Thread by @PeterMcCormack

1/ While the lens has been on the Chinese coverup re: coronavirus, I have been researching a similar coverup and misinformation from Iran.

Big thanks to @AlinejadMasih's for her excellent presentation for the @hrf's Covidcon.

This probably should go in a wiki, will need help.

2/ Former health minister Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi posted on Instagram on March 22nd that he had warned the Iranian Health Ministry of the dangers of novel coronavirus in late December.

The post has now been removed.
en.radiofarda.com/a/former-iran-…

3/ 31st January, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that all flights from China to Iran had been banned due to Coronavirus.

reuters.com/article/china-…

4/ This was not true. Revolutionary Guard owned Mahan Air continued to operate flights between Iran and four Chinese cities. Image shows flights continuing between Shanghai and Tehran.

Note: need to do more research here.

5/ In early Feb an employee from a hotel raised the alarm that a Chinese visitor was in quarantine on the 5th floor. He was subsequently fired for spreading fear.

I think it was Espinas Hotel and he was fired around Feb 2nd:

https://twitter.com/ShahedAlavi/status/1226175699964375040

Need help translating this.

6/ Feb 2nd, the following video was posted to YouTube and spread on social media. An alleged case of the coronavirus in Ahvaz.

Two men were allegedly arrested on charges of “spreading fake news” for posting these video.

7/ Feb 10th The state daily newspaper IRAN reported that a 63-year-old woman had died of suspected Coronavirus.

reuters.com/article/china-…

8/ Feb 10th - Deputy Health Minister Ali-Reza Raisi told reporters: “I declare that there are no cases of coronavirus in the country and our citizens should only follow news released by the Health Ministry on the coronavirus."

9/ Feb 11th - mass gatherings for the 41st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

10/ 15th February, two brothers, contracted Coronavirus, Mohammad and Ali Asghar Molaei. Mohammad said his brother suffered from fever and cough and was transferred to an ICU. He died on February 27th.

A video of him in hospital leaked:
reddit.com/r/iran/comment…

11/ Mohammad suspected coronavirus but was unable to get a test until March 20th.

He noted the media response with the upcoming elections "news said that the film I had published about my deceased brother was from the past and that no one had Corona at all."

12/ 15th Feb - 6 days before the Iranian elections. Ayatollah Khamenei prevents people from kissing his hand, the reason given is that they wanted to protect the supreme leader.

memri.org/tv/iranian-shi…

13/ 19th Feb - Iranian health ministry confirmed the country's first two cases of novel coronavirus.

The two patients are reportedly in isolation in the city of Qom.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused Iran's "enemies" of exaggerating the threat.

14/ 21st Feb - Iran 2020 elections with the government encouraging people to come out and vote. Low voter turnout is blamed on negative propaganda about Coronavirus.

Five days after the election, the number of cases confirmed by the government had risen to 139 with 19 dead.

14/ 24th Feb- Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, MP from Qom, claimed that 50 people had died in his city over a two-week period. Deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi denied Mr Farahani's claim, and said he would resign if the death toll stood at even half that number.

15/ Later that day, Harirchi was seen sweating profusely and coughing during a press conference on coronavirus. He later announced he had tested positive, becoming the first of many high-profile Iranian politicians to become infected.

16/ 25th Feb - 25-year-old Narjes Khanalizadeh, a nurse from the northern city of Lahijan who died, contracting the virus from patients she had been treating in a hospital in the city of Lahijan.

17/ 28th Feb - Masoumeh Ebtekar, one of the country’s vice presidents, announced that she had the virus.

18/ 2nd March - Sweden becomes the first country to ban flights by Iran Air.

A paper by the University of Toronto’s Ashleigh Tuite and others noted that, by February 23, cases of Iranian origin had surfaced in Canada, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates.

19/ 3rd March - 23 out of 290 members of parliament, about 7.9% had the disease.

The senior advisory council has experienced two known deaths out of 39 members; the cabinet has two known infections out of 30.

20/ 4th Mar - Whistleblower highlights the scale of deaths with body bags in a morgue in Qom.

Iranian journalist Mohamad Ahwaze said the number of fatalities was so great there was nowhere to bury the bodies.

metro.co.uk/2020/03/04/bod…

21/ 5th Mar - Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, suggested that the coronavirus might be an American biological weapon.

The head of Iran’s cyber police announced the arrest of 121 Iranians for “spreading rumors” about the coronavirus.

22/ 8th Mar - health authorities in Golestan province declared that hospitals there were full.

23/ 17th Mar - Iran Foreign Minister Javad Zarif falsely claimed U.S. sanctions are killing Iranian "innocents" with its sanctions. He failed to note the Department of State has offered aid through Switzerland dating back to February.

24/ 18th Mar - President Hassan Rouhani said during a televised speech that his government had been “honest and straightforward with the nation.”

25/ 6th Apr - Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Seyed Abbas Mousavi hailed efforts made by China to help Iran and other countries in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/0…

26/ I will continue researching but the scale of the coverup and misinformation within Iran most likely led to a further spread of the virus in the Middle-East and globally.

Iranian officials are able to use Twitter to spread misinformation while it is banned for anyone else.

27/ I have found the official numbers hard to believe, similar to China. The high number of Iranian officials who have contracted the disease suggests the numbers are higher than reported.

There have also been reports of mass graves being dug.

theguardian.com/world/2020/mar…

28/ Potential reasons for the suppression of information was the government encouraging people to celebrate the 41st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and vote in the 2020 elections on Feb 21st.

29/ There were already fears regarding the legitimacy of the election.

"We knew this election would be controversial because the Guardian Council, the body that vets candidates, disqualified thousands of candidates, including 81 current sitting MPs"
france24.com/en/20200215-ha…

30/ The main focus of concern is the suppression of information within Iran allowed the disease to spread and put locals at risk + coverups allowed flights to continue and spread the virus internationally.

31/ We will probably never know the true scale of the problem in Iran. In November '19, the regime was able to quarantine the Internet during a violent crackdown on protests which led to a reported 1,500 people being killed.

reuters.com/article/us-ira…

32/ There is a clear pattern in responses and suppression of information with authoritarian regimes during this crisis.

I will keep looking into this.