Iran's coronavirus response shows where the regime's priorities lie

Despite the Iranian leadership’s misplaced values and egregious actions, the international community continues to turn a blind eye to blatant humanitarian abuses of the regime.

By NOAH PHILLIPS
A volunteer from Basij forces sprays disinfectant as he sanitizes a bus station, amid coronavirus disease fears, in Tehran, Iran (photo credit: WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY)/ALI KHARA VIA REUTERS)
A volunteer from Basij forces sprays disinfectant as he sanitizes a bus station, amid coronavirus disease fears, in Tehran, Iran
(photo credit: WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY)/ALI KHARA VIA REUTERS)
As the world confronts the COVID-19 pandemic, this modern-day plague has caught the world off-guard. As of this writing, the coronavirus has infected more than 650,000 people globally and resulted in 30,000 deaths, while an unending series of restrictive, precautionary measures are undertaken by nations to limit further spread.
The pandemic has overwhelmed and alarmed politicians, media outlets, financial institutions, and the general populace such that a crucial narrative is being obscured: The mass outbreak in Iran is dooming an already damned quality of life. Iran faces one of the worst outbreaks globally with over 30,000 confirmed cases and nearly 3,000 deaths, statistics undoubtedly deflated with the regime’s nonexistent transparency measures.
Assuming Iran holds the global mortality rate of COVID-19 estimated at 4.5%, we can roughly decipher nearly 70,000 cases in Iran alone. Among those already infected are Iran’s senior vice president, members of the Iranian parliament, and officials of the Health Ministry. Hassan Nasrallah, the infamous head of Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah is also suspected to have contracted the virus along with members of his inner circle. An estimated millions of Iranians are at risk from this mostly silenced outbreak.
Friday, tragic news broke of the widespread ingestion of toxic methanol in Iran as an at-home “remedy” for the coronavirus - an idea that spread (ironically) with virulence across Iranian social media amid public distrust of the government’s handling of the crisis and desperation for possible treatment. Iranian media reports that over 1,000 have fallen ill as a result of the ill-informed, do-it-yourself cure and nearly 300 have died.
The spread of the virus, particularly in the urban capital province of Tehran, continues to cripple the weak Iranian economy, still reeling from reimposed United States sanctions coupled with a leadership supremely uninterested in the welfare of the populace. Worse, in the city of Qom, Iranian military personnel dig and prepare mass graves so large they are viewable by satellite imagery.
"What these sobering images reflect, as far as I can tell, is the very sad situation where local authorities have had to take the unusual step of digging a trench of graves at the Behesht-e Masoumeh Cemetery in order to give the many who are dying a timely burial,” wrote Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, founder of Bourse & Bazaar.
Ali Reza Zali, the organizer of the regime’s response to the outbreak, admitted on state-run media, “If the trend continues, there will not be enough capacity” in health facilities to care for the ill - a rare and consequential public caution as to the severity of the crisis in Iran.
Nonetheless, the regime continues business as usual, even as the population suffers unimaginable hardships and fatalities. Hezbollah still barrages US military targets abroad in Iraq on Iran’s dime, escalating international warfare and expending Iranian resources at a time when the regime won’t invest in additional hospital beds. And once again, Iran turned away IAEA nuclear inspectors at the beginning of March, as the state’s uranium enrichment program chugs onwards.
Sadly, the regime favors prized military activities over building out the health infrastructure and availability of treatment for millions of potentially-exposed Iranians living under weak economic conditions. Iranian citizens face untold public health concerns while the Ayatollah pursues a power grab for regional dominance.
Despite the Iranian leadership’s misplaced values and egregious actions, the international community continues to turn a blind eye to blatant humanitarian abuses of the regime.
A 2020 United Nations Human Rights Council report praises the theocratic regime’s support for human rights and concerns of equality: “For the Islamic Republic of Iran, human rights were part and parcel of its rationality with deep roots in Islam.”
This astonishing statement misses the mark completely as the Iranian regime covers up the true reality of human suffering and lack of adequate health care infrastructure for its people, a fact that many in the international diplomatic sphere refuse to confront publicly.
The writer is a columnist, and fellow at the Haym Salomon Center. He has been published in the Daily Wire, Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, Jewish News Syndicate, Algemeiner Journal, and more. He is also founder and editor-in-chief of the Jewish Examiner. Follow him on Twitter @noahaphilli.