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Coronavirus News & Updates

Scorpion

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Iran's Coronavirus Disaster Will Spread
And that means Iraq will likely suffer the most.

by Michael Rubin
In a scene reminiscent of a dark satire but unfortunately, no joke, Iraj Harirchi, Iran’s deputy minister of health, appeared at a televised news conference to assure the Iranian public that the Iranian government had the coronavirus outbreakunder control. He was sweating profusely and obviously unwell. Later, the Iranian government acknowledged he had caught the coronavirus and entered quarantine.

Iran already has the highest death toll outside of China, and that is just with the numbers the Iranian government acknowledges. There is no reason for the widespread outbreak in Iran other than regime incompetence and venality. As with the Chinese government, the Iranian regime’s first approach was to deny and cover-up. It is the knee-jerk reaction for the Iranian regime and was also on full display in Tehran’s initial reaction to its downingof a Ukrainian jetliner. There is an irony, here, in that in the wake of the 1978 Tabas earthquake, it was the incompetence of the shah’s regime juxtaposed with the efficiency of clerical charities that catalyzed the Islamic revolution.

Iranians may be victims of their government’s corruption and opacity but, in the long run, it will be the Iraqis who suffer. While in Washington, diplomats focus on terrorism and the malign activities of Iranian-controlled Shi’ite militias in Iraq, sitting in the Baghdad, Basra, or Najaf airports or at the bus station in Karbala is to see a cross-section of Iranian society. Millions of pilgrims visit Iraq each year.

While oil brings the most money into Iraq’s treasury, it remains invisible to many Iraqis. The oil industry, after all, is one of the least labor-intensive sectors inside Iraq (or any other country). The second-order impact of religious pilgrims in Iraq is huge: restaurants, hotels, and malls all rely on the constant flow of Iranian pilgrims. Iran is also Iraq’s largest trading partner, and Iranian businessmen are a frequent sight in Iraqi four- and five-star hotels, some of which are the result of Iranian investment.

The Iraqi government has sought to be proactive, but the crisis could not have come at a worse time against the backdrop of a political crisis and an as-yet unconfirmed prime minister-designate. When it comes to the Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias like the Badr Corp, Kataib Hezbollah, or Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, the United States focuses upon their role in projecting Iranian power in Iraq but, over the past year or two, there has been another dynamic at play: As the Iranian economy has descended into recession and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-owned businesses have also suffered, the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq have shifted their role: rather than receive Iranian largesse, increasingly they utilize their own business interests in Iraq to subsidize their Iranian sponsors.

What this means in sum is that the Iranian interests in Tehran and among Iraqi groups which operate at Iran’s behest, there is great pressure to keep the borders open. The Revolutionary Guards and their clients have used their power to ignore or compel defiance of Iraqi government rules and regulations. The Revolutionary Guards-owned Mahan Air passenger and cargo service, for example, continues to fly to Iraq despite recent revocation of landing rights for Iranian aircraft. The same corruption in Iran allows flights from China to continue underscores how the Iranian regime's greed and incompetence place the region at risk. Iraqi wasta [connections, nepotism] culture exacerbates the problem as Iraqis use personal connections to sidestep proactive but inconvenient measures.

The 1917-1918 Spanish flu decimated both Iraq and Iran’s population. (George Washington University Professor Amir Arsalan Afkhami’s book A Modern Contagion is a must-read on that episode and the history of quarantine in Iran). Alas, it appears that venality, corruption, and denial could now condemn thousands of Iranians and Iraqis to suffer the same fate.
 

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Jerusalem Post
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Health & Science
Israeli scientists: 'In a few weeks, we will have coronavirus vaccine'
Once the vaccine is developed, it will take at least 90 days to complete the regulatory process and potentially more to enter the marketplace.
By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
FEBRUARY 27, 2020 20:58
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MIGAL researchers working vigorously to find a new coronavirus vaccine (photo credit: LIOR JOURNO)

MIGAL researchers working vigorously to find a new coronavirus vaccine
(photo credit: LIOR JOURNO)

Israeli scientists are on the cusp of developing the first vaccine against the novel coronavirus, according to Science and Technology Minister Ofir Akunis. If all goes as planned, the vaccine could be ready within a few weeks and available in 90 days, according to a release.

“Congratulations to MIGAL [The Galilee Research Institute] on this exciting breakthrough,” Akunis said. “I am confident there will be further rapid progress, enabling us to provide a needed response to the grave global COVID-19 threat,” Akunis said, referring to the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

For the past four years, a team of MIGAL scientists has been developing a vaccine against infectious bronchitis virus (IBV), which causes a bronchial disease affecting poultry. The effectiveness of the vaccine has been proven in preclinical trials carried out at the Veterinary Institute.

MIGAL is located in the Galilee.

“Our basic concept was to develop the technology and not specifically a vaccine for this kind or that kind of virus,” said Dr. Chen Katz, MIGAL’s biotechnology group leader. “The scientific framework for the vaccine is based on a new protein expression vector, which forms and secretes a chimeric soluble protein that delivers the viral antigen into mucosal tissues by self-activated endocytosis, causing the body to form antibodies against the virus.”

MIGAL laboratory (Photo Credit: Lior Journo)
MIGAL laboratory (Photo Credit: Lior Journo)

Endocytosis is a cellular process in which substances are brought into a cell by surrounding the material with cell membrane, forming a vesicle containing the ingested material.

In preclinical trials, the team demonstrated that the oral vaccination induces high levels of specific anti-IBV antibodies, Katz said.

“Let’s call it pure luck,” he said. “We decided to choose coronavirus as a model for our system just as a proof of concept for our technology.”

But after scientists sequenced the DNA of the novel coronavirus causing the current worldwide outbreak, the MIGAL researchers examined it and found that the poultry coronavirus has high genetic similarity to the human one, and that it uses the same infection mechanism, which increases the likelihood of achieving an effective human vaccine in a very short period of time, Katz said.

“All we need to do is adjust the system to the new sequence,” he said. “We are in the middle of this process, and hopefully in a few weeks we will have the vaccine in our hands. Yes, in a few weeks, if it all works, we would have a vaccine to prevent coronavirus.”

MIGAL would be responsible for developing the new vaccine, but it would then have to go through a regulatory process, including clinical trials and large-scale production, Katz said.

Akunis said he has instructed his ministry’s director-general to fast-track all approval processes with the goal of bringing the human vaccine to market as quickly as possible.

“Given the urgent global need for a human coronavirus vaccine, we are doing everything we can to accelerate development,” MIGAL CEO David Zigdon said. The vaccine could “achieve safety approval in 90 days,” he said.

It will be an oral vaccine, making it particularly accessible to the general public, Zigdon said.

“We are currently in intensive discussions with potential partners that can help accelerate the in-human trials phase and expedite completion of final-product development and regulatory activities,” he said.
 

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At least 7 Iranian government officials have coronavirus
Catherine Garcia
The WeekFebruary 27, 2020, 7:37 PM MST

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Masoumeh Ebtekar, Iran's vice president for women and family affairs, is the latest Iranian government official to contract the COVID-19 coronavirus.
At least seven officials in the country have tested positive for the coronavirus. Ebtekar is the highest-ranking woman in Iran's government, and is now quarantined at home, her deputy announced on Thursday. She was photographed on Wednesday during a cabinet meeting, sitting just a few yards away from President Hassan Rouhani.
The other infected officials are Iraj Harirchim, deputy health minister; Mojtaba Zolnour, a Parliament member from Qom and head of Parliament's national security and foreign policy committee; Mahmoud Sadeghi, a member of Parliament from Tehran; Morteza Rahmanzadeh, the mayor of a Tehran district; Dr. Mohamad Reza Ghadir, head of coronavirus management in Qom; and Hadi Khosroshahi, a major cleric and former ambassador to the Vatican. Iran's official media has reported that Khosroshahi, 81, has died.
The first case of coronavirus in Iran was reported on Feb. 19 in Qom. Health Ministry officials on Thursday said there are 245 confirmed cases in the country, and at least 26 people have died from the virus. Health experts estimate there are many more COVID-19 cases in Iran, because the death rate is so high. Friday prayers have been canceled in Tehran and 22 other cities, and all schools and universities are closed until March 21.
 

starlord

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Shit those stupid mullah as kissers. There is no HAJJ in Iran whatseover, Any place outside Makkah has got nothing to do with Islamic rituals period.

Karbala is their Mecca , for some its even more than Mecca and Madina .

Anyway, other than 2 cases , do we have more in Pakistan ?
 

Falcon29

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They need help with this situation, US and China are providing humanitarian aid as of recent.

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starlord

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They need help with this situation, US and China are providing humanitarian aid as of recent.

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Pakistan needs to shut its borders for everyone, be it Iran , China , India or Afghanistan ... Isolate yourself before you are Isolated ..
 

Berke2

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ayotollahs valuing their religious tourism over the health & safety of their very own shias. They spread the virus to what - like 4 countries? :rolleyes:
 

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Watch: Clinic in Iran torched, believed to be coronavirus quarantine
a4533cbb-fc9b-4d1d-9587-43c089ff0339_16x9_788x442.jpeg

A clinic thought to be a quarantine for coronavirus patients was set on fire in Iran's Bandar Abbas. (Screengrab)
Joanne Serrieh, Al Arabiya EnglishSaturday, 29 February 2020
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A clinic in the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas was torched on Friday because some people believed that coronavirus patients from another city were quarantined in it, according to Iranian media reports.
Rumors spread that 10 infected people were transported from the city of Qom, the epicenter of the virus in Iran, to Towhid Clinic, according to social media posts.
However, the semi-official Fars News Agency referred to the claims of people being transferred to the southern Bandar Abbas city as “unfounded rumors” and that this information “angered” some residents who then set fire to the clinic.

The hospital has a special ward for coronavirus patients, the news agency cited the director of public relations at the University of Hormozgan Medical Sciences Fatima Norouzian as saying. She added that any rumor about patients being in the clinic is “just a lie.”



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Iranian women wear protective masks to prevent contracting a coronavirus, as they walk at Grand Bazaar in Tehran, Iran. (Reuters)
Number of coronavirus deaths in Iran jumps to 210

The number of deaths across Iran from the outbreak is at least 210, according to BBC Persian reports on Saturday citing sources from hospitals in Iran. Health officials said only 34 people have died of the virus so far and 388 people have been diagnosed.
 

space cadet

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I guess this would explain why Iran has such a big coronavirus problem, hey everyone, let's lick the door


Alarming videos show Iranians LICKING holy shrines in religious tradition as country's clerical hardliners refuse to close sites despite coronavirus outbreak

Iran has been accused of failing to clamp down on coronavirus contamination after alarming videos of worshippers licking a shrine emerged online.

Clips shared on social media show people licking the doors and burial mound inside the Fatima Masumeh shrine in Qom, defying token advice by the health ministry.

Worshippers in the videos brazenly state they 'don't care what happens', even if they catch or spread the infection which has killed at least 54 in the country.

Iran's hardline clerical establishment has refused to shut down Qom despite the holy city suffering the brunt of the outbreak and pilgrims spreading the virus across the Middle East.

The country is battling medical shortages which are worsened by U.S. sanctions, with masks and testing kits in short supply.

There are also fears that Iran is covering up the true scale of the crisis, with official figures showing a suspiciously high death rate - suggesting there may be far more infections than the regime is willing to admit.

One person who kisses the shrine in the holy Shi'ite Muslem city demands people 'stop scaring people [about] coronavirus. A child is even hailed for licking the doors.

Journalist Masih Alinejad, who tweeted the worrying clips, said that by keeping the religious sites open, the regime was 'endangering the lives of Iranians and the world'.

Iran has the second highest death toll outside mainland China, and ministers in Tehran have stepped up efforts to prevent the spread, which has infected at least 978 people

Every day trucks filled with disinfectants spray down streets, shrines, public parks, trash bins, public toilets and markets in Qom, Tehran and other areas that have had cases of infection.

State TV showed workers wiping down metro and bus stations.

'The smell of disinfectants has become my nightmare,' said retired teacher Ziba Rezaie, 62, from Qom. 'The city smells like a cemetery, a morgue.'

The head of the World Health Organisation's emergencies programme, Mike Ryan, said Iran may be dealing with an outbreak that is worse than yet understood.

Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, have repeatedly dismissed concerns raised by many Iranians over the handling of the outbreak, saying all the necessary measures to overcome the crisis have been taken.

Some doctors and nurses said hospitals in Tehran, Qom and Rasht city were overloaded.

'Hospitals are full of infected people. We hear about hundreds of deaths,' said a doctor in Tehran, who asked not to be named. 'We need more hospitals. The death toll will rise.'

The Health Ministry has ordered hospitals to admit only infected people and those patients who need immediate care. Dozens of military-run hospitals have been allocated to treat the infected people.

Iran's claims to have the virus under control lost further credibility last week when the deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, was taken into quarantine.

Just a day earlier, the minister had looked unwell and sweated heavily at a press conference where he insisted that the outbreak was not as bad as feared

In his subsequent video, Haririchi confirmed he had been infected with the virus and had quarantined himself at home.

Further fears were raised when a lawmaker claimed that 50 people had died from the illness in the city of Qom alone. Harirchi, the health minister who has since been diagnosed with the virus, denied this.

Farahani said the 50 deaths in Qom date back to February 13, whereas Iran first officially reported cases of the virus on February 19.

He also claimed that 250 people had been quarantined in the city, which is around 75 miles south of Tehran.

'None of the nurses have access to proper protective gears,' Farahani said, adding that some health care specialists had left the city.

'So far, I have not seen any particular action to confront corona by the administration.'

Iran faced anger from its own citizens over an attempted cover-up just last month, after claiming falsely that a passenger jet with dozens of Iranians on board had crashed by accident.

The plane was actually shot down by Iranian Revolutionary Guards at the height of Tehran's stand-off with Washington after the death of Qassem Soleimani.
 
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Scorpion

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Saudi Arabia recorded first case with coronavirus coming from Iran through Bahrain and was spotted at the border by the automated screening devices. Immediately evacuated to a quarantine center near by.
 

Berke2

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Saudi Arabia recorded first case with coronavirus coming from Iran through Bahrain and was spotted at the border by the automated screening devices. Immediately evacuated to a quarantine center near by.

How many countries has the iranian regime infected? Like 5-6?
 

space cadet

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Not trying to offend anyone, but what the heck is with licking the doors to holy shrines? It makes no sense to me
 
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