, while the main research bodies he belonged to also said they were unable to confirm his death.
Many attributed this unusual lack of information surrounding such a well-known figure to be a reflection of his recent standing in the scientific community.
Montagnier, who was a former star among French researchers, had lost their support over the past decade over positions they felt they could not share.
However, the anti-AIDS association Aides in a statement said, “Today we praise the decisive role of Luc Montagnier in the joint discovery of HIV.
“This was a fundamental step forward, but one which was sadly followed by several years during which he drifted away from science, a fact we cannot conceal,” it said.
In the early 1980s, Montagnier made his key HIV discovery when AIDS cases began to soar and infected people had little chance of survival.
His findings to be launched 15 years later, laid the groundwork for AIDS treatments, which allow patients to live near-normal lives despite the illness.
