What has happened to Iran? a snap shot of news
“We will witness a humanitarian catastrophe if serious measures are not taken.”
But first a word from our doctors:
I think this virus is probably with us beyond this season, beyond this year, and I think eventually the virus will find a foothold and we'll get community based transmission and you can start to think about it like seasonal flu. The only difference is we don't understand this virus
Dr. Robert Redfield
Director, CDC
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Feb. 13, 2020
This is really a global problem that’s not going to go away in a week or two.
What makes this one perhaps harder to control than SARS is that it may be possible to transmit before you are sick.
I think we should be prepared for the equivalent of a very, very bad flu season, or maybe the worst-ever flu season in modern times.
Prof. Marc Lipsitch
Prof. of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health
Head, Harvard Ctr. Communicable Disease Dynamics
Feb. 11, 2020
Hindsight is a wonderful isn’t it?
When the final history of the coronavirus epidemic of 2020 is written, it may go something like this: The disease started in China, but it became finally and irrevocably uncontained in Iran.
What’s happened in Iran?
Satellite images show Iran has built mass graves amid coronavirus outbreak
Trenches in city of Qom confirm worst fears about extent of the epidemic and the government’s subsequent cover-up
From the Guardian
Satellite images of mass graves in the city of Qom suggest Iran’s coronavirus epidemic is even more serious than the authorities are admitting.
The pictures, first published by the New York Times, show the excavation of a new section in a cemetery on the northern fringe of Iran’s holy city in late February, and two long trenches dug, of a total length of 100 yards, by the end of the month.
They confirm the worst fears about the extent of the epidemic and the government’s subsequent cover-up. On 24 February, at the time the trenches were being dug, a legislator from Qom, 75 miles (120 km) south of Tehran, accused the health ministry of lying about the scale of the outbreak, saying there had already been 50 deaths in the city, at a time when the ministry was claiming only 12 people had died from the virus nationwide.
The deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, held a press conference to “categorically deny” the allegations, but he was clearly sweating and coughing as he did so. The next day, Harirchi confirmed that he had tested positive for the Covid-19 virus.
Since then, members of Iranian parliament, the Majlis, a former diplomat and a senior adviser to the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, have died. Another Khamenei adviser and one of the most powerful voices in Iranian foreign policy, Ali Akbar Velayati, was reported on Thursday to have been infected. The top ranks of Iran’s clerical leadership are particularly vulnerable because of their advanced age.
'An absolute disaster': Iran struggles as coronavirus spreads
According to the latest health ministry figures, more than 10,000 Iranians have fallen ill from the virus and 429 have died.
Amir Afkhami, who has written a history of Iran’s experience of cholera epidemics, A Modern Contagion, said the mass graves add weight to suspicions the real mortality figures are much higher and are still being covered by the leadership.
“It doesn’t surprise me that they are now trying to create mass graves and trying to hide the actual extent of the impact of the disease,” Dr Afkhami, an associate professor at George Washington University, said.
He added that the close trading partnership between Iran and China, and the government’s fear of disrupting that partnership had contributed to the early and rapid spread of the disease.
“Because of China’s status as the country’s principal commercial partner, the Iranian government took inadequate cautionary measures to restrict and monitor travelers from China,” Dr Afkhami said. “Then, later on, Tehran’s lack of transparency and unwillingness to take robust measures such as social distancing and quarantine, particularly at the epicenter of the outbreak, helped spread the virus.”
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From Reuters- this just in:
Iran's coronavirus death toll 514 on over 1,000 new cases: state TV
A member of the medical team wears protective face mask, following the coronavirus outbreak, as he sprays disinfectant liquid to sanitise a taxi car in Tehran, Iran March 05, 2020. WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Nazanin Tabatabaee via REUTERS
DUBAI (Reuters) - The total number of deaths in Iran from the coronavirus outbreak has risen by 85 to 514, a health ministry official said on state TV on Friday, adding that the total number of infections had increased by more than 1,000 in the past 24 hours, to 11,364.
Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Kevin Liffey
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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From the Atlantic: (an extraordinary piece)
As of March 08 2020, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center, Iran has reported 6,566 COVID-19 cases, or about one in every 12,000 people in its population. The first case appeared on February 19. Right now Iran is third behind China (80,695) and South Korea (7,314), and just ahead of Italy (5,883). But the official Iranian number is almost certainly an undercount, probably due to the Iranian government’s attempt to hide a desperate situation for which it is partially responsible. When the final history of the coronavirus epidemic of 2020 is written, it may go something like this: The disease started in China, but it became finally and irrevocably uncontained in Iran. Knowing that the Iranian number is much higher than currently disclosed tells the rest of the world that the epidemic is even further along than official statistics indicate.
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From Time (which has not lost its news chops) an interesting take on US military intel.
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