With health experts predicting that a sixth wave of Covid-19 infections is imminent, the rising death toll due to the pandemic begs the question to just how effective the Iranian regime’s domestic vaccine is.
On October 17, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) has revealed that over 458,700 people have died as a result of contracting the Covid-19 virus. The same day, engineered statistics from the regime put the death toll at 125,000, in an attempt to minimize just how serious the pandemic in Iran is. So far, the total number of people currently infected with the coronavirus is fast approaching six million.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) said, “The current situation is due to the regime’s inhumane policies and practices, with the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei directly leading this inhumane Covid-19 policy and actions.”
In January of this year, Khamenei made the decision to ban imports of Covid-19 vaccines from Western countries, preferring instead to produce and endorse domestic alternatives. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), these domestically-produced vaccines have been proven to be less effective than the reputable foreign vaccines, and there has been a lack of proper testing done on them. This therefore explains the failure rate of Iran’s vaccines in protecting Iranians against the virus, as well as the emergence of severe side effects across the country.
In an article published in the Hamdeli daily on Wednesday, health expert Mohammad Reza Mahboubfar acknowledged that in response to the reports of severe side effects, the COVIran Barakat vaccine has stopped being administered, and the entire production project has been dismantled due to the Iranian people lacking trust in its efficacy.
The NCRI said, “That efficacy had been in question since the earliest stages of the project in question, yet with the regime still enforcing Khamenei’s ban on foreign imports, the decision was nonetheless made to fast-track production of 50 million doses within the first half of 2021.”
In actuality, the regime was unable to produce as many vaccines as they expected, and had to resort, on at least one occasion, to loosen the import ban enforcement to make up for their shortcomings. The only reason why the regime pushed for the domestic vaccine is because the Barakat vaccine was produced by the Barakat Pharmaceuticals Holding Company, an affiliation of the Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order (EIKO) which is under the control of the regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.
As the Barakat vaccine has been deemed ineffective, Iranian citizens are desperately in need of the access to imported foreign vaccines, and until this is established, the already low vaccination rates in Iran will only get worse, and spark further infection waves.
The regime previously claimed that US sanctions were to blame for the ban of vaccine imports from abroad. Even prior to Khamenei announcing the first ban on imports, the US Treasury Department had already provided Iran with licenses to purchase vaccines from any country.
The NCRI said, “Such statements underscore the fact that if not for its regime’s policies, Iran could have responded much more quickly and effectively to the public health crisis. And judging by the numbers furnished by the MEK, doing so could have most likely saved tens of thousands of lives since the start of this year.”
