Iran Mid-Level Health Officials Question Official Coronavirus Figures As Death Toll Surpasses 35,800 – OpEd
By Adena Nima
Two mid-level Iranian health officials implied that the regime was covering up coronavirus figures with one saying that the real stats were 20 times higher than official figures.
An epidemiology professor at Tehran’s Medical Sciences University told a state-run daily that he believed the figures being announced by Iran’s Ministry of Health were “systematically much lower than reality”.
Massoud Yunesian said that the process used in Iran to calculate coronavirus figures result in a lower figure.
He said that one of the reasons behind the low figures was “because the test kits are not very sensitive and show only half of the cases.”
“Half of the people who are hospitalized are not tested and if we accept that only 20% of those infected are hospitalized and half of them are tested and that only half of these tests are positive, it can be said that the real figures are around 20 times higher than what is being reported,” Yunesian told Setareye Sobh daily on April 24.
He also expressed concern about the resumption of businesses in Iran.
“I am concerned about the resumption of business activities because we make decisions without the confirmed knowledge and logic to back it up. We have not provided enough practical knowledge to our experts and we have not followed the knowledge of the World Health Organization.”
In a video published yesterday, the head of the Medical Sciences University in the western province of Lorestan told state-run TV that the regime’s Supreme National Security Council and the security department of the Ministry of Health had ordered Medical Sciences Universities not to announce coronavirus figures.
Lorestan Medical Sciences University Head in W #Iran on the regime’s coverup of #COVID19 figures: Orders come from the top/matter of national security/we’ve been told not to announce figures/we’re just taking orders.
Official death toll: 5,650
Real death toll: 35,300+
“Our orders come from the top. We’re just taking orders,” Mohammadreza Nobakht said.
“The Supreme National Security Council and the security department of the Ministry of Health told us not to announce coronavirus figures. They didn’t say why,” he said adding that none of the provinces were announcing their figures.
Iran’s Ministry of Health announced today that 5,710 people had died from the virus.
This is while an opposition group that announces daily coronavirus figures said that the regime was covering up the real death toll which is a far cry from the officially announced figures.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran said today that at least 35,800 have died in 298 cities.
