Search This Blog

Monday, February 24, 2020

Iran and the Virus

There are some very worrisome developments out of Iran today.  Iran is one of the few countries outside east Asia that has an outbreak of the corona virus.  Official figures put the number of cases at 48 and the death toll at 12.  One local official in Qom (which is the city at the center of this outbreak) says that there have been 70 deaths.  Either this guy is wrong or the Iranian government is lying about the extent of the outbreak.  Sadly, I would assume the regime is not telling the truth.

Also in Iran, the religious leader in Qom told those gathered for Friday prayers that the virus had been put in Qom by the USA.  He also went on to say that President Trump did this to get revenge for all the Americans who lost their lives at the hands of Muslims.  This is a rather blatant lie, but it plays right into the paranoia that the regime tries to promote regarding the USA.

The scariest thing about this Iranian outbreak is that Iran has nothing like the facilities and personnel in China who are combating the virus.  Nor would Iran take international help to fight the disease.  After all, how could they take help from the USA if people were infected through American actions?  Iran may well be a much more fertile place for the disease to grow and flourish than Wuhan in China.  It may, indeed, make it impossible to stop a pandemic.

No comments: