Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, May 5, 2021—Iran is a fourth deadly peak of Covid-19. Under the mullahs’ criminal policies and mismanagement, there is no sight of the outbreak coming to heel.
Alireza Zali, head of the Tehran Covid-19 Task Force, admitted on May 3, “In the near future we will face the new Covid-19 variant and we need to accelerate the vaccination.”
However, the regime took no serious measures for the public vaccination. Many regime officials deceitfully blamed the people “who do not follow health instructions.”
Why does the regime refuse to facilitate the vaccination process, a legitimate and necessary demand of the Iranian society? Various officials including regime president Hassan Rouhani blame the U.S. sanctions or lack of refrigeration facilities as the main reason for vaccine shortage.
Back in January, the regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei openly banned the purchase of WHO-approved Covid-19 vaccines manufactured in the U.S. or the UK, which inflicted more pain and damage to the society.
“The entry of American and British Covid-19 vaccines into the country are banned. I have told this to our officials and now I am saying it publicly,” he said.
The reason for this criminal policy is clear. First, the regime used the Covid-19 as a tool to maintain power and to prevent social protests. The second reason is regime’s corrupt and looting institutions that are trying to make a profit off selling vaccines in the black market. This is in contrast to the situation in a large number of countries where governments are providing free Covid-19 vaccination to the public.
The state-run media even revealed that in some black markets in Tehran, Covid-19 vaccines are sold at 600-800 million rials (approx. $2,800).
Kianoush Jahanpour, spokesperson of regime’s Food and Drug Organization, admitted on May 2, “Four-dollar vaccines are sold at $50 and $10 vaccines are imported at $25-70.”
Jahanpour described this as “Vaccine Gate,” and said, “Many companies that import vaccines do not work in the field of vaccines at all.”
Therefore, the coronavirus escalation in Iran is not only because of its deadly characteristics, but due to the regime’s criminal policies to maintain its political and economic power.
However, the social protests in recent months have shown that the regime is not able to keep using the deadly virus as an instrument to avoid protests. And selling vaccines will also fuel the public outrage and has already turned into social anger.
