The death toll from COVID-19 is growing exponentially in Iran, as the fifth wave of the coronavirus has yet to reach its peak.

Given the current situation, Iran needs at least 120 million doses of reputable foreign vaccines to deal with this issue.  Mutations in the virus may necessitate the third dose of vaccination.

Alireza Sedaghat, director of the intensive care unit of Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad, in a shocking report, said: "40% of patients in Ghaem and Imam Reza hospitals die within the first 24 to 36 hours after being admitted.  Things are not good at all.  We are in a very terrible situation.  Young, old, girls, and boys are dying.  The hospital beds are all full.  The treatment team is also tired, and COVID-19 is attacking."

Regarding the official government statistics, the director of Mashhad Hospital said: "We should multiply the officially announced numbers of deaths by three and a half."  In a letter to the country's officials, 357 university professors mentioned that "the number of [coronavirus] deaths are as many as two planes every day."

Alireza Zali, head of the COVID-19 headquarters in Tehran, said: "The cost of coronavirus drugs are many times [the cost] of the COVID-19 vaccines, but they [the officials] did not allow the vaccine to be bought.  When the World Health Organization experts came to Iran, we constantly insisted on praising Iran's health system in the media instead of consulting with them.  We hid the actual death toll from the World Health Organization.  We have much worse news for the coming weeks, and things will get much worse.  The delta variant lasted three months in India; they quickly vaccinated everyone.  We spent 720 million euros on Remdesivir injection drugs, and we should have spent that money on vaccines.  How is it that we willingly pay three times as much to purchase oil-extracting equipment because of the sanctions but did not do so for the vaccines?"  (Source: Entekhab News Agency.)

Meanwhile, in a recent speech, Khamenei encouraged people to participate in religious large-crowd Ashura mourning gatherings (in which the third Shiite imam who had risen against oppression was killed, and since then, Shiites have mourned on this day.)

According to the Hamdeli newspaper, which is affiliated with the regime, "[i]t is going to create a crisis in the country."

As the regime's officials stated at the beginning of the pandemic, the Islamic Republic of Iran had the money to import the COVID-19 vaccine.  The government could even provide for the people's living expenses during the closure and quarantine amid numerous COVID-19 peaks.  Despite the availability of the necessary funds for the importation of vaccines and living expenses, the government opted to provide neither and to leave the Iranian people to fend for themselves.

Khamenei bans the importation of reputable vaccines

Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, ordered a ban on the import of vaccines from the U.S., Britain, and France.  He claims he does not trust Westerners.  But is that the valid reason for his ban, or does he have an ulterior motive?

The two nationwide uprisings in January 2017 and mid-November 2019 (that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 protesters by the security guards and many arrests) showcased the people's dissatisfaction and disgust with high unemployment, inflation, and poverty.  These uprisings and ongoing protests alarmed the regime.  To stop or postpone demonstrations and uprisings based on social unrest, Khamenei intentionally ignored the deadly role of the coronavirus and let it spread throughout Iran with no plan to stop or slow its progress.

By banning the import of COVID-19 vaccines, Khamenei wants to distract the people with the COVID-19 deaths and prevent the formation of another nationwide uprising, which will surely be the last.  It makes a lot of sense that most of the members of the COVID-19 headquarters are security and intelligence personnel, and the minister of the interior, not the minister of health, is in charge of this committee.

Khamenei is particularly afraid of the unprecedented expansion of the resistance units in Iran because the resistance units have grown and risen to unprecedented levels and have taken the lead in demonstrations and protests.  These units promote the separation of religion and state, believe in equality for men and women, and are widely welcomed by the Iranian people.  They campaigned for the recent presidential election boycott and were quite successful. According to reliable sources, less than 10% cast ballots, despite all the intimidation and fear tactics the regime employed to encourage and force people to come to voting booths and cast their votes.  In short, all signs indicate that this regime has no legitimacy among the vast majority of the Iranian people.

The recent Khuzestan uprising caused by the shortage of water attests to the fact that any shortcoming or protest would quickly be transformed into a widespread uprising.  The regime reacts by deploying its oppressive forces and cracking down on the demonstrations.

As a pro-regime newspaper noted, the skyrocketing number of COVID-19 deaths in Iran, the high number of people infected, the lack of vaccines, and the government's mismanagement and inability sow the seeds for a nationwide uprising.

Image: Pixabay, Pixabay License.

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