In Iran, slow vaccinations fuel anger in unending pandemic
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Iranians are suffering through yet another surge inthe coronavirus pandemic — their country’s worst yet — and anger is growing at images of vaccinated Westerners without face masks on the internet or on TV while they remain unable to get the shots.
Iran, like much of the world, remains far behindcountries like the United States in vaccinatingits public, withonly 3 million of its more than 80 million people having received both vaccine doses. But while some countries face poverty or other challenges in obtaining vaccines, Iran has brought some of the problems on itself.
After Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khame- nei refused to accept vaccine donations from Western countries, the Islamic Republic has sought to make the shots domestically, though that process lags far behind other nations.
The supply of non-west- ern shots remains low, creating a black market offer- ing Moderna and Pfizer-bi- ontech shots for as much as $1,350 in a country where the currency, the Iranian rial, is on the verge of collapse. Meanwhile, U.S. sanctions imposed on Iran mean the cash-strapped government has limited funds to purchase vaccines abroad.
And even as the delta variant wreaks havoc, filling the country’s already over- whelmed hospitals, many Iranians have given up on wearing masks and staying at home.
The need to earn a living trumps the luxury of social distancing.
“What is next? A sixth wave? A seventh wave? When is it going to end?” asked Reza Ghasemi, a 27-year-old delivery man without a face mask, smoking a cigarette next to his motorbike on a recent day in Tehran. “It is not clear when this situation will change to a better one.”
Since the start of the pandemic, Iran has recorded nearly 4 million COVID-19 cases and more than 91,000 deaths — the highest numbers across the Middle East.
In a video message broadcast Wednesday on state TV, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the skyrocketing death toll as “very painful,” urging officials to roll out free virus tests and the fatigued public to follow health measures.
The true count is believed to be much higher. In April 2020, Iran’s parliament warned its case number was “eight to 10 times” higher than the reported figures, due to undercounting. While coronavirus testing capacity has surged since then, officials repeatedly have suggested the case count remains far off. The death toll is likely three times higher, officials say, as Iran only counts those who die in a hospital while being treated for coronavirus.