Iranian physicians letter to Director of World Health Organization on Coronavirus in Iran

11 March, 2020

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Director‐General of the World Health Organization Avenue Appia 20 1211 Geneva

Dear Director‐General, We, a group of Iranian physicians residing in Europe, North America and Australia, wish to draw your attention to some facts about the spread of Coronavirus in Iran. Please find attached summary report about the facts.

We are in contact with some of our colleagues in Iran who are taking great risks working in hospitals trying to help the victims of Coronavirus. So far, some 100 doctors, nurses and other medical staff have lost their lives in their endeavors.

Our colleagues in Iran emphasize that the main reason for rapid spread of Coronavirus in such a wide scale have been due to the Iranian regime’s political considerations and lack of timely attempt to alert public couple with their incompetence to handle the crisis. They stress that the authorities make decisions not on professional basis, rather, political considerations and interests. This can be observed when extensive contacts with China continued as the virus was spreading in that country and in the meantime, when the first signs of outbreak was detected in the city of Qom the authorities refused to isolation the city, which contributed to the rapid spread of the virus across the

county. These were decisions made on political considerations in total contradiction to professional advices given by our colleagues in Iran.

In such circumstances, while we praise the World Health Organization for sending a mission to Iran to help our compatriots, we are deeply concerned that the mission may not be able to conduct its task appropriately due to the Iranian regime’s concealment of the facts. We are even more worried that the regime may take advantage of this humanitarian mission to serve its propaganda ploys and cover up its incompetence and political objectives. We are particularly concerned with remarks attributed to the officials and spokespersons of the WHO in the state‐run media in Iran.

Reports by physicians and social sources and the contradictory remarks by some Iranian officials point out that the dimension of catastrophe, namely the number of victims, is far greater than those claimed by the authorities. This indicates that the regime is openly concealing the facts. The WHO must not render any credibility to the official figures while there are massive contradictory reports. This would be considered and seen as a endorsement to the regime’s concealment efforts.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, the umbrella organization for the Iranian opposition, has declared that the number of victims died as a result of Coronavirus exceeds 3000. This is the figure announced on Tuesday, March 10, with some detailed information. Regrettably, the reports we receive from our colleagues and sources in Iran confirm the high number of victims.

The enclosed report is compiled based on remarks by some officials of the regime and the information we obtained from our sources and eyewitnesses within Iran. The report points to the following facts:

‐ The rapid and wide scale spread of the Coronavirus and the extremely high number of victims in a short period of time could have been avoided. The main reasons for the spread of the virus were ongoing contacts with China during the outbreak in that country, not isolating the city of Qom and giving public alerts for political considerations. ‐ Due to hoarding and mismanagement, the hospitals suffer from basic material and required facilities to counter this catastrophe. Priorities in all cases are given to political considerations rather than professional medical ones. Medical facilities are exclusively controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Well‐equipped hospitals and clinics are allocated to the regime’s officials, the IRGC members and the clergy affiliated to the regime.

‐ Concealment of the facts and repressive measures have contributed largely to the scale of the catastrophe. The regime refuses to announce the real figures for those infected or dead. The main task of the IRGC and its affiliated forces in these circumstances is to maintain control over the society and crackdown of any possible public protest.

We, therefore, wish to appeal to you not to allow political‐diplomatic considerations affect the humanitarian operation of the WHO. There is a deep mistrust among the Iranians against the regime due to its long history of deceit and concealment of the facts.

We also wish to call on you to take necessary measures so that the efforts supervised and led by the WHO would first of all enlighten the world of the facts concealed by the regime and secondly, adopt measures so that the aid would be provided to public independent from the Iranian regime’s instruments.

We assure you that hundreds of Iranian physicians and medical trained individuals are ready to cooperate in every way with the WHO’s efforts.

We are at your disposal for further information.

Sincerely yours,

U.K. Masood Nemati, Gp (General Practitiner) MRCGP Maryam Alijani, Cilnical pharmacist Mohammad Reza Takhayori, DDS, MSc Implant ology

ITALY Khosro Nikzat, Spacialist Doctor in General Surgery Madjid Bazeli, Specialist in Vascular Surgery Abdollah Taghizadeh, Anestesia e Rianimazione Kambiz MOHSENI, Rheumatology Nariman Ardalani , Epidemilog‐Dentist Hossein vassigh, Hematolog Mahmood Rahmati, UROLOCHIST Masoumeh Taheri, ROMATOLOG Javad Hosein nejad, Malattie Infettive e Tropicale Yoosef Lesani, Farmacology Farideh Bozorgzad, Farmacology

Hamid Khalatbari, Farmashist Virginia Pishbin , Medical Doctor in Microbiology

GERMANY Siamak Babaahmady, Cardiolog From Moscow Med. Academy Vali Afsari, Specialist in general Surgery Said Ferdowsy, General Practitioner Maryam Tehrani, Nurse Hamid Shishegari, Phamacist Kimia Shahverdi, Phamacist Alireza Doustmohamadi, Dentist Dr. Asad Ahmadi, Specialist in Neurology and Geriatricians Compound hospital Bernkastel‐Wittlich Masoud Khajehali , General Practitioner

U.S. Raheleh Nejat, Have a Bachelor degree in Nursing . Now working at Mercy Hospital Lab St. Louis , Missouri "Firouz Daneshgari, Chairman, Department of Urology, University Hospitals Case Medical Center Professor, Urology, CWRU School of Medicine""" Nader Ehsani, Doctor Dentist Pooran Arbabi, CA Dental Hygiene Degree Registerd Dental Hygienist,RDH Fereshteh Tahmaseby , Registered Nurse Ashraf Zadshir, Family Medicine, AAHIVS Alborz Bahador, Doctor of Psychology Afsuneh Asadian, Nurse Aid Siamak Keivan, R.Ph Masood Maghsoodi, R.Ph Your Pharmacy, Owner, and Pharmacist In Charge.

Afsaneh Esmaeilbeigi, MD, Obgyn Mandana Roushanmeidan, Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Behaviorist, Autism specialist

BELGIUM Masoumeh Doustarian, Master of Nursing from iran DENMARK Mohammad Ali Hossein Zadeh, Subspeciale Sergei I gastroentrilogi

SWEDEN Parvin Vahid, Nurse Farzaneh Dashti, Nurse

Siamak Safari, Genaral Practitioner(GP) Roshanak Jabbari, Pharmacist Aida Jabbari, Occupational therapist Parvin Rajabi, Nurse shahin ehsani, Nurse Fariba Dashti, Dentist Sina dashti, General Practitioner Mitra Haghshenas, Nurse at a health center and emergency center Ali Hashmi , specialist allman medicen Raziyh tuloshrifi , specialist allman medicen

SWITZERLAND Reza shemirani, Labrtantain medical

FRANCE Bankowska Adrinna, Chirugien ‐dentiste

NORWAY Zahra Shafiee, Dental Hygienist Zahra Aslrousta, Head nurse Beroz Omid, dentist Parham Omid, medicine student Mohammad Ghorbani, General Practice Dentist Fatemeh sarhadi, Bioengineer Bahman Hassanpour Rezayat, Bioengineer Sara Shafiee , Surgical nurse Firouzeh Dashti, Nurse Kamal Khoshnood, Psychiatric nurse/ Classical homeopathic practitioner Sima Moradi, Health worker Amir Ehsani, Nurse

THE NETHERLANDS Farah Eslami, dentist

Canada Parvaneh Tarverdian, nurse