Iran: monster queues, symbols of the failure of the anti-Covid vaccine strategy

Published on : 07/16/2021 – 14:22

In Iran, a country of 82 million people, vaccination figures are currently extremely low: 4.7 million people have received their first dose, and only 2.2 million Iranians have fully completed their journey. vaccine. This is because only Iranians over 60 are eligible for vaccination.

But despite the fact that vaccination is open to the elderly, obtaining a dose remains an obstacle course for those over 60, as evidenced by several videos of long queues in front of health centers.

Many Iranians, mostly young people from the middle class who are not yet eligible for vaccination, go abroad to be vaccinated: in Dubai but especially in Armenia, a neighboring country, where it is easy to get from Iran either by plane or car.

According to official statistics, 86,000 Iranians have lost their lives due to Covid-19 and the country has been severely affected by the fifth wave with the Delta variant in particular. But these figures would be, according to several experts, largely underestimated.

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While the Iranian authorities have promised, since last December, a vast campaign with homemade vaccines, almost all the vaccines available so far are imported: Russian Sputnik, Chinese Sinopharm and Sinovac or some Indian variants of Astra Zeneca.

However, available stocks were not sufficient to meet demand. On July 10, Iranian Minister of Health Saeed Namaki said: “From tomorrow we will inject 400,000 vaccines every day”. But in fact, according to Iranian media reports, around 51,000 doses have been injected daily since that date.

“Vaccination has become a political and economic power struggle in Iran”

The editorial staff of France 24 Observers spoke with Dr Hadi Yazdani, a doctor based in Shiraz, central Iran. He explains why Iran lacks vaccines:

There are different factors involved in the immunization crisis in Iran.

On the one hand, there is a general problem: a limited number of vaccines in the world, and countries like India, China and Russia which had promised vaccines to Iran, ultimately refused to sell it. additional doses.

The Islamic Republic has never tried to establish a “normal” relationship with trading partners, and in times of crisis like this, it could not ask for any favors.

But the main problem lies elsewhere: Some powerful and well-connected parties have succeeded in convincing political leaders that we don’t need foreign vaccines and have almost blocked the purchase of foreign vaccines in quantity. They even managed to convince the Iranian Supreme Leader: in a short speech in January 2021, Ali Khamenei banned American, British and even French “western vaccines”. [NDLR :  la France développe un vaccin Sanofi-GSK pas encore commercialisé,]

Eighteen different Iranian companies have submitted their vaccine licenses. If we look more closely, only two or three of these companies are scientific, the others were selected only because they belong to political factions close to the power in Iran. The most important among these groups is the “Executive Headquarters of Imam’s Directive”, known as “Setad”, which manufactures the vaccine “COVIran Barakat.

Setad is one of the most powerful and wealthy semi-governmental bodies in Iran. Created in 1989 by Rouhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, it is today directly controlled by the current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Setad’s assets are estimated to be around $ 95 billion. Former United States President Donald Trump implemented sanctions against this body in June 2019.

Setad had promised more than 50 million “COVIran Barakat” vaccines, but so far none have been issued.

“Everything they gave people are just words”

Dr Hadi Yazdani continues:

Vaccination has become a political and economic power struggle in Iran. These organizations have indeed discovered that the Covid-19 vaccination is something that involves multiple doses and potentially boosters, and therefore they see it as a huge source of money. So they tried to inject a dose of nationalism into the vaccine campaign just to line their pockets.

So far all they have given people are just words. We have not seen any vaccines and there is no data available to verify the effectiveness of these vaccines made in Iran. And while these vaccines do work and are effective, there are serious questions about Iran’s ability to produce them in industrial quantities.

Because of this vaccination policy, or rather the lack of a policy, we are already experiencing the fifth wave of Covid-19 in Iran.

“These queues to cross the border with Armenia, I think it’s humiliating for Iran”

There are currently no statistics on the number of Iranians who have gone to Dubai or Armenia to be vaccinated. However, the Iranian Customs Office announced on July 10 “that in the last 48 hours 1,800 Iranians have passed the border checkpoint between the two countries”.

Dr Hadi Yazdani adds:

These are normal people who feel alone in the face of multiple deadly waves of Covid-19 and have no hope of getting vaccinated in their country. They are trying to find a vaccine wherever they can. Armenia is one of them, it’s a neighboring country, it’s not expensive and they have enough doses.

These queues to cross the border and get vaccinated there, in a nutshell, I think it’s humiliating for Iran. As an Iranian, when I see that our government is unable to exercise its fundamental responsibilities of ensuring the mental and physical health and safety of its citizens, I only feel ashamed.

On July 7, Artashes Tumanyan, Armenia’s Ambassador to Iran, announced that vaccination will be free in Armenia. However, only travelers staying more than 10 days in the country will be able to receive the vaccine.