Islamic Republic President and head of National Corona Combating Task Force reiterated his previous speech that canceling Moharram mourning ceremonies is not an option as “people won’t tolerate it.” However, social media and local reports indicate quite the opposite, that majority of people, including some officials at Ministry of Health, reporters at newspapers and almost all health experts, unequivocally say holding Moharram gatherings would turn into an uncontrollable disaster! None of that has stopped the regime from continuous manipulation of the stats. It’s not the first or last time the regime sacrifices its people. Not too long ago, they denied the existence of the novel coronavirus in the country when people were dying from it.
Jahan San’at daily newspaper published an interview with Mohammadreza Mahboubfar, an epidemiologist and a member of the National Task Force, on Sunday August 9, in which he admits the first case of COVID-19 in Iran was diagnosed a month before it was announced but wasn’t made public for political reasons! He continues to say the stats provided by the government have been undercounted and hidden from public for economic, security and political reasons! He confirmed they’re doing it again for Moharram. The piece is titled: “The government stats are not reliable.”
Dr Minoo Mohraz, another member of National Task Force told IRNA reporter “Health protocols are not going to stop coronavirus spread in Moharram gatherings,” because it has mutated and is 10 times more potent and contagious. Mohraz added, all hospitals in Tehran and most other cities are at full capacity and ICU bed is scarce. She warned a catastrophic fall is ahead of us. It’s worth noting, Moharram starts on August 20, and its impacts would be felt Mid-September onward, right at the beginning of the flu season!
Ministry of Health Spokesperson announced 2,020 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 163 deaths in the past 24 hours. She mentioned the same 26 provinces in “red” and “alarming” categories. However, discrepancies in the stats and manipulations of data is obvious at the first glance! For example, Fars province announced 461 new cases and 15 deaths in the same time period. That means, Fars which Sima Sadat Lari mentioned in the “alarming” category and not “red”, accounted for 23% of cases and 9.2% of deaths in the country!
Graphs also indicate the engineering of data, the sudden decline in all variables, such as daily cases and deaths:
Basic Reproduction Rate (R0) and death rate remain at 1.43 and 6.1%, respectively, based on the fake data by Ministry of Health. It looks like all deaths were among critical patients or Islamic Republic has found a treatment for COVID-19 without bragging about it!
R0: 1.42
Total: 326,712 (+2,020)
Dead: 18,427 (+163)
Healed: 284,371
Critical: 4,022 (-126)
Admitted: 23,914 (-392)
Tests: 2,686,498
Cover: Sasan Rashtipour
