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Special Features

Weekly Review of Coronavirus Disinformation in Iran: A Public Health Show

October 17, 2020
Pouyan Khoshhal
6 min read
Iran’s government concealed the coronavirus outbreak before parliamentary elections in February – since then most believe that official statistics about the scope of the epidemic have been dishonest.
Iran’s government concealed the coronavirus outbreak before parliamentary elections in February – since then most believe that official statistics about the scope of the epidemic have been dishonest.
Officials have given contradictory statements about the epidemic since it began. Now that deaths have increased their contradictory statements have also increased.
Officials have given contradictory statements about the epidemic since it began. Now that deaths have increased their contradictory statements have also increased.
Rumors, fake news and superstition about coronavirus abound and, with the lack of trust in government, many people are confused about how to handle the situation.
Rumors, fake news and superstition about coronavirus abound and, with the lack of trust in government, many people are confused about how to handle the situation.

It has been eight months since the coronavirus epidemic in Iran began. Initially, the government concealed the coronavirus outbreak in Iran in the run up to parliamentary elections in February, and since then most people believe that official statistics about the scope of the epidemic have not been forthright or honest. Throughout this eight-month period, Iranian officials have consistently made contradictory statements, and as the number of daily coronavirus deaths exceeds 250, their contradictory statements have increased as well.

With this, rumors, fake news and superstitions have proliferated, and, with the deluge of misinformation and the lack of trust in government, a large segment of the population are confused about how to handle the situation.

Over the last two weeks three plans that had been approved by the National Coronavirus Taskforce were implemented. It started with the lockdown of some businesses in Tehran and continued with the mandatory wearing of masks in Tehran beginning on October 10. Then a religious holiday presented a long weekend and traveling to and from five metropolitan areas — Tehran, Karaj, Mashhad, Isfahan and Urmia — was banned from Thursday, October 15, until midday on Sunday, October 18.

If these plans had been implemented correctly, they could have been effective in reducing transmission of the virus, as officials had claimed. However, evidence suggests the plans amounted to little more that a political show.

On October 15, five days after wearing masks became mandatory and violators were threatened with heavy fines, General Teymour Hosseini, commander of the Traffic Police, reported that nobody had been fined for not wearing a mask. He also reported that police surveillance cameras will not be used to identify violators, contrary to previous announcements. People will be fined in person, he said.

Deputy Health Minister Ali Reza Raeesi had previously announced that pedestrians not wearing masks would be identified by police cameras and would be fined. “This is exactly like when people do not use safety belts while driving,” he said. “Police camera will identify them. The same system that is used to identify people with bad hijab will be used here as well.”

The idea of controlling infected people by tracing their cellphone signals has been repeatedly raised by officials on Iranian television. However, the statements appear to be an attempt to frighten people into observing health guidelines and authorities do not seem to have a real plan, or even the capability, to follow this course of action.

Even the quarantine of five metropolitan areas has remained mostly just an idea in principle. According to information published about the traffic in and out of these cities, no authority or agency has seriously tried to enforce the quarantine. Furthermore, photographs posted on social media suggest the plan was only implemented on paper, not in practice.

On October 13, Ali Rabiei, a government spokesman, reported that every day 10,000 more coronavirus tests are being conducted across the country.

In her daily briefings, Dr. Sima Sadat Lari, the health ministry spokeswoman, announced the number of coronavirus tests conducted since the outbreak. According to her, as of October 16, the number of tests conducted in Iran stood at 4,454,570. Considering this number and comparing it to previous statistics, it appears that, on average, between 27,000 and 29,000 tests are conducted each day across the country. If what Ali Rabiei said was true, this number should have reached to between 37,000 and 39,000 per day and, in recent days, between 47,000 and 49,000. But the figures reported by Dr. Lari show that the number of tests per day still stands somewhere between 27,000 and 29,000, of which more than 4,000 have been positive.

Therefore, either the government’s spokesman had been misinformed, or he simply wanted to announce an impressive number. What is certain, however, is that as of October 16, the promise to conduct more than 10,000 tests per day has not been fulfilled.

Since summer, many people have been worried about the arrival of the cold season and the dangers of having to deal with coronavirus and influenza at the same time. A search for “flu vaccine” on the website of one of the Iranian official news agencies uncovers a range of contradictory statements by officials of the health and interior ministries – and even by doctors – about the supply of a flu vaccine.

Across the northern hemisphere, the best time to be vaccinated for flu is early to mid-September. But in Iran the “best time” depends on the changing promises of officials. At first it was promised that two million doses of flu vaccine would imported in mid-July and would be made available to the public. It was even claimed that in September and October one million doses would be produced within Iran.

Then reports started to trickle out that the distribution of the vaccine had been postponed until early September and would be made available only to high-risk groups such as the elderly and pregnant women. On September 1, Ali Rabiei, the government’s spokesman, reported that seven million doses of flu vaccine had been ordered from European countries.

Things continued in this manner and officials postponed the distribution of vaccine first to mid-September and then to late September. Nevertheless, Kianoush Jahanpour, speaking for the Food and Drug Administration, promised that 12 million doses of flu vaccine will be imported.

Then some started saying that not everybody needs to be vaccinated against flu. Even Iranian media published articles arguing that flu vaccination is not a necessity for everybody.

Nevertheless, on September 12 Abdolhossein Rouholamini, a member of parliament’s health committee, dismissed concerns about the supply of flu vaccine and said that “considering the coronavirus epidemic and the increased demand for flu vaccine a large number of doses has been procured.”

In late September it was announced that 1.5 million doses for high-risk groups had been distributed to medical workers. But after more than two weeks, some provinces had yet to receive their quotas. Then news broke that the health ministry had given preferential treatment to members of parliament by providing them with 1,500 doses of vaccine that were supposed to be used for vaccinating high-risk groups. A parliament spokesman announced that it would return the vaccine but the damage to the credibility of the health ministry was done.

The main reason behind all these contradictory statements – and we have not been able to mention all or even most of them in this report – is Iran’s disrupted relations with the international banking system due to American sanctions. Reportedly, a bank in Turkey has been unable to transfer Iranian funds to manufacturers of flu vaccine in Europe, despite claims that medical items and vaccines are exempt from sanctions.

In any case, as of now the Iranian government has not provided high-risk groups with all the doses that had been promised. What is interesting is that even now, with the shortage of vaccines, no government official is talking about made-in-Iran flu vaccines.

In her daily briefing for October 16, health ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari announced the official coronavirus statistics for the past 24 hours:

Weekly Review of Coronavirus Disinformation in Iran: A Public Health Show

Dr. Lari also reported that of the 31 Iranian provinces currently 30 provinces are still in a high state of alert:

Weekly Review of Coronavirus Disinformation in Iran: A Public Health Show

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