{"id":218445,"date":"2020-05-18T17:34:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T16:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=218445"},"modified":"2023-01-23T23:20:27","modified_gmt":"2023-01-23T22:20:27","slug":"increasingly-obvious-contradictions-in-iran-regimes-pandemic-narrative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/human-rights\/increasingly-obvious-contradictions-in-iran-regimes-pandemic-narrative\/","title":{"rendered":"Increasingly Obvious Contradictions in Iran Regime\u2019s Pandemic Narrative"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_218446\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-218446\" style=\"width: 800px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Iran-Prisoners-are-in-dangerous-situation-due-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-in-prisons\" class=\"size-full wp-image-218446\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Iran-Prisoners-are-in-dangerous-situation-due-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-in-prisons.jpg\" alt=\"Increasingly Obvious Contradictions in Iran regime\u2019s Pandemic Narrative \" width=\"800\" height=\"525\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Iran-Prisoners-are-in-dangerous-situation-due-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-in-prisons.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Iran-Prisoners-are-in-dangerous-situation-due-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-in-prisons-300x197.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Iran-Prisoners-are-in-dangerous-situation-due-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-in-prisons-768x504.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Iran-Prisoners-are-in-dangerous-situation-due-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-in-prisons-696x457.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Iran-Prisoners-are-in-dangerous-situation-due-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-in-prisons-640x420.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Iran-Prisoners-are-in-dangerous-situation-due-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-in-prisons-741x486.jpg 741w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-218446\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Iran: Prisoners are in dangerous situation due to the coronavirus outbreak in prisons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">This past week, Iranian<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0regime\u2019s\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">President Hassan Rouhani admitted that in one of his\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">regime\u2019s<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0prisons, 120 inmates were\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">unwittingly\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">exposed to the novel coronavirus via a newly introduced prisoner,\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">leading to<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0100 of them\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">testing<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0positive for <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/iran-coronavirus-update-over-42600-deaths-may-18-2020-600-pm-cest\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">C<\/a><\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">OVID<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">-19. This revelation came several weeks after the\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">mullahs\u2019<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0judiciary began\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">claiming<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0that it was releasing prisoners on furlough and taking other measures to reduce the spread of the disease.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The disparity between these claims and the relevant outcomes is a clear sign of the Iranian regime\u2019s ineptitude in managing this crisis. It is also very likely indicative of the deceptions that have predominated Tehran\u2019s public discussion of the situation. Rouhani\u2019s acknowledgement of mass infection was a rare example of candor,\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">especially\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">considering that he and other officials have spent the past three months largely denying that C<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">OVID<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">-19 was a serious problem in\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Iran.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">At least in state<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">-run<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0media, optimism<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0is the general tone of public statements even now that the Health Ministry has announced that the death toll exceeds 7,000.\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The total number of confirmed cases is well over 100,000,<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0and<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0according to the regime,<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0the country recorded a surge of 2,102 new cases\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">last<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0Thursday alone.\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">This roughly coincided with the one-month anniversary of Iran<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0regime<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u2019s first steps toward reopening its economy. And there is no sign of\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">regime\u2019s<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0officials scaling back those efforts now that the consequences are becoming apparent.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">But in fairness to the regime,\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">one might argue that its optimism is somewhat justified when the official infection rates and death toll are compared to those that have been reported in the US and in parts of Europe. However,\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">regime\u2019s<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0official figures<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, beside their\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">emptiness, are<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0objectively cause for concern when they involve a country of 83 million people with high levels of poverty and a poor track record on healthcare outcomes. Those conditions underscore the threat posed by Iran\u2019s abandonment of social distancing measures, as well as the government\u2019s refusal to provide meaningful aid to its people.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/pmoi-mek\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI\/MEK)<\/a> announced on Sunday that so far <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/ncri-statements\/iran-coronavirus-death-toll-in-319-cities-exceeds-42400\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">over 42,000<\/a> people have lost their lives due to the coronavirus outbreak.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The threat is made\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">all the more<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0apparent when one considers that\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">regime\u2019s<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0optimistic narrative about the outbreak is, by all accounts, wildly out of step with reality. The official infection rate, though serious in its own right, does not appear to match the anecdotal evidence provided by many eyewitnesses to the situation in Iranian hospitals.\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Doctors and nurses have reported losing dozens of patients per day in individual hospitals. Morgue attendants have exposed the severe overcrowding of their facilities, while satellite imagery has revealed that tens of thousands of new graves are being excavated in cemeteries on the outskirts of major cities.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Iranian regime has put considerable effort into suppressing these kinds of information. The head of the\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">regime\u2019s\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">national police force recently announced that at least 320 people were facing prosecution for supposedly spreading \u201crumors\u201d about the coronavirus outbreak. The population had been warned about this possibility much earlier, with the judiciary announcing in early March that the crime of contradicting state media on this topic would be punished with up to three years in prison, plus flogging.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">That<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0announcement came barely two weeks after Iranian<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">regime\u2019s<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0officials first admitted that people were dying from Covid-19 in\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Iran<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. It also coincided with the news that a local official in the city of Qom had taken the rare step of countering state propaganda by reporting that 50 people had died in his locality before the regime would even acknowledge a dozen fatalities nationwide.\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The early threats and the early under-reporting both demonstrate that disinformation has been a top priority for the regime in dealing with this crisis. In fact, it now appears that\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">regime\u2019s\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">authorities settled on that priority long before acknowledging that the pandemic had affected them.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In March, the National Council of Resistance of Iran released documents prepared by Iran\u2019s National Emergency Organization which showed that the first instances of coronavirus infection were recorded no later than the last week of January, nearly a full month before a February 19 statement that claimed the country had just seen its first Covid-19 deaths. Even after issuing that statement, officials continued to brush off the pandemic as a conspiracy of \u201cpsychological warfare\u201d by Tehran\u2019s foreign enemies. And although the regime cannot realistically deny that the outbreak is a serious problem today, this effort to deflect blame has continued unabated.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Now, the strategy tends to focus less on blaming the US and its allies for undue panic as on blaming US sanctions for any and all problems that the regime has encountered in addressing the crisis.\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Rouhani continue to promote that message last week, after having previously\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">bogusly claimed<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0that Iran is full of empty ICU beds and is handling the pandemic more effectively than much of the West. He even went so far as to use these claims to justify the regime\u2019s rejection of medical aid offers from the White House and Doctors Without Borders.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">By simultaneously praising\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">regime\u2019s<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0coronavirus response and blaming the West for\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">the<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0bad outcomes,\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">regime\u2019s\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">officials are demonstrating the same kind of contradiction that is evident in their remarks on the prison situation. It simply makes no sense to say that Iran is taking measures to limit outbreaks within\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">its criminal justice system, then turn right around and admit that 100 inmates were infected in a single incident.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">These self-contradictory narratives cannot be taken seriously, and they only cast further doubt on everything that the Iranian regime says about the current national crisis, as well as any other topic that may be embarrassing to the leadership. Naturally, critics of that regime have already been extremely skeptical of its official statistics and other unsourced claims. But even some of those critics are surely unclear on the full extent of Tehran\u2019s disinformation.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Fortunately, organizations like the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/ncr-iran.org\/en\/alternative\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NCRI<\/a> have been on hand to trace the ravages of Covid-19 in Iran, and to derive alternate casualty estimates from hospital records, suppressed eyewitness testimony, and more.\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">As it was mentioned before, the<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0country\u2019s leading coalition of democratic Resistance<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, particularly the <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/pmoi-mek\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MEK<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">now estimates that roughly 42,000 Iranians have lost their lives in a pandemic that has been largely ignored and covered up by government authorities.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">These higher estimates stand alongside\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">regime\u2019s<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0obvious disinformation as grounds for international intervention to help prevent further acceleration of the mortality rate in the wake of\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">the regime\u2019s<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u00a0full economic re-opening. If nothing else, allies of the United States should joint in a campaign of \u201cmaximum pressure,\u201d through targeted sanctions and diplomatic isolation, to compel\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">the regime to start being honest with people, and to adopt policies that prioritize the public welfare over the mullahs\u2019 reputations.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This past week, Iranian&nbsp;regime&rsquo;s&nbsp;President Hassan Rouhani admitted that in one of his&nbsp;regime&rsquo;s&nbsp;prisons, 120 inmates were&nbsp;unwittingly&nbsp;exposed to the novel coronavirus via a newly introduced prisoner,&nbsp;leading to&nbsp;100 of them&nbsp;testing&nbsp;positive for COVID-19. This [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":218446,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[186],"class_list":{"0":"post-218445","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-human-rights","8":"tag-coronavirus"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Increasingly Obvious Contradictions in Iran Regime\u2019s Pandemic Narrative - NCRI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This past week, Iranian\u00a0regime\u2019s\u00a0President Hassan Rouhani admitted that in one of his\u00a0regime\u2019s\u00a0prisons, 120 inmates were\u00a0unwittingly\u00a0exposed to the novel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/human-rights\/increasingly-obvious-contradictions-in-iran-regimes-pandemic-narrative\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Increasingly Obvious Contradictions in Iran Regime\u2019s Pandemic Narrative - 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