Mohammadreza Bahonar, a close confidant of Raisi administration and a long-time member of Islamic Consultative Assembly, admitted the Islamic Republic leaders have thought COVID-19 was a hoax and its vaccines were “conspiracy” to spy on Iran, just like Khamenei insisted and banned the US and UK made vaccines in January. He added, “we thought we could make vaccines ourselves, but well, it didn’t happen and had to import!” He blamed the sanctions for the delay in importing, but contradicted himself immediately by saying “Red Crescent Society is exempt from sanctions and that’s how we were successful in purchasing (vaccines).” He failed to mention Khamenei promoted the COVIran Barekat -“developed” by his own foundation and paid billions of dollars- which failed miserably, and the previous “administration” did not use the Red Cresent because IRGC was swallowing the budget! The corruption of the regime and its leader led to massacre of thousands of Iranians losing their lives during the Delta wave.
In the meantime, the Islamic Republic Health Minister made another false claim! He wrongfully asserted that since he has taken office, Iran has surpassed all “American (in continent) and European” countries. A simple research shows, not only that is not true, but also the majority of shots in Iran are by the ineffective Sinopharm, which WHO recommends 3 dose for “full vaccination!”
According to official data, since February 9, only 48,926,450 (58.24% of Iran population) have received 2 doses of these vaccines. While new studies have shown 3 doses of Pfizer may be needed to neutralize Omicron, merely 1,971,229 (2.34% of population) have been administered 3 shots. The delay between shots have been so long that health experts warn the immunity may wane and everybody may need to start from scratch! Despite all the warnings and concerns about Omicron and the low vaccination rate, Islamic Republic has reopened all schools, universities and businesses.
In addition to the uncertain future of COVID-19 in Iran, air pollution in metropolitan areas, especially Tehran, has exacerbated over the past few days. The air quality is considered dangerous for all age ranges and as reported before, poor air quality increases the risk of contracting coronavirus and possibly more severe COVID-19.
The Ministry of Health Spokesperson claimed 78 have died of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours and 3,228 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Professor of Epidemiology at Tehran University believes these numbers must be multiplied by 7 and Civil Registration Organization data show more than 313,000 have died of the disease since February 2020. Graphs illustrate the ongoing crisis in Iran and forming of the new wave.
R0: 1.86
Total: 6,147,872 (+3,228)
Dead: 130,524 (+78)
Recovered: 5,950,425
Critical: 3,169 (-16)
Active Cases: 66,923 (-3,808)
Total Tests: 39,739,512
Cover: Maryam Kamyab
