Iranian Political Virus

The new data released on Friday, February 28, by the Iranian Ministry of Health, are shocking: 388 patients and 34 dead - plus 143 people over the past day.

But that is not all. Until noon this Saturday, new data: plus 205 new cases and nine deaths in 12 hours. A total of 593 cases are already amazing dynamics.

US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo at a meeting with reporters "expressed concern" about what is happening in Iran.

“The United States is extremely concerned about information that the Iranian regime has not provided vital details about the outbreak of coronavirus. According to data on Monday, Iran was second only to China in the total number of people who died as a result of coronavirus infection. All countries, including Iran, must provide true information about the coronavirus and collaborate with international aid organizations, ”said Pompeo.

Of course, no cooperation between Iran and the United States is expected: if only because for trying to transfer the most important drugs for cancer patients to Iran (they also came under sanctions), Iranian citizens received prison sentences in the United States. However, the peculiarity of the Iranian coronavirus is not only in strikingly large lethal statistics.

In no country in the world did the virus kill politicians and statesmen in such numbers as in Iran. If in Wuhan, China, the first cases were employees of the local fish market, then in Iran the largest catch of the virus is in parliament.

The first well-known case was the Iranian Deputy Minister of Health, Iraj Harirchi, who, on the eve of the announcement of his diagnosis, got caught by state television channels during a (here bitter sarcasm) press conference on the fact that coronavirus in Iran is under control and the enemy will not pass. He sweated, rubbed his forehead with a napkin and coughed so that the nearby official representative of the government, Ali Rabiya, nearly fainted, and female officials superstitiously pulled the hijab over her nose.

Having gone to home quarantine and posting vigorous selfies about his health on social networks, Harirchi has already become the hero of the Iranian comics about the heroic struggle of the Iranian people against the overseas virus (it is in the center).

View this Instagram post

‌ ✌️ # کرونا_را_شکست_میدهیم ‌ ‌ ‌ 🎨‌طراح: علیرضا ذاکری ‌

Posted by خبرگزاری فارس (@fars_news) Feb 28, 2020 at 10:59 PST

The next injured government officials were the head of the National Security Committee of the Mejlis (Iranian Parliament) Mojtaba Zulnur and Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, Quma’s representative in parliament, and the IRGC military officer. Vigorous-looking Zulnur in a white turban announced that his test for coronavirus was positive, through a video and expressed hope that he could get better, but Farahani, as the Iranian media write, even after learning that he was sick, continued to attend parliament.

Despite the fact that the first case of coronavirus infection in Iran was announced on February 19, in just a week it covered the entire Iranian political elite.

Moreover, the virus does not distinguish between political affiliations - it reached the reformists as well. The next illness was Iranian vice president of women and family affairs Masume Ebtekar, a well-known liberal politician whose son lives in the United States. In the photo in the Iranian media, she is on a hospital bed surrounded by colleagues visiting her - and all without masks. Apparently, Iranians relate to a dangerous virus more easily.

Further more. In the framework of friendship and mutual assistance, China delivered the first batch of tests for coronavirus to Iran, and the deputies were compelled to pass tests. Of the 30 parliamentarians who passed the test, four were found to have detected the virus, said Ali Vakili, a member of the parliamentary presidium. Bottom line: the parliament’s work has been stopped indefinitely, and the adoption of the budget for the next year is also postponed.

The first death of an Iranian politician: on Thursday, February 27, Sayyed Hadi Khosrovshahi, one of the founders of the Islamic Republic, the representative of Khomeini in the Ministry of Islamic Orientation, the founder of the expansion of the Islamic Republic, the founder of the Islamic Center in Rome, and the former Iranian ambassador, died of a disease caused by a coronavirus in the Vatican and Egypt.

Second: today they confirmed the death of Mohammad Ali Ramezani, a young politician who had just won the elections to the new Majlis from Gilan Province.

From the outside, it seems unbelievable that the mass defeat of the coronavirus is precisely among the political establishment.

But, perhaps, the reason is that, according to the official version, the virus was brought to Iran through the religious and pilgrimage center of the country - the mosque of Qom, and from there spread to Tehran and beyond. And the Friday sermons in the mosque of Tehran, for example, is an occupation obligatory for Iranian officials.

The Iranian Internet segment is anxiously discussing Khamenei’s latest video message, in which he looks tired and not quite healthy. His right hand almost does not move, and a tube resembling a medical device is visible next to his left, which generated a wave of speculation and concern, because Khamenei at the height of the epidemic voted at his polling station and met with a large audience. Risky enough, considering that so many ministers and deputies are sick.

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Posted by Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei (@khamenei_ir) Feb 27, 2020 at 2:49 am PST

Schools, universities of the country are closed these days. Army forces were thrown into the fight against the virus - at the Ministry of Defense’s production, by order of the army’s commander, General Ali Khatami, 20,000 liters of disinfectant are produced per day, which are treated in streets, subways, transport, schools, mosques and hospitals.

Iranian Minister of Health Said Namaki addressed the nation with a warning that the next week is the hardest to activate the virus (apparently, it means a 14-day incubation period), and asked the people of Iran to unite in the fight against the virus and be vigilant.

“The number of sick people will increase this week, as all of our laboratories now use Chinese tests to detect coronavirus. We hope that we can control this virus, ”he said.

The positive thing in Iranian history is that everyone is sick equally and rich and poor: the epidemic has swept and mobilized all sectors of society.

تیم متخصصان پزشکی چین با محموله جدید اهدای چین وارد تهران شد. pic.twitter.com/a2PdwOXiCs

And a team of doctors from China came to the aid of the brotherly people of Iran (by the way, all are masked), the Chinese ambassador to Iran, Chan Hua, said this today. So soon a new twist is possible in this story.

The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.