Support Mounts for National Vaccine Program
TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iran’s minister of health on Sunday lauded Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei for banning U.S.- and British-made vaccines for the coronavirus.
Saeed Namaki said he knows very well why the Leader has prohibited the import of the American and British vaccines for COVID-19.
He pointed to major obstacles that Iran has encountered in supplying medicine for patients in dire need of mediation because of U.S. sanctions, saying Iran had difficulty even to transfer money for purchase of the coronavirus vaccine through the World Health Organization’s COVAX program.
"Now, how may the Leader of a country trust that the Americans are giving us the coronavirus vaccine as a gift while they did not allow the import of medicine and the transfer of money to buy drugs for our patients?” the minister said.
Namaki said Ayatollah Khamenei receives multiple reports in various fields, saying one of the scientific reports in the health sector about the coronavirus vaccine reveals that there are considerable doubts about efficiency of the mRNA vaccines.
The Iranian health minister said the mRNA vaccine has not undergone the fourth phase of clinical trials, saying a series of articles in the U.S. suggest that the mRNA vaccine could result in autoimmune diseases.
Many people in the U.S. and the UK have refused to get the mRNA jabs, Namaki said stressing that the Leader, like the father of a family, has the right to ban the import of a suspicious product that could have harmful side effects.
Ayatollah Khamenei has praised the Iranian vaccine developed to fight the coronavirus, calling it a source of dignity and pride for the country.
The Leader said in a televised address Friday that "if the Americans were able to produce” a trustworthy vaccine, "the coronavirus catastrophe wouldn’t have happened in their country”.
He also said that "given our experience with France’s HIV-tainted blood supplies, French vaccines aren’t trustworthy either”.
That was a reference to a scandal in the 1980s in which blood infected with HIV was distributed in France, and later abroad, even after the government became aware of the problem. Hundreds of people in Iran were among those infected.
France’s then prime minister Laurent Fabius was charged with manslaughter but acquitted in 1999, while his health minister was convicted but never punished.
Cuba said late on Friday it had signed an accord with Iran to transfer the technology for its most advanced coronavirus vaccine candidate and carry out last-stage clinical trials in humans of the shot in the Islamic Republic.
The allies are both under fierce U.S. sanctions that exempt medicine yet often put foreign pharmaceutical companies off trading with them and as such they seek to be self-reliant.
Iran launched human trials of its first domestic COVID-19 vaccine candidate late last month, while Cuba has four candidates currently in trials although none yet in humans.
More people are volunteering for
ran’s domestic vaccine for COVID-19 after the Leader’s remarks.
So far, the locally-produced vaccine has been administered to seven people, and is to be given to as many more volunteers on Monday, said Dr. Davoud Payam-Tabrasi, who sits on the national committee tasked with developing the indigenous vaccine.
The general health condition of the recipients is satisfactory, he added, saying the first phase of the injections was to last until February 29.
If the vaccine proves effective, as many as 500 more people will receive the injection as part of the next phase, the physician noted.
More than 200 Iranian lawmakers released a statement on Sunday in support of the domestic production of the anti-virus solution.
They cited recent remarks by Ayatollah Khamenei, drawing attention to how the same Western countries have been keeping the Islamic Republic under the scourge of wide-ranging sanctions.
The legislators said there is no sure way for the country to examine the safety of the Western vaccines, stating that available evidence pointed to the likelihood of the foreign vaccines causing shock and other side effects in their recipients.
Saeed Namaki said he knows very well why the Leader has prohibited the import of the American and British vaccines for COVID-19.
He pointed to major obstacles that Iran has encountered in supplying medicine for patients in dire need of mediation because of U.S. sanctions, saying Iran had difficulty even to transfer money for purchase of the coronavirus vaccine through the World Health Organization’s COVAX program.
"Now, how may the Leader of a country trust that the Americans are giving us the coronavirus vaccine as a gift while they did not allow the import of medicine and the transfer of money to buy drugs for our patients?” the minister said.
Namaki said Ayatollah Khamenei receives multiple reports in various fields, saying one of the scientific reports in the health sector about the coronavirus vaccine reveals that there are considerable doubts about efficiency of the mRNA vaccines.
The Iranian health minister said the mRNA vaccine has not undergone the fourth phase of clinical trials, saying a series of articles in the U.S. suggest that the mRNA vaccine could result in autoimmune diseases.
Many people in the U.S. and the UK have refused to get the mRNA jabs, Namaki said stressing that the Leader, like the father of a family, has the right to ban the import of a suspicious product that could have harmful side effects.
Ayatollah Khamenei has praised the Iranian vaccine developed to fight the coronavirus, calling it a source of dignity and pride for the country.
The Leader said in a televised address Friday that "if the Americans were able to produce” a trustworthy vaccine, "the coronavirus catastrophe wouldn’t have happened in their country”.
He also said that "given our experience with France’s HIV-tainted blood supplies, French vaccines aren’t trustworthy either”.
That was a reference to a scandal in the 1980s in which blood infected with HIV was distributed in France, and later abroad, even after the government became aware of the problem. Hundreds of people in Iran were among those infected.
France’s then prime minister Laurent Fabius was charged with manslaughter but acquitted in 1999, while his health minister was convicted but never punished.
Cuba said late on Friday it had signed an accord with Iran to transfer the technology for its most advanced coronavirus vaccine candidate and carry out last-stage clinical trials in humans of the shot in the Islamic Republic.
The allies are both under fierce U.S. sanctions that exempt medicine yet often put foreign pharmaceutical companies off trading with them and as such they seek to be self-reliant.
Iran launched human trials of its first domestic COVID-19 vaccine candidate late last month, while Cuba has four candidates currently in trials although none yet in humans.
More people are volunteering for
ran’s domestic vaccine for COVID-19 after the Leader’s remarks.
So far, the locally-produced vaccine has been administered to seven people, and is to be given to as many more volunteers on Monday, said Dr. Davoud Payam-Tabrasi, who sits on the national committee tasked with developing the indigenous vaccine.
The general health condition of the recipients is satisfactory, he added, saying the first phase of the injections was to last until February 29.
If the vaccine proves effective, as many as 500 more people will receive the injection as part of the next phase, the physician noted.
More than 200 Iranian lawmakers released a statement on Sunday in support of the domestic production of the anti-virus solution.
They cited recent remarks by Ayatollah Khamenei, drawing attention to how the same Western countries have been keeping the Islamic Republic under the scourge of wide-ranging sanctions.
The legislators said there is no sure way for the country to examine the safety of the Western vaccines, stating that available evidence pointed to the likelihood of the foreign vaccines causing shock and other side effects in their recipients.