Today 440 of Iranians died from Covid-19 ... as our health related officials are saying , the real number is 2-3 times of the official reported number ...
1) Health officials making such dubious claims are liberals. They are the ones who practically advocate capitulation to the US - exactly the kind of attitude you condemned in other recent posts (luckily enough, the Supreme Leader and IRGC are preventing them from having their way though).
But when these same liberals issue gratuitious statements which make the Islamic Republic appear under a negative light, then suddenly they become worthy of being quoted? I would recommend to stay consistent.
2) There were proven cases of people spreading disinformation about the extent of the corona toll in Iran.
Like that person in the early days of the pandemic, who filmed random body-bags in a morgue, claiming these were all coronavirus victims, and who was arrested. Or quite obvious fake videos posted online of women falsely claiming to be nurses and giving fictive, over-dramatized accounts of fatalities from COVID-19.
So we know there are elements keen on assisting the enemy in its psy-ops campaign against the IR by blowing out of proportion the extent of the COVID crisis in Iran and by making false claims of state cover up in relation to the number of victims.
3) The figures provided by Iran are corroborated by international organizations.
4) Worldwide deaths reach 1,18 million from COVID-19. While for Iran, the figure stands at about 33000 fatalities.
To suggest that 3 times this number, i. e. some 100.000 have deceased in Iran, would imply that nearly 8.5% of all victims of this coronavirus were located in Iran, when Iran's population of 83 million or so represents merely 1,06% of the world's 7,8 billion people.
In other terms, the claim that the official figure given by Iran represents a minimization by a factor of 3, would imply that the death toll in Iran has been more than 8 times superior to the world average...
Now it doesn't take much more than some basic common sense to realize that this is an extremely unrealistic and even an outlandish claim.
Also, 100.000 is about a third of the total number of Iranian martyrs in the 8-year war with Iraq. You can't just cover up the disappearing of 100.000 (or 70.000) people due to a disease over less than 9 months in an a country of 83 million.
Cemetary records are public in Iran, and can be consulted by anyone. Which makes any attempt at a cover up even more difficult.
5) Arguably, responsability for the relative spread of the coronavirus first falls onto Iranians themselves. Iranians can certainly blame some of their compatriots more than state authorities.
In Iran, legal security, that is the extent to which laws can actually be expected to be executed, is notoriously low in a series of common civil matters. Meaning that authorities will often turn a blind eye to citizens breaking the law, and will forego arrest, fining and / or prosecution of said individuals.
Conversely, non-negligible numbers of Iranians are not particularly law-abiding (some even take pride in it).
This comes in addition to the exhibiting of rather reckless, careless behaviour by said individuals in the social realm. A look at the average driving habits in Iran will provide ample confirmation.
The fact that the number of traffic fatalities in Iran (over 15000 per year) is five times higher than in a country with a comparable population like Germany (some 3000) is not simply due to the respective quality of roads, traffic signs and public education.
Successive administrations of the Islamic Republic have been investing quite a lot into awareness raising campaigns and into improving the country's road network (advertizing and pedagogic measures, conversion of several thousands of kilometers of simple roads into four-lane expressways, etc).
But it's a cultural problem of the Iranian society itself, that takes generations and immense efforts to solve fully, no matter who's in charge. Some progress has been made so far, but there remains a lot to be done, while the key to the issue at the end of the day lies in the hands of the people rather than the authorities.
Back to the corona topic, how many in Iran have ignored so-called "distancing" rules and other prescriptions designed to contain the spread of COVID-19? Have we forgotten the naggers complaining about not being allowed to spend the weekend in 'Shomāl', and those circumventing these travel restrictions?
6) The IR's response to the epidemic, considering the technical and financial means at Iran's disposal, not to mention criminal US-imposed sanctions, has been satisfactory in international comparison.
A different political system wouldn't have been able to achieve better results, and actually might have done considerably worse.
