“Tears and lamentations were seen almost in every house, especially in the first part of the visitation; for towards the latter end men’s hearts were hardened, and death was so always before their eyes, that they did not so much concern themselves for the loss of their friends, expecting that themselves should be summoned the next hour.” These words from Daniel Defoe’s ” A Journal of The Plague Year”, which we wrote about in a “Plague Reading” last year, found a new meaning as the new death statistics for the (Sep 2020 – March 2021) and the 20 weeks of March to August 6, 2021, were published, with a very long delay, by the Civil Registry Organization. Just as the businessman in Daniel Defoe’s story in the 1665 plague in London did not trust official figures, and by comparing the death tolls with previous years came closer to reality, we use the same old method today. The use of this method has even been recommended by the World Health Organization to all countries in the “Revealing the Toll of COVID-19: A Technical Package for Rapid Mortality Surveillance and Epidemic Response”, and the international body explains it: “This provides a more complete picture of impact, particularly for deaths that may be indirectly related to COVID-19.”

On Thursday, February 20, 2020, the regime confirmed the first cases of coronavirus in Iran.

The total number of deaths between March 2019 and March 2020, according to published statistics, was 395,392. Compared to 2018, this death rate shows an increase of 18,368. Between March 2020 and March 2021, the total number of deaths reached 507,511, which is 112,119 more than in 2020 timeframe and 130,487 more than 2019, when there was no COVID-19.  In the 20 weeks of March 2021 – August 2021, the first four and a half months of the current Persian year, before the start of the fifth wave, dominated by Delta variant, which has broken all previous records, the death toll rose to 199,762. By March 21, 2021, the data shows an increase of 148,855 in mortality.

The number of deaths in the first 20 weeks of the current Persian year is a monthly average of more than 40,000, which is 10,000 more compared to the first six months of the previous Persian year (March 2019 – September 2019, the period when COVID-19 did not play a role in mortality) with a monthly average of 31,000. And even without taking into account the dramatic increase in mortality due to the fifth deadly wave we are currently caught in, we see about 56,000 more deaths between March 2021 and August 2021. Since the official announcement of the coronavirus epidemic in Iran, 204,855 deaths are the end result of this simple statistical comparison. The Ministry of Health Spokesperson announced the total number of COVID-19 deaths since the epidemic began until August 6, 2021 was 93,086.

The regime has lied about the deaths of at least 111,769 people to the World Health Organization, to the people of the world and to Iranians during the 18 months of the COVID-19 epidemic in Iran, every day. 18 months of daily lying. 18 months of coverup and manipulation of numbers. 18 months of statistical engineering and daily presentation of manipulated numbers for the parliamentary elections, Fajr festival (10-day celebration of 1979 Islamic revolution anniversary), Muharram, Safar and Arbaeen (Arbain). This is no longer a “tsunami of death” contrary to what the IRIB correspondent reported from the morgue of Ghaem Hospital in Mashhad; This is a massacre; Killing of more than 200,000 Iranians by the Islamic Republic.

Translation of this post by Sahar.