When China completely locked down Hubei Province on January 23 and put an additional 700 million people under some form of lockdown, the Novel Coronavirus outbreak there was close to spinning completely out of control. They only managed to save the country from total collapse by applying draconian measures and extreme social distancing. If they had delayed another or week or two, it is quite possible that China would have collapsed completely. Yes, that is how fast the exponential growth rate of this beast of a virus is when it is unchecked.
In the meantime, flights between Iran and China were continued. In early February, as rumours about coronavirus cases and deaths started spreading in Iran, the Iranian regime went into full-scale denial mode and held the 40th anniversary celebrations for the Islamic Revolution. Hundreds of thousands marched on the streets, met, spent lots of time in very close proximity to each other.
And the Iranian Regime continued to deny any coronavirus cases despite being in the middle of an outbreak.
Last week, just a few days prior to their sham elections on Friday, it seems that the situation got so bad that the regime could not deny it anymore. They had to admit to numerous cases and deaths caused by the coronavirus. Nonetheless, they decided to go ahead with their sham election in the middle of an outbreak of a highly contagious virus.
The result has been that many in the Iranian Regime have been infected, including the vice deputy of health and one of the vice presidents. 6 parliamentarians have also been infected, with one of them having died already. It’s even probable that President Rouhani, who held cabinet meetings with some of the infected ministers, is also infected. It should also surprise no-one if many of the religious leaders are infected, as well.
The fact that Iran has now exported coronavirus cases to at least 11 countries indicates that the outbreak there is now spinning out of control and any country not wanting to spin out of control along with them would be well-advised to shut down travel from Iran or anyone who has been in Iran in the last 14 days. The number of infected and deaths in Iran very obviously is much higher than listed and the situation eerily reflects Hubei Province at the height of the disaster there.
To make matters worse, the crazy religious fundamentalists are encouraging their followers to go lick and kiss the holy shrines in Qom, the epicentre of the outbreak. Some also seem to be suggesting that the coronavirus can be cured by having a Mullah spit in a bottle of water and then drinking it.
I kid you not.
What can the world learn from this in the middle of this extremely dangerous pandemic?
Pride and ignorance come before the fall.
Denial and suppression of information about the virus is a deadly combination.
Delay in taking serious action is a serious and deadly mistake.
All travel out of countries that show extreme ignorance and delay in attacking the problem will need to be shut down, unless you want your own population to pay for the ignorance of others.
And, last but not least:
This virus can get to anyone. No high status, no amount of wealth, and no amount of belief in a higher power will make you immune to this virus. Anyone can catch it. That includes Donald Trump.
And that includes all the Democratic candidates currently out on the campaign trail, shaking hands with countless amounts of people.
In conclusion, I will post some leaked videos and photos from Iran in order to let you get a visual and visceral impression of the craziness taking place there. Warning: some of these are graphic.
conservative believer licking shrine:
Grave for mass burial being dug:
collapsed man in shopping mall:
Sunday, Mar 1, 2020 · 5:21:59 PM +00:00
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Lawrence
Another totally bonkers video of people kissing and licking shrines, thinking that “holy” places are immune to the virus:
And another video of guys in hazmat suits filling a mass grave:
It looks like Iran is in the stage where containment becomes nigh impossible.