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Missteps by the Iranian government and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in containing the COVID-19 pandemic are becoming widely apparent following the latest peak in cases.
Iran has officially recorded more than 5.4 million COVID-19 cases and almost 119,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, the Iranian government said in its latest update on September 21, and it can be assumed from average daily death rates that the toll has since surpassed 120,000.
More than 30 million people have received a first vaccine dose and 14.1 million people have been fully inoculated in Iran, a country of about 83 million.
Health authorities acknowledge the official figures underestimate the country’s real toll.
The BBC in August 2020 found that the government’s own records appear to show almost 42,000 people died with COVID-19 symptoms up to July 20, versus 14,405 reported by its Health Ministry.
Even domestic news outlets, including the daily Javan, which is close to the regime, have published figures up to three times that of official numbers.
Healthcare workers themselves have confirmed that they were ordered to lie about the cause of death for COVID-19 victims.
“Provincial security officials have told us to write down other terms such as ‘respiratory problems’ or ‘lung disease’, or an underlying condition for previously sick patients, as the cause of death on the death certificate,” said Dr. Zahra Shojapour, a physician in Khorasan province.
Corruption
Iran’s coronavirus response suffered numerous missteps from the get-go.
After an initial period of denial in response to the first cases in February 2020, Iranian leader Ali Khamenei tasked the IRGC with “managing the crisis”.
In January this year, Khamenei announced a ban on the import of “Western vaccines”, namely American, British and French vaccines.
Tehran also refused a US offer of help for COVID-19 test kits and other medical equipment and medicine.
Khamenei justified his ban with the conspiracy theory that the United States and the United Kingdom could not be trusted and they might intend to test their newly developed vaccines on Iranians.
Source: Almashareq
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