Two days after Islamic Republic Foreign Minister announced Russian coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V, has been “approved” and “registered” in Iran, while he was in Russia, FDA Spokesman tweeted, “Russian COVID-19 vaccine is approved for emergency use in Iran.” Many health experts and people have criticized regime’s choice. Dr. Minoo Mohraz, a member of National Task Force, called this choice “people of Iran’s bad luck.” She rebuked the vaccine as being not tested properly and none of its information being available. Dr Mohraz exclaimed, “How did FDA approve of a vaccine which doesn’t have any data available? This vaccine is not even approved for use in EU while Russia is a European country.” The infectious disease expert said, “I won’t take this vaccine.” As we have previously reported, it looks like Iranians are to become Russia’s guinea pigs.
In the meantime, Ministry of Health officials continue to blame people for the upcoming peak, even though the government has organized religious gatherings and reopened all businesses across the country. Provinces continue to report increasing number of walk-ins, cases and hospitalizations. Sima Sadat Lari described COVID-19 situation in the country as “extremely fragile.” Deputy Health Minister Harirchi said the rate of people following rules has halved in Tehran! He said, “Only 39% of capital residents are abiding by protocols.” He added, “satellite imagery shows traffic has intensified in metropolitan areas.” Harirchi added, “Some restrictions might be implemented banning travels between provinces for the upcoming holiday.” February 10 is the anniversary of Islamic Revolution which would lead to a long weekend.
Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health presented her daily undercounted and fake data. According to her, 85 more Iranians lost their lives to COVID-19 and 6,527 tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Testing remains in the same range. The decline of active cases on graphs has stopped and an uptrend has begun. In the meantime, Islamic Republic has stuck to superstition and stubbornness to rule over 83+ million people by banning proven effective coronavirus vaccines.
R0: 4.19
Total: 1,398,841 (+6,527)
Dead: 57,736 (+85)
Recovered: 1,189,975
Critical: 4,018 (-6)
Admitted: 151,130 (-70)
Tests: 9,125,076 (10.9% of the population, assuming each test was performed on 1 person)
Cover: Ahmad Zohrabi – Downtown Qom
