Doctors, nurses died as Iran ignored virus concerns

CAIRO (AP):

They are regarded as heroes, their fallen colleagues as martyrs. But for doctors and nurses still dealing with Iran’s growing number of coronavirus infections, such praise rings hollow.

While crippling sanctions imposed by the US left Iran ill-equipped to deal with the fast-moving virus, some medical professionals say government and religious leaders bear the brunt of the blame for allowing the virus to spread – and for hiding how much it had spread.

Those medical workers say they were defenceless to handle the contagion. During the first 90 days of the outbreak alone, at least one medical staffer died each day and dozens became infected.

“We are heading fast towards a disaster,” said an Isfahan doctor who has been tirelessly giving initial exams to dozens of suspected coronavirus patients.

It is no secret that Iran has been hit hard by the coronavirus. According to official figures, around 100,000 people were infected and around 6,500 have died. But a report by the research arm of Iran’s parliament said the number of cases could be eight to 10 times higher, making it among the most hardest hit countries in the world. The report said 11,700 may have died, 80 per cent higher than official numbers.

The Iranian government is currently reporting a decline in the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths, though local authorities are expanding cemeteries in places. In Tehran, the municipal council said it had to add 10,000 new graves to its largest cemetery, Behesht e-Zahra.

Interviews with more than 30 medical professionals and a review of communications by doctors on messaging apps and other documents by an Associated Press reporter in Cairo revealed many previously unreported details.

The reporting paints a fuller picture of the roots and extent of the disjointed response as the virus spread through Iran’s population.

In the beginning, medical staffers faced the outbreak with very limited equipment. Some washed their own gowns and masks or sterilised them in regular ovens. Others wrapped their bodies in plastic bags they bought at supermarkets.

The makeshift equipment didn’t help as dozens of medical professionals died along with their patients.

Iran’s leaders, several medical professionals said, delayed telling the public about the virus for weeks, even as hospitals filled with people suffering symptoms linked to the virus. And even as doctors and other experts were warning the Iranian president to take radical action, the government resisted, fearing the impact on elections, national anniversaries, and the economy.

One doctor interviewed by The Associated Press – who, like all medical workers interviewed for this story, spoke only on the condition that they not be named for fear of persecution – said he and his colleagues were even discouraged from using protective equipment. He said government officials claimed wearing masks would cause panic.

The country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, proclaimed on March 10 that the doctors, nurses, and medical staffers who died in the fight against coronavirus in Iran were “martyrs”. Pictures of deceased doctors have been placed alongside those of soldiers killed in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, which claimed the lives of a million people.