It would not be an exaggeration if we call the Iranian regime’s treatment of the novel coronavirus as a “death trade.” Also, we would not be wrong to describe the mullahs’ secrecy and non-transparency as “intentional homicide.” Notably, Iranian officials themselves primarily used the phrase of intentional homicide about the regime’s functions over the coronavirus crisis.
In this respect, on April 23, Chairman of the Cultural Commission of Tehran City Council Mohammad Javad Haghshenas questioned fabricated stats by the Health Ministry about the coronavirus victims. “Lack of accurate information is a form of complicity in the intentional homicide of civilians,” he said.
“Those friends who are responsible to tell people the truth, if they cannot do their job under any reason, raising words like remarks of the administration’s spokesperson is a false flag,” Haghshenas added.
Inserting A False Reason in A Death Certificate
“Today, the statistics of the coronavirus victims would be much less if [the government] had made more serious and better decisions since the first day the deadly virus was detected. In the author’s opinion, statistics are not in line with reality, and the number of patients and casualties differs and is higher. Regrettably, to keep the death toll low, the reason for the death of many coronavirus patients is registered underlying disease in the death certificate,” the state-run Setareh-e Sobh daily quoted a member of the Counter Coronavirus Headquarters Dr. Mohammad Reza Mahboubfar as saying on April 26.
With shedding light on these remarks, Mahboubfar implicitly admitted that the government easily and with unflappability is concealing the real number of victims and announcing the cause of death to be other reasons like underlying diseases.
Iranian Authorities’ Purposes for Hiding the Real Coronavirus Death Toll
However, any wise person may ask why the clerical regime insists on misleading the society and the international community over the real dimension of COVID-19 in Iran? What is the regime’s advantage from this magnitude of secrecy and misinformation while it loses reputation and gains public distrust instead? On the other hand, why do the mullahs conceal the real number while they can use this to loosen or lift U.S. sanctions?
The answer is that the coronavirus crisis is the question of “to be, or not to be” for Iran’s theocratic rule. Also, Iranian authorities see the coronavirus stats with a security view and calculatedly downplay the fatalities.
They simultaneously pursue several goals. A so-called reformist figure Abbas Abdi implicitly revealed some reasons on April 27. “Currently, the mortality ratio among the medical and hospital staff to ordinary patients in Iran is much higher than other countries, which is considered a weakness of the country’s health system,” the state-run Etemad daily quoted Abdi as saying.
“However, the high index is mainly due to the low mortality rate among citizens. Notably, Iran’s medical staff are very skilled and should not be considered weak. Medical staff would naturally avoid being in hospitals if the official death toll is correct. Therefore, the misrepresentation of statistics is problematic even for the Health Ministry. Most of all, it is dangerous for policymakers and undermines their reputation,” Abdi added.
Abdi frankly emphasized on the government’s inability and insufficient to contain the COVID-19 disease. He also unveiled that the mullahs have kept even the selfless healthcare staff who struggle with the virus in the frontlines in darkness. And this is a “dangerous” issue for the ruling system.
Based on the mullahs’ notorious record of systematic secrecy, like the ultimate number of victims of the November protests, they cannot release the real figures with honesty and transparency. Furthermore, the supreme leader Ali Khamenei and his president Hassan Rouhani predict a complete revolt against their rule if they announce the real figures. In this context, they should respond to many questions, like:
– Why did officials prioritize their economic interests by the continuation of flights of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC)-owned Mahan Airlines?
– Why did officials not quarantine hotspots, particularly Qom city, which resulted in the expansion of the pandemic across the country?
– Why did they neglect the coronavirus evidence in different cities and intentionally conceal the virus’ entry into the country since January and December according to the documents revealed from the emergency organization?
– Why they did not cancel the annual procession marking the regime’s establishment and not postpone the scheduled Parliamentary elections of February?
– And why have they resumed financial activities and lifted restrictions, particularly about the holy shrines, despite the country not yet passing the peak of the virus in many areas according to doctors and physicians?
Coronavirus; A Downward Trend in Statistics, An Upward Trend in Reality
Rouhani’s false scenario is based on the big lie that the situation in Tehran and in several provinces is ‘white’. Therefore, quarantine measures can be lifted, and businesses can be set up. They finally lifted restrictions, which caused an increase in the coronavirus rate.
The people will naturally choose their health between “life” and “bread,” if they were told the truth. This is an inherent option of a human. However, in this case, the issue of uncontrollable revolts of hungry and unemployed citizens, those whose lives depend on the streets, will come on the table, and the rulers consider this to be “dangerous.” This matter has the potential to make a “protesting super-movement,” according to the state-run Jahan-e Sanat daily on April 22.
“In Iran, a large part of the working community is employed in the construction industry. The activity of this job became nearly zero with the outbreak of Corona, and many of the workers who worked there lost their jobs. In Mazandaran province alone, according to the head of the Construction Workers’ Union, 80,000 construction workers have lost their jobs,” the state-run Sharq daily wrote on April 27.
Additionally, returning workers to their jobs threatens the health of many of these impoverished segments of the society while the country has yet to pass the coronavirus crisis and next waves of the disease are predicted.
“These days another issue has raised concerns about the health of workers in the workplaces and factories where they have started their jobs. Just a few days ago, 37 workers of Urmia Petrochemical Plant tested positive. It is said that 82 persons were tested for the coronavirus and the results of 45 percent were positive,” according to Sharq daily on the same day.
These facts indicate that the leaders basically do not care about the health of the people. According to their remarks, the mullahs have admitted endangering the lives of many citizens with high casualties to maintain their regime in power.
The rulers, particularly Rouhani, pretended the situation is white by covering up the real statistics and sudden reopening of businesses. He, in fact, misled the society and committed an intentional homicide by sending millions of the workforce to risky places.
“The challenge of the lack of face masks, which was more prevalent in the early days of the Coronavirus crisis, has now been marginalized by the removal of restrictions and the reopening of many businesses. Many people started producing homemade masks through their learned in social media and official websites. However, several citizens avoid wearing face masks because they have been persuaded that the situation has been normalized, restrictions are lifted and many businesses are resumed,” the state-run Ebtekar daily wrote on April 26.
The officials’ decision paves the way for the massacre of many unaware people. The certain outcome of this unhuman decision is an exponential increase in the number of coronavirus victims, which should be tracked and audited by international legal bodies.
Iran’s authoritarian regime would like to pass this crisis at the expense of ordinary people under the ridiculous excuse of “public immunization.” However, they are only fueling the public ire and hatred against their criminal dictatorship. This reality will become more apparent in the upcoming months and the post-coronavirus era.
Source » irannewsupdate