Filtered statistics and Rouhani's insistence on normalizing matters

The Ministry of Health's statistics on deaths from the coronavirus are questionable and do not match field data. Are these statistics being presented with the intention of normalizing the situation and lifting restrictions? Rouhani says the government's goal is to simultaneously combat the coronavirus and unemployment.

The Ministry of Health announced in its latest statistics that 94 people have died from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours. This brings the total number of deaths to double digits for the second consecutive day. However, the head of the Tehran City Council Health Committee says that only between 70 and 100 people die from the coronavirus in the capital every day.

Nahid Khodakarami stated that the reason for the difference in statistics may be due to different registration of the cause of death. Sharq newspaper quoted her as saying: "First, the coronavirus test of many deceased persons is determined after burial, and the cause of death of others is recorded as respiratory distress."

Ms. Khodakarami, who is also a member of the Supreme Council of the Medical System Organization, called on the Ministry of Health officials to tell the people the truth as much as they can, otherwise the rumor market will heat up and citizens will become more skeptical of the authorities: "... these people do not have the right to not know. They should know about the geographical spread of this virus and even be able to understand which neighborhood is most affected based on postal code information. We call on the Corona Headquarters to report the infection statistics to the people again in detail so that this situation does not further undermine people's trust."

Mohammad Javad Haghshenas, head of the Cultural Commission of the Tehran City Council, had previously complained about the lack of transparency in coronavirus statistics, writing on Twitter: "It seems that the current death rate in Tehran and the statistics that are being presented are not transparent and do not match the large numbers."

In contrast, Masoud Mardani, a member of the academic staff of the Corona Response Headquarters, has reported with certainty that the number of infections and deaths due to Corona has decreased and said that not every death in Tehran should be attributed to Corona: "I am not someone who wants to confirm or deny the statistics of the Ministry of Health, but there is one truth, and that is the trend of decreasing diseases, hospitalizations, and deaths in Iran. I have seen many Corona patients every day since the beginning of the epidemic. 80% of my clients were infected before Eid and came to me for a checkup today. Of course, I also had new cases, but most of the clients were those who came before Eid. The reality is that Corona in Iran is on its downward trend."

Health or livelihood

Hassan Rouhani says the government wants to tackle coronavirus and unemployment at the same time. In justifying the resumption of business and the lifting of some travel restrictions, he cites the public, whose most important concerns are health and livelihood. Rouhani said at a government meeting on Wednesday, April 17: “The food supplies needed by the people have been provided during this period, and there has never been a time when people go to stores and find empty shelves and are told to go and come back in two days, while many countries were struggling with that.”

He also claimed that there was no patient in any province or city that the hospital did not accept: "... We have not seen a single example in these three months where someone went to the hospital and was turned away or needed a bed or was not admitted due to financial poverty."

In a note about the insistence of officials and the president on normalizing things, the Bahar newspaper writes that what the government and the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation have been saying in recent days about stopping the upward trend of the coronavirus is "not necessarily contrary to reality, but it is not all reality either!"

The note states that the downward trend in infections is due to strict implementation of several days of social distancing, and that any return to normal life could result in a serious disaster: "Justifications and excuses such as the lack of sufficient financial resources or damage to the country's industry and production, etc. are not acceptable at all, because the first duty of political power at any level is to protect the lives of citizens, and it is unacceptable that some officials, with a purely economic approach, forget the dangers of the coronavirus outbreak and seek to return things to normal, pre-corona conditions by unprofessionally simplifying some statistics."

The Ministry of Health has not yet acknowledged that its statistics only include cases where a positive COVID-19 test has been officially recorded. Critics say that presenting opaque or downplaying statistics could reduce people's sensitivity to observing social distancing regulations and health recommendations, and widen the circle of spread.

Source: DW