- What are your general thoughts and opinions on the COVID-19 situation and how it has impacted everyday life?
In my view, COVID-19 has affected the world negatively. Life has become more difficult as the situation has halted a lot of economic activities. The WHO guidelines in controlling the virus spread requires people to maintain social distances and avoid social interactions. Thus, many businesses have had to be shut down, resulting in many people losing their financial sources.
- Please indicate the number of confirmed cases in Iran at the time of writing (give date and time). What vaccines are available and what is the vaccination rate in Iran?
The time of writing: August 28, 2021
Number of confirmed cases in Iran: 4, 895,448 (Worldometer, 2021).
The vaccines available in Iran are AstraZeneca, Covaxin and Sputnik V. The vaccination rate in Iran is high. According to WHO (2021), 23,137,699 vaccine doses have already been administered as of 23 August, 2021.
- Research and describe what measures are in Iran employing to curb the spread of COVID-19?
Iran has been avoiding full lockdown as a measure to curb the spread of COVID-19. Instead, it has temporary closure public places and non-essential shops. There have also been interprovince lockdown in the country. The Ministry of Health has also concentrated on vaccination exercise, targeting highly-populated areas.
- How has the population responded to these measures? Measures may be mandatory (required and enforced by the government) or voluntary (developed and recommended by government but implemented at the individual level or community level but not enforced).
Unfortunately, the Iranian population has been cooperating with the measures to control the spread of the virus. Iran’s government spokesman, Ali Rabiei, claimed that most Iranian ignore the guidelines, and instead choose to travel and interact (Reality Check Team, 2020). The government has also been criticized by its subjects for locking down worship places.
- Briefly explain two reasons for the vast number of cases in the USA?
America records the highest cases of COVID-19 globally. One of the reasons for the vast numbers is how the pandemic has been politicized. Politics have led to have a lot of scrutiny and conspiracies about the virus, making people not to believe that COVID-19 is not a serious disease. An excellent example is how former US president Trump accused China of creating the virus to attack US. Another reason is high population. The US is one of the highly populated countries; thus, imposing the COVID-19 measures of social distancing can be challenging.
- What is your personal opinion on the issue of masks mandates and mandatory vaccines?
I think the issue of masks mandate and mandatory vaccines will be the only way to totally curb the spread of COVID-19. Despite massive educational programs by different health stakeholders, people still wear the mask wrongly. Others choose not to wear the masks. Therefore, enforcing them to wear masks would be a great move. I understand that people be allowed to choose whether to get vaccinated or not. However, at a time of crisis like this, where, the wave of infections keep resurfacing, I think vaccines should be mandatory.
- What do you think are two important issues that this pandemic has brought to light that you may not have considered previously?
The pandemic has revealed that the world healthcare system is not adequately prepared to deal with global medical crisis like COVID-19. Another important issue that has been revealed by this pandemic is the importance of countries collaborating to enforce measures to curb the virus spread. There have been countries that have been against the COVID-19 measures, lagging fight against the virus.
- What was the most interesting or shocking thing that you heard or observed about COVID-19 and what as your response to it?
The most shocking thing that I have observed about COVID-19 is how vaccinated people are getting infected when a new virus variant occurs. I thought that the vaccines would solve the problem and lives would go back to pre-COVID. I think regular vaccinations will make us completely free from getting affected by the virus.
References
Reality Check Team. (2020, March 27). Coronavirus: Iran is facing a major challenge controlling the outbreak. BBC News.
WHO. (2021). Iran (Islamic Republic of) Situation. https://covid19.who.int/region/emro/country/ir
Worldometer. (2021, August 28). Coronavirus in Iran. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/iran
