In recent weeks, some regime officials have begun revealing “behind the scenes” of many mistakes made in managing the COVID-19 crisis, confirming IranTrue’s reports. Dr. Zali’s confessions created a huge backlash against the Ministry of Health and Khamenei himself. A few other officials hinted at deliberate mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic in Iran but, today, Dr. Mohammad Kariminia, Deputy Head of Islamic Republic Biological Defense Organization, in an interview, proved that regime’s mafia, corruption and kleptocracy have caused an unprecedented massacre which might worsen by Lambda variant knocking on the door.
Kariminia reiterated previous critiques that Islamic Republic downplayed the pandemic from the beginning and acted like it was another disease. “They made hospitals the pillars of fighting the pandemic, and this goes on until today!” He noted this mistake as the reason for COVID-19 to “impose itself” on Iran. He also agreed that the National COVID-19 Task Force was structured by “not using experts”, and its nationally implemented decisions have been useless.
His comment about “Iranian Sputnik V” and how Russians have “fooled” Islamic Republic officials prompted a quick denial from FDA Spokesman. Kariminia said: “They announced that Actoverco would be producing 2 million doses of Sputnik V in Iran and bragged about it! But the truth is, they produce it here and take it to Russia, it is not used in Iran. They fooled us, as Dr. Raisi had said. But why nobody tells the truth to the people? They outsourced their production to Iran.” Jahanpur immediately denied the report and said, “No Sputnik V is being produced in Iran!” However, Dr. Raisi, National COVID-19 Task Force Spokesman, had said Russians “lied to us” in a Clubhouse room, weeks ago.
Kariminia’s comments extend to “medicine mafia” in Iran. He confirmed IranTrue’s earlier reports about Saeed Namaki’s strong relations with Actoverco. In addition to the exclusive right of Sputnik V production, Actoverco also manufactures Favipiravir and Remdesivir, the two antiviral drugs which have been rejected by WHO as being effective in treating COVID-19 unless under specific circumstances. However, Saeed Namaki and his team pushed the two drugs heavily, created shortage and then increased their prices during Delta wave. Every single COVID-19 patients receives these 2 medications. However, after Namaki left his post as the Health Minister, the new government took Favipiravir off the list of covered medications.
Dr. Kariminia confirms that one of the reasons Dr. Malekzadeh resigned as the Deputy Health Minister in Research and Technology, was his feud with Namaki over efficacy of these two drugs. Malekzadeh in his resignation letter slammed Namaki for not following science and promising “empty words” about homegrown vaccines.
Kariminia in response to why vaccination in Iran has been so ineffective said: “Our vaccination prioritization has not been logical!” The Ministry of Health has vaccinated people who are not vulnerable and distributed vaccines equally to high-risk and low-risk areas.
It is worth noting, Kariminia on May 2, 2021 also strongly criticized the COVID-19 National Task Force for being extremely uncoordinated and everybody saying something different.
Delta continues its destruction and broke daily death toll records with 709 on August 24, 2021. However, the official statistics have been under scrutiny since day 1. Deputy Health Minister Harirchi admitted the real numbers are “definitely much higher”, Professor Holakoui from Tehran University believes they must be multiplied by 7, and Civil Registration Organization data indicate more than 262,000 deaths due to COVID-19 since it was “officially” announced in February 2020.
Islamic Republic’s “many mistakes” in handling the COVID-19 crisis in Iran began by lying about when it arrived at the country, not quarantining the epicenters, and continuing Mahan Air flights to China! The series of mistakes has been ongoing for more than 18 months.
Cover: Behzad Alipour
