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Iran’s anti #Coronavirus actions against #WHO advice

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Iranian physicians and health workers in the APA International Medical Committee claim that the Iran regime is moving contrary to the world’s direction and WHO advice. On 4 March the spokesman for Iran’s Health Ministry declared a red alert on many of the country’s provinces and warned against resuming administrative and economic activities.

In a press release they say "On 5 March, Hassan Rouhani announced that schools would be permitted to open in so-called “white” provinces. He also set 11 April as the date when certain economic activities would resume. “Starting from next week, offices will begin to work with 2/3 of their employees, and only a third are allowed to stay at home,” Rouhani said. Over the past three months, the regime has unequivocally resisted quarantines, calling them “medieval” while promoting superstitious remedies as an alternate approach to confronting the Covid-19 pandemic.

On 4 March, Seyed Hassan Inanlou, deputy director of Health Management at Alborz University of Medical Sciences, warned, that if people pursue their ordinary livelihoods due to their financial circumstances, “The number of cases will be explosive, hospitals will be overloaded with patients, we will lose control, and won’t be able to manage the outbreak.” He also predicted that the death toll could reach a million.

Rouhani’s decision to resume social activity is cruel and reflects the entire regime’s failure to acknowledge any value for human life.

While there is worldwide concern about the peak of COVID-19 this month and many governments are asking their citizens to stay at home and shutting down the population movement to limit the transmission of coronavirus, Iranian authorities are moving in the opposite direction. This will have worrying consequences for the lives of Iranians as well the world population. The rapid rise in the number of fatalities in Iran, to at least 18,000, is a clear sign of this trend.

Physical distancing, workplace closures and encouraging the population to stay at home are necessary steps in confronting the spread of COVID-19, and the Director General of the World Health Organization has called on all governments worldwide “to put in place the social welfare measures to ensure that vulnerable people have food and otherlife essentials during this crisis.”

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Most countries have dedicated special funds to financially supporting their populations, but Iran not only has no social welfare measures in place, but has left unpaid the regular salaries of many health care workers who are at the forefront of this battle against COVID-19.

We, as Iranian physicians, have been monitoring the situation in Iran for a long time. It is clear to us and to many Iranian citizens that the current situation is not related to the sanctions imposed on the regime but stems from mismanagement, from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s refusal to spend the hundreds of billions of dollars that are under his direct control in confronting the coronavirus, and from the massive institutionalized corruption within this regime.

During this crisis, the Iranian regime clearly has no sense of responsibility for its population’s health. It is endangering their lives and wellbeing by forcing them to get back to work early, thereby putting the economic burden of the battle against COVID-19 on workers’ shoulders.

As Iranian physicians and health workers in the APA International Medical Committee, we strongly condemn Rouhani’s announcement of an early return to work, and we warn that it will both endanger the lives of the Iranian population and increasing the infection’s prevalence.

This policy could easily cost at least one million Iranian lives in Iran. Therefore, we call on the WHO and UN Secretary General to intervene and compel the regime not to implement this policy but to utilize its trillions of dollars of available funds to safeguard the health of the Iranian people without delay.

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