Expert Says Iran’s Covid Death Toll Seven Times Higher, As The Game Of Blame Continues

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Deaths from Covid-19 are seven times the official figures, at least in part of Iran, Dr Kourosh Halakouei-Naieni, professor of epidemiology at Tehran University of Medical Sciences, told the Javan newspaper in an interview published on Monday. He criticized the health ministry for underreporting the deaths and said the pandemic was allowed to spread as well-placed individuals made financial gains.

The story’s publication in a widely recognized newspaper close to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) may reflect factional rivalries over an already politicized pandemic. While the underreporting of deaths has been suggested by medical professionals since April 2020, Javans’ story may suit the incoming administration of President Ebrahim Raisi (Raees) in blaming the government of former President Hassan Rouhani for all evils, including the extent of Covid.

Attacks against outgoing health minister Saeed Namaki have intensified in recent days. Hossein-Ali Haji-Deligani, a former high-ranking IRGC officer and diehard lawmaker, wrote to Namaki blaming him for the slow vaccination. Namaki hit back at the critics in a letter Wednesday to the families of health workers who died from Covid, writing that “those who have benefited financially from the US sanctions, which many analysts suggest the IRGC, used the acquisition of vaccines to undermine sound and ministry efforts.

But many Iranians are criticizing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for banning American and British vaccines in January for the current devastating fifth wave of Covid.

Factionalization aside, the Halakouei-Naienis figures are surprising. A sevenfold increase would put Iran’s death toll at nearly 700,000, more than the much larger United States at 625,000 and Brazil at 575,000, the highest totals in the world. Iran has reported more than 103,000 deaths and more than 4.76 million infections since February 2020. While media and local officials have long said the Ministry of Health figures based on positive test results PCR downplayed the extent of the pandemic, they estimated the actual number of deaths to be 2.5 to three times higher.

Halakouei-Naieni said he based his calculations on statistics tracking since the start of the pandemic and suggested the health ministry manipulate the data. He argued that peaks above current levels of 709 deaths were reported on Tuesday, the highest daily figure to date should be avoided by a “martial law-type lockdown” and vaccination within four or five less than 70 percent of the population, a level reached in just a dozen, mostly small, countries in the world and well above Iran’s current full vaccination rate of 5.3 per hundred. Otherwise, the economy was in great danger, he said.

Release the virus

Halakouei-Naieni told Javan that Covid was deliberately allowed to spread for financial gain. Health officials had “released the virus for the benefit of certain people” with stakes in pharmaceutical companies: “It is as if this disease insures the interests of certain people and the conflict of interest prevents planning for the containment of the coronavirus.

While allegations of corruption are a staple of Iranian policy, it has been repeatedly suggested that Khamenei’s ban on imports of vaccines made in the US and UK serves those with a financial interest. to develop a national vaccine. This, some argue, explains the ban rather than the track record of Western drug companies in testing products in developing countries.

Haji-Deliganis’ latest attack on Namaki accused him, among other sins, of ignoring Khameneis leadership, even though the ban on top leaders has slowed Iran’s response to the pandemic. Khamenei recently gave the green light to purchase Pfizer and Moderna vaccines made in the United States, lifting the ban. Covid infections and deaths have increased rapidly since early July, stretching the capacity of hospitals as families struggle to pay for drugs.

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