Iran is in turmoil following the government’s immunization program, which, according to opposition figures, relies heavily on the development of a local vaccine that is still in its relatively early stages.
Opposition groups in the country, including some MPs from the reformist faction, have wondered why the country is not making an effort to purchase vaccines from foreign countries where commercial production of the vaccines has already begun.
While the experiment with Iran’s corona vaccine began yesterday, the Persian – language media provided conflicting data regarding Iran’s intention to purchase vaccines from foreign countries, including China and Russia. Opposition-linked sites have raised the possibility that due to the country’s severe inflation crisis, the Iranian government does not have enough foreign currency to make a large purchase of vaccines immediately.
Hamidreza Jamshidi, a senior member of the Iranian Corona Fighting Organization, told the country’s media that there was no deadline for the start of vaccine production in the country but he hoped that within seven months he could start semi-industrial production of the vaccine. Jamshidi said buying vaccines could take time because even if Iran buys vaccines, it will take months to produce and deliver them to the country.
The one who rushed to criticize the conduct of the Iranian government is the leader of the “Mujahideen of Iran” opposition movement, Miriam Rajabi. “The delay in purchasing the vaccines for the Iranian people is Khamenei’s criminal policy against the citizens of Iran. It is part of the regime’s extortion and looting policy that hopes to profit at the expense of the health of the people,” said Rajabi, who is in exile in France.
Surfers on social media in Iran also reacted angrily and mockingly to the government’s immunization program. One of them posted a picture of one of the unscientific treatment methods used in hospitals in Iran and wrote “even if they manage to develop a vaccine that works, how can we believe them if that’s what they do?”.