One Rule for Senior Officials, Another for Students

The head of Tehran University of Medical Sciences has complained that President Rouhani has not done enough to thank medical staff dealing with the capital’s coronavirus crisis. 

On September 13, Abas Ali Karimi expressed dissatisfaction with Rouhani’s official reopening of universities and institutes of higher education on September 5, which was done online. “It would have been great and very appropriate if Mr. President would have come among us here and spoken a few words of thanks to health workers and medical staff,” he said. “We are not at the end of the road and we have long days and months ahead of us, so perhaps this would have reenergized us a little bit.”

But health minister Saeed Namaki defended Rouhani. “The president has always been enthusiastic about joining gatherings of university people but it was not possible because of our pressure to follow health protocols to safeguard government officials.”

Karimi was not alone in challenging the way Iran’s senior officials were handling health protocols and reopenings. Many people pointed out that President Rouhani had reopened schools and universities remotely, that the Supreme Leader had held a one-man mourning ceremony for the martyrdom of Imam Hossein and yet, Rouhani had insisted that pupils return to the classroom in person and encouraged people to organize mourning ceremonies “passionately.” People wanted to know: Do the lives and the health of government officials take priority over the lives and the health of students?

Regarding the occasion of universities reopening, Dr. Sima Sadat Lari, who is both the health ministry spokeswoman and the Deputy Minister for Cultural and Student Affairs, warned that the reopenings did not mean the pandemic emergency situation was over. All educational services must be made available while following health protocols, she said.

The cold season is not long-off. Officials had promised that by August a flu vaccine would be made available on a vast scale, but this has been postponed for weeks. Many people have expressed concern about how the flu vaccine will be distributed amid rumors that it will be rationed.

On September 8, member of the National Coronavirus Taskforce Masoud Mardani claimed that the health ministry had ordered the flu vaccine, that it had been imported and “would be made available to individuals at risk as soon as possible.” He said that a domestically-made flu vaccine had not been produced on a mass scale and that people should not expect such a product to be on the market this year. “It will take a year for all phases of animal and human testing,” he said. 

Many of the symptoms of flu are similar to coronavirus symptoms and, for this reason, international health organizations advise flu vaccination as a way of preventing confusion and wasting resources on diagnosis. But Dr. Mohsen Zahraei, an official with the Iranian health ministry in charge of vaccinations, downplayed the effectiveness of this advice. “First and foremost, the flu vaccine is very specialized and does nothing to prevent Covid-19,” he said. “Second, even in the best of situations, the flu vaccine is only between 60 and 70 percent effective. As a result, even if everybody receives the flu vaccine, they will not be 100 percent protected against flu. More attention must be paid to preventive measures such as using masks and regular washing of hands.” 

Provinces Round-up

Currently, in the province of Mazandaran, 647 patients with coronavirus symptoms are in hospitals run by the Mazandaran and Babol universities of medical sciences. Health officials have expressed worries that the arrival of autumn will usher in a third wave of coronavirus.

In the last 48 hours, 47 new coronavirus patients were hospitalized in Qazvin province, bringing the current total of hospitalizations in the province to 328, reported Peyman Namdar, president of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences. Of this number, he said, 64 are in ICUs.

Alborz province is in a yellow state of alert, not red or orange. However, news from the last few days suggests the situation could change. On September 12 and 13, 553 outpatients with coronavirus symptoms attended medical centers in the province, and 84 of them were hospitalized because they were in a critical condition, reported Dr. Mohammad Fathi, president of Alborz University of Medical Sciences. In the last 24 hours, he added, six Covid-19 patients died, bringing the total coronavirus death toll in the province since the outbreak to 1,015. Currently, he said, 433 patients with coronavirus symptoms are hospitalized across the province.

In her daily briefing for September 13, the health ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari said that currently 13 provinces are in a red state of alert and 16 provinces are in an orange state.

In recent weeks, the three provinces of North Khorasan, Semnan and Isfahan have had the highest number of Covid-19 fatalities.

“There are no ‘green’ — meaning free of coronavirus — zones in Iran,” announced Dr. Lari. “The highest rate of compliance with health protocols, 82.8 percent, can be found at government offices, while the lowest rate of compliance exists at shopping centers, with 38.1 percent and at bakeries, at 44.03 percent. According to the latest figures, 75.5 percent of people wear masks in public places.”

Dr. Lari also announced the official coronavirus statistics for the last 24 hours:

This is part of IranWire's coronavirus chronology. Read the full chronology