{"id":245801,"date":"2021-08-27T07:41:01","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T12:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/?p=245801"},"modified":"2023-01-31T20:50:51","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T19:50:51","slug":"editorial-iran-coronavirus-staggering-death-toll-whos-to-blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ncr-iran.org\/en\/editorial\/editorial-iran-coronavirus-staggering-death-toll-whos-to-blame\/","title":{"rendered":"EDITORIAL: Iran, Coronavirus Staggering Death Toll: Who\u2019s To Blame?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"corona.jgp_\"<\/p>\n

The coronavirus death toll in Iran is fast approaching 400,000, according to credible independent figures.<\/p>\n

This is while, according to the Tehran University Medical Sciences department, the number of people who have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine<\/a> is less than 4% of the entire population.<\/p>\n

Iran fares worse than 100 other countries in this regard. Many hospitals, like those in Isfahan province, are over capacity, with patients literally sleeping in hallways. The situation in cemeteries is “critical and unimaginable for the fifth time in recent months,” according to the state-run Fars news agency on August 25, 2021.<\/p>\n

The horrendous situation is the result of the regime’s criminal negligence and, in fact, deliberate attempts to inflict mass casualties on a population that is ready to rise up and overthrow the theocracy. The regime is deliberately using the virus to prevent another uprising. That is why in March 2020, several months after the November 2019 uprisings<\/a>, Khamenei called the virus a “blessing” for his regime.<\/p>\n

Documents obtained by the main opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq<\/a> (MEK<\/a>) indicate that Iran\u2019s National Emergency Organization was aware of community spread within the country even before the start of 2020. Yet it was not until mid-February of that year that authorities officially acknowledged the pandemic. In the interim, the regime organized a number of public gatherings and demonstrations including celebrations of the regime\u2019s 40-year anniversary and a funeral for the eliminated Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On February 26, 2020, as the virus was rapidly spreading in Iran, the regime’s president Hassan Rouhani refused to quarantine cities and said in comments carried by state-run TV: “We do not accept quarantine.” He added that quarantine is an additional “virus” imposed by the United States. The regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei similarly downplayed the virus on March 3, 2020, saying: “In my opinion, this is not a very grave calamity. There have been bigger ones.”<\/p>\n

In a criminal order, on January 8, 2021, Khamenei strictly banned the import of American and British-made vaccines, which at the time were the only internationally recognized vaccines. American philanthropists were forced to cancel the planned delivery of over 100,000 doses to Iran.<\/p>\n

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A look back at the contradictory remarks made by Ali Khamenei and Hassan Rouhani over Covid19<\/div><\/div>
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