سوء مدیریت، بحران کرونا در ایران را تشدید کرده است

دیدبان حقوق بشر روز پنج‌شنبه در بیانیه‌ای هشدار داد که ممنوعیت حکومتی خرید واکسن‌های آمریکایی و بریتانیایی در کنار عدم شفافیت و سوء مدیریت مقامات به تشدید وخامت همه‌گیری کرونا در ایران دامن زده است.

به گزارش رادیو فردا، این سازمان حقوق بشری در بیانیه خود که روز پنج‌شنبه، ۲۸ مردادماه، منتشر شد از مقامات جمهوری اسلامی خواست که بر تلاش خود برای پاسخ موثر به بحران کرونا بیفزایند، از جمله از طریق استفاده از تمام منابع ممکن برای تامین واکسن و اطلاع‌رسانی درست و شفاف درباره راه‌های مبارزه با این بیماری.

در این بیانیه همچنین یادآوری شده است که مقامات حکومتی در ایران تقصیر کندی واکسیناسیون را به پای تحریم‌ها و همین طور تاخیر فروشندگان خارجی گذاشته‌اند، اما «شواهد و مدارکی روشن برای اثبات این ادعای خود ارائه نکرده‌اند».

در ماه‌های گذشته همزمان با اوج‌گیری دوباره کرونا در ایران، رکوردهای بی‌سابقه‌ای درخصوص آمار جان‌باختگان و مبتلایان در ایران ثبت شده است. بیش از دو هفته است که روزانه حدود ۴۰ هزار نفر بر تعداد مبتلایان و بیش از ۵۰۰ نفر بر تعداد جان‌باختگان در کشور اضافه می‌شود.

تنها پس از بالا گرفتن بحران کرونا به این شکل در کشور بود که رهبر جمهوری اسلامی پس از هشت ماه حاضر شد اجازه تامین واکسن «به هر شکل ممکن» را صادر کند. او پیشتر خرید واکسن‌های آمریکایی و بریتانیایی را به‌روشنی ممنوع اعلام کرده بود.

تارا سپهر‌ی‌فر، پژوهشگر سازمان دیدبان حقوق بشر، روز پنج‌شنبه گفت: «ایرانیان عصبانیت خود را از بی‌کفایتی مقامات و عدم شفافیت مقامات در کنترل همه‌گیری کووید ۱۹ که هر چند دقیقه یک‌بار به قیمت جان یک ایرانی تمام می‌شود‌، ابراز می‌کنند.»

خانم سپهر‌ی‌فر با اشاره به اهمیت «اعتماد عمومی در مدیریت بحران سلامت عمومی»، سوء مدیریت حکومت ایران در بحران کرونا را تکرار عملکرد جمهوری اسلامی در موارد مشابه در گذشته دانسته است.

تشدید بحران کرونا به دلیل کمبود امکانات درمانی، دارو و اکسیژن و فشار بر کادر درمان موجب انتقاد گسترده در میان شهروندان، کارشناسان و حتی مسئولان شده و بسیاری از آن‌ها، اقدام دیرهنگام برای خرید واکسن را دلیل بحران اخیر می‌دانند و خواستار پاسخگویی مسئولان در این باره هستند.

در همین رابطه مهدی محمودیان، فعال سیاسی و مصطفی نیلی، آرش کیخسروی، محمدرضا فقیهی، مریم فراافراز و لیلا حیدری، وکلای دادگستری روز ۲۳ مرداد به دلیل «برگزاری جلسه‌ای به منظور شکايت ازبرخی مسئولان در موضوع کرونا» بازداشت شدند.

خانم حیدری روز یک‌شنبه، ۲۴ مرداد آزاد شد، اما بقیه همچنان در بازداشت به سر می‌برند.

دیدبان حقوق بشر با اشاره به نام این بازداشتی‌ها تاکید می‌کند که مقامات جمهوری اسلامی نمی‌توانند با فرافکنی یا مقصر دانستن تحریم‌ها از مسئولیت مبارزه با کرونا شانه خالی کنند.

Iran: Government Mismanagement Compounds Covid-19 Crisis
Vaccine Prohibitions, Poor Transparency Undermining Response

(Beirut, August 19, 2021) – Iranian authorities’ prohibition on procuring US- and UK-produced vaccines, lack of transparency, and mismanagement are exacerbating the already dire impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in Iran, Human Rights Watch said today.

Iran is experiencing a “fifth wave” in the pandemic with a daily death toll of at least 655 and a total of almost 100,000 deaths as of August 18 based on the government’s official statistics. Iranian authorities should urgently redouble efforts to respond effectively to the crisis, including by using all resources necessary to secure lifesaving vaccines and transparently communicating and enforcing effective and clear vaccination and other safety guidelines.

“Iranians are expressing their anger at the authorities’ incompetence and lack of transparency in controlling the Covid-19 pandemic, which is costing an Iranian life every few minutes,” said Tara Sepehri Far, Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Public trust is a crucial factor in managing the public health crisis, yet Iranian authorities’ track record of repeated failure is happening again.”

The number of deaths and hospitalizations in Iran are on the rise, and social media reports indicate that there is a shortage of hospital beds and medicine in various cities. On August 14, Iranian authorities arrested six prominent human rights lawyers and activists who, according to their colleagues, were working on filing a complaint against authorities’ mismanagement of the Covid-19 crisis. Authorities released one member of the group overnight, but human rights defenders Arash Keykhosravi, Mehdi Mahmoudian, Mostafa Nili, Mohammadreza Faghihi, and Maryam Afrafaraz remain in detention.

Iranian officials have blamed sanctions and delays in importing vaccines, as well as each other, for the slow roll out of the vaccination problem, without providing clear evidence of their claims.

Senior Iranian officials have made statements that have severely interfered with the procurement of lifesaving vaccines and sowed disinformation among Iranians. On January 8, 2021, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said in a speech that “import of [the Covid-19] vaccines made in the US and UK are prohibited.” In a tweet that was hidden by Twitter due to its violation of the company’s “Covid-19 misleading information policy,” Khamenei claimed that vaccines made in the US or the UK are “completely untrustworthy. It’s not unlikely they would want to contaminate other nations.”

This policy has had serious consequences for Iranians’ right to health and ability to access lifesaving vaccines. On January 9, Dr. Mohammad Hassan Ghousian Moghadam, head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, said plans to import 150,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine donated by an US charity had been canceled.

Covid-19 vaccines are in short supply in Iran. According to the Health Ministry’s statistics as of August 18, only 5,063,519 people have received the required two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine out of a population of 85 million. Iran has only approved vaccines that require two doses for full vaccination.

Over the past year, Iranian authorities have prioritized and publicly promoted the production of a domestic vaccine – COVIran Barekat – in which it has reportedly invested substantial government resources. However, neither Iranian authorities nor the state-owned company producing the vaccine have released clear information regarding the vaccine’s safety and efficacy. Experts have raised concerns over this lack of transparency. And it appears that production is seriously behind schedule.

Faced with an escalating health crisis and widespread criticism of the way the authorities have handled it, the government may reverse the prohibition on US- and UK-produced vaccines. On August 10, President Ebrahim Raeesi, who originally supported Ayatollah Khamenei’s ban, ordered the government to immediately allocate resources to import vaccines. On the same day, Ayatollah Khamenei also said that vaccines should be acquired through “every possible way.” After several weeks of a rising death toll and hospitalizations, Iranian authorities announced a six-day general lockdown starting on August 15. 

Current and former Iranian government officials are publicly trading blame over the government’s failed pandemic response. On August 11, Alireza Zali, the head of Tehran’s Covid-19 response task force, told reporters that the country’s total vaccine supply would only last another five days. Zali also claimed that Iran’s ambassadors did not invest adequate effort in securing foreign vaccines for import and that senior officials told health officials to mislead visiting WHO officials about Iran’s urgent pandemic-related needs and the country’s real death toll.

In response, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif claimed on his Instagram account that his ministry had secured the import of 24 million doses of vaccine and implied that other government agencies were to blame. “Which organization rejected a proposal for importing 20 million doses of vaccines?” he said, without providing any further details or evidence.

Iranian authorities should make use of every available resource to respond to the outbreak in a way that respects human rights and minimizes harm to the health and well-being of all those living in the country, Human Rights Watch said. This includes providing access to timely and accurate information about the pandemic, make personal protective equipment adequately available for frontline workers, providing access to affordable and safe testing, and providing social welfare support so that people can safely quarantine when necessary.

The Iranian government should publish all procurement contracts as well as an up-to-date vaccine supply and delivery index with price details, date of delivery, and number of doses, Human Rights Watch said.

Human Rights Watch has previously called on all stakeholders including the United States, which has imposed broad sectoral financial and economic sanctions on Iran, to ensure that people in Iran have swift, unencumbered, and equitable access to safe, effective, and affordable Covid-19 vaccines. On June 17, the US Department of the Treasury issued an additional general license for transactions and activities involving the delivery of face masks,ventilators, and oxygen tanks, vaccines and the production of vaccines, Covid-19 tests, air filtration systems, and Covid-19-related field hospitals.

Iran is a party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which provides that everyone has the right to “the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.” Under the treaty, the government is required to take steps “individually and through international assistance and cooperation, especially economic and technical, to the maximum of its available resources” to fulfill the right to health. It is specifically required to take effective steps for the “prevention, treatment and control of epidemic, endemic, occupational and other diseases.” The control of epidemics requires, among other steps, “the implementation or enhancement of immunization programmes and other strategies of infectious disease control.”

While financial sanctions inevitably diminish the capacity of the affected country to fund or support some of the necessary measures, Iran remains obligated to take steps “to the maximum of its available resources” to “provide the greatest possible protection” of the right to health of individuals within its jurisdiction.

To combat the global pandemic, Human Rights has previously called on countries funding Covid-19 vaccine research to ensure that recipients of these funds share all intellectual property data and other know-how to enable mass manufacturing of successful vaccine candidates.

“Iranian authorities cannot blame sanctions to excuse their mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Sepehri Far said. “Iranians need and deserve better from their government.”

For additional details about the pandemic and about the vaccine situation in Iran, please see below.