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Iran's Health System Reeling from Covid Surge

(New York Times) Farnaz Fassihi - In Iran, the aggressive Delta variant of the coronavirus has led to record numbers of deaths and infections. Hospital medics are triaging patients in cars parked on the roadside. Lines stretch for blocks outside pharmacies. Taxis transport corpses from hospitals to cemeteries. The official virus death toll is 500 to 600 people a day, but Iran's state television said that one Iranian dies every two minutes - at least 720 a day. Frontline doctors say the real death toll was closer to 1,000 a day. Medical personnel are furious over a dearth of vaccines, which Iran's leaders refused to purchase in time or in sufficient quantities. They banned vaccines made in the U.S. and Britain, even rejecting donations, because Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said they had been designed by the West to "contaminate other nations." When experts from the World Health Organization visited to assess Iran's needs and offer help, medical personnel were ordered to portray the country as self-sufficient and cover up real death tolls.
2021-08-16 00:00:00
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