{"id":233583,"date":"2021-01-23T09:12:54","date_gmt":"2021-01-23T14:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=233583"},"modified":"2023-02-01T05:18:15","modified_gmt":"2023-02-01T04:18:15","slug":"while-iran-continues-to-lie-public-awareness-of-its-covid-mismanagement-grows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/news\/human-rights\/while-iran-continues-to-lie-public-awareness-of-its-covid-mismanagement-grows\/","title":{"rendered":"While Iran Continues To Lie, Public Awareness of Its COVID Mismanagement Grows"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Iran-coronavirus-crisis-23012021\"<\/p>\n

According to Iran\u2019s Health Ministry, about 60,000 of the country\u2019s citizens have so far lost their lives to the coronavirus pandemic. It is a staggering number for a population of about 82 million, and it is also a drastic underestimate. Iran\u2019s main democratic opposition group, the People\u2019s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (MEK or PMOI<\/a>), has been independently analyzing hospital and morgue records as well as eyewitness statements and has determined that the current death toll is well over 204,000<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The discrepancy between the official estimates and those provided by the MEK is partly explained by the fact that Tehran has been sowing deliberate disinformation over the pandemic since the beginning, partly in order to downplay its chronic mismanagement of the crisis and partly in order to conceal its early contributions to the rapid spread of infection. Iranian officials didn\u2019t even acknowledge that the novel coronavirus had reached Iranian soil until late February \u2013 well after staged celebrations of the regime\u2019s 40th anniversary \u2013 but documents from Iran\u2019s National Emergency Organization suggest that the first cases had already been identified before the end of 2019, leaving authorities with ample time to cancel mass public gatherings.<\/p>\n

Not only did the regime refuse to take that specific action; it also failed to follow up with widespread or appropriately enforced community lockdowns once the spread of infection had become recognizably uncontrolled. What\u2019s more, that recognition came not from federal authorities but from individual whistle-blowers including local officials in some of the hardest-hit regions like the city of Qom, who risked imprisonment by contradicting the regime\u2019s official narrative and acknowledging that they\u2019d seen dozens or hundreds of deaths while the Health Ministry was insisting there were only a few anywhere in the country.<\/p>\n

For almost a year now, the official estimate of Iranian Covid-19 deaths has been lagging far behind the actual number. At various points along the way, the Iranian regime has found it especially difficult to credibly downplay a surge in new infections and deaths, but government officials have generally maintained the same propaganda narratives in order to deny culpability for an outbreak that is, even judging by the Health Ministry\u2019s false statistics, the worst in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

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COVID-19 Claims 200,000 Victims in Iran<\/div><\/div>
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