Head of Khamenei’s Medical Team Supports Ban on Coronavirus Vaccine Imports: World Health Organization Is Biased in Favor of America
Alireza Marandi, head of Khamenei’s medical team, in support of the Supreme Leader’s order to ban the import of American and British coronavirus vaccines, has accused the World Health Organization of showing “bias in favor of American technology” in the matter of coronavirus vaccine production.
Marandi, who serves as president of the Academy of Medical Sciences, wrote a critical letter to Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, claiming that because America withdrew from the World Health Organization, the organization granted approval to vaccines produced in that country “which have not been adequately tested” in order for America to rejoin the organization.
The Trump administration announced in June of this year that it would formally withdraw from the World Health Organization over the next year, but given Joe Biden’s electoral promise for America’s swift return to the World Health Organization, America’s withdrawal from the organization will not actually be formalized or implemented.
Marandi’s letter was written in response to statements by Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, who, in response to Khamenei’s order prohibiting the import of American and British vaccines, had said: “Please do not politicize the vaccine issue.”
Marandi asked World Health Organization officials not to politicize Iran’s decisions and stated that Iran has the right to exercise caution regarding the purchase of a vaccine that was “produced with unprecedented speed” and “based on technology that has never previously been approved.”
Pfizer, as an American company in partnership with a German company, was able to produce the first effective vaccine for the coronavirus, and the administration of this vaccine, with the approval of world experts, began several weeks ago in several countries, with other nations also lining up to purchase it.
Ugur Sahin, a Turkish scientist who is the senior executive of German company BioNTech and partnered with Pfizer in producing the coronavirus vaccine, visited Iran last November and received the “Mustafa Prize” for Muslim scientists at a ceremony attended by Alireza Marandi.
Source: Radio Farda
