Chief of Medical Council Blames Khamenei’s Vaccine Ban for Iran’s Covid Crisis

[ad_1]

Dr Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi, chairman of the Iranian Non-Governmental Medical Council on Licensing and Regulation, on Sunday criticized Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s ban on Covid-19 vaccines made in the US and UK. His tweet came as Iran hit its highest level of daily deaths since the start of the pandemic.

“Mortality has dropped dramatically in countries where they have vaccinated the population without any limits and [political] borders, Zafarghandi wrote. Will those who said vaccine imports should be restricted be responsible today?

Zafarghandi did not directly name Khamenei, who banned the import of Covid vaccines from the United States and Britain on January 8, 2021, when the World Health Organization (WHO) had only approved British-made Pfizer and Moderna and British-made AstraZeneca vaccines. There was great reluctance in Iran, encouraged on social media, not to use the Russian Sputnik vaccine.

Zafarghandi has repeatedly urged the authorities to obtain vaccines “in any way possible and without limitation to save lives”. At a Clubhouse session on April 12, he said the best vaccines were “the fastest available.”

According to figures from Johns Hopkins University, Iran has fully vaccinated 3.4% of the population. Two neighbors with higher vaccination rates, Turkey (33.4%) and the United Arab Emirates (73%), used a mixture of Pfizer, AstraZenica, Sinovac and Sputnik. But without a ban on Western vaccines, Iraq vaccinated 1.2% and Afghanistan 0.6%.

Zafarghandi wrote in his tweet that actual Covid deaths were higher than Ministry of Health figures. The ministry announced on Monday 588 deaths for the last 24 hours, the highest daily figure since the start of the pandemic in February 2020.

In its final months, the Rouhani administration which has complied with that of Khamenei despite its disagreement with it has imported vaccines from various sources, and Iran has now vaccinated more than 12.5 million people with a dose and 3 million with two.

After the ban on Khamenei, the Iranians waited months for Chinese, Russian and local vaccines. Promises for local vaccines have yet to materialize. CovIran-Barakat has only been cleared in Iran for emergency use and, according to Food and Drug Administration spokesman Kianoush Jahanpur, is just over one in 15.6 million millions of doses administered.

Iran has so far recorded nearly 4.2 million cases and 94,000 deaths, but almost since the start of the pandemic, health experts, media and local officials said the number of ministries Health was too low. Some estimates put the actual number of deaths at 2.5 times higher. Experts say the gap between reported deaths and actual deaths is the result of insufficient testing, with many deaths from Covid never being tested.

The new government of President Ebrahim Raisi includes figures strongly opposed to the importation of vaccines. Mohammad Mokhber, appointed first vice president on August 9, critic for vaccines made in the West, is the former chief of execution of the order of Imam Khomeinis (EIKO) which produces CovIran-Barakat, the only vaccine Iranian.

Health officials have also said that part of the vaccine shortage is due to Chinese and Russian companies failing to honor their commitments to deliver Sputnik and Sinopharm vaccines.

Rights groups including Amnesty International have criticized Khameneis’ ban and said politics should not be involved in health-related decisions.

[ad_2]