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What is behind the coronavirus vaccine crisis in Iran?

While some countries, including Middle Eastern countries, have begun coronavirus public vaccination, the head of the health committee of Iranian Parliament said, there is currently no news of vaccines being purchased by Iran, this is while Iran has suffered the most casualties from coronavirus in the Middle East. Perhaps in the early days of pandemic, few people, even among experts, thought the corona vaccine would be made in not only a year, but also be available for public vaccination. Now this has happened, and it can be called a scientific miracle, since in the shortest time in history, a coronavirus vaccine is made available from the laboratory to public vaccination.
One of the vaccines that has received the necessary licenses for public vaccinations is Pfizer-Biontech vaccine. Medical staff and others in countries such as the United Kingdom, United States and Canada already began vaccination, and other EU member states are scheduled to begin vaccination on December 27. In the Middle East late last week, Saudi Arabia began vaccination. According to the official Saudi news agency (WAS), the Ministry of Health has started registering citizens as well as people living across the country to be vaccinated. The vaccine is free for Saudi nationals and foreign residents. There are also similar reports from the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Turkey about the Public vaccination process. The Iraqi Ministry of Health has even announced the signing of an agreement with Pfizer to import the vaccine in the coming days. However, no decision has been made in Iran to purchase the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine. A few days ago, "Mustafa Ghanei", the head of the scientific committee of Anti-coronavirus Headquarters, said on television that Iran had announced to COVAX that it did not want the Pfizer vaccine because the vaccine has requirements such as minus 70 degrees Celsius for storage and transportation and these facilities do not exist in our aircraft and transportation system. But Shahram Adamnejad, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Roads and Urban Development, announced: "Iran's air transport system is ready to import the coronavirus vaccine and meets the conditions announced by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education. Also, according to ISNA, Touraj Dehghan Zanganeh, the head of the Civil Aviation Authority, emphasized on the same point that we have no problem importing coronavirus vaccines of different types. The Minister of Roads and Urban Development, Mohammad Islami, responded by saying, "Airlines have no problem moving and transporting the Coronavirus vaccine, and we are ready to transport this vaccine. According to ISNA, Kianoosh Jahanpour, spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration, said that "the cold chain is not just the transport from the origin to the destination airport, but includes the entire route of vaccine to the target group to a remote town and village. The cold chain required for this vaccine must be observed for all days of arrival, distribution and inoculation, and temperatures below minus 70 degrees Celsius is a technological weakness because of cold storage and distribution. Certainly, approved vaccines with a higher storage temperature and easier and more accessible cold chain conditions have a comparative advantage”. Therefore, with the announcement of a technological weakness in Iran, it seems that the case of procuring the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine is closed forever.
But the US Food and Drug Administration approved another vaccine, Euro news reported yesterday. Modrena's coronavirus vaccine has the comparative advantage that Kianoosh Jahanpour had in mind, because with over 90% effectiveness, the cold chain of this vaccine is about minus 20 degrees Celsius.
While the European Union has ordered 80 million doses, Britain more than 7 million doses, Japan 50 million, South Korea 20 million and Sweden 7 million doses are among the Moderna vaccine buyers, due to incompetence and corruption of mullahs' government in Iran, none of the officials in Iran care about public health and only think about the survival of their regime. The head of the parliamentary health committee in Iran yesterday implicitly said, there was no news of the coronavirus vaccine now. ISNA reported that Hossein-Ali Shahriari said: "So far, we have not been able to provide the necessary foreign funds to buy the coronavirus vaccine and transfer this money abroad, because to procure the coronavirus vaccine, we need to provide financial resources in Francs, But the money we have cannot be converted into Francs, and we have not yet been able to raise that money and transfer it abroad. So, our only hope is to produce the coronavirus vaccine domestically. But the most optimistic experts believe that we will not be able to mass-produce the domestic vaccine before June next year.” And according to Reza Malek Zadeh, Ex-Deputy Minister of Health, who resigned and in his resignation letter on Friday, November 20, wrote: Your Excellency's unscientific remarks about the production of the Iranian coronavirus vaccine, which is still in the early stages, and you claimed to have produced, is to get rid of the problem all together.
But the shocking fact about the impediment to import the Coronavirus vaccine is that importing the vaccine from reputable global companies will deprive the regime affiliates of the huge profits associated with so called “domestic vaccine” since the medicine mafia is under control of IRGC. The state-run Jahan-e-Sanat newspaper, on December 14, acknowledges this fact: "The Food and Drug Administration is under a lot of pressure to approve domestically produced vaccines and coronavirus medicine, because getting approval from the Ministry of Health means a huge income for the owner."
Given the current situation, it seems that it is not possible to import vaccines to Iran and domestic vaccines do not have a bright future, and as a result, the hard days of coronavirus as the world approaches the end of the pandemic will not end for Iranians. But according to Mahboobfar, a member of the government Anti-Coronavirus headquarters, when people see that in many countries, including our neighbors such as Iraq and Afghanistan, the disease has subsided due to the vaccination, I think in such a situation people will express their anger in some other way because today people are under pressure of quarantine and economic problems, and they have no patience left. "If the situation continues in such a way that neighboring countries do the vaccination and we are still waiting for July, this social resilience may come to an end and manifest itself in the form of street protests."
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BENEFIT Sponsors Gulf Uni...
- April 17, 2025
BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has announced its sponsorship of the “Innovation and Sustainable Technology Solutions Competition (GU - IST Solutions), hosted by Gulf University at its main campus.
This strategic sponsorship reflects BENEFIT’s active role in advancing technological innovation and fostering sustainable solutions to future challenges. It also seeks to empower Bahraini youth by enhancing their skills, capabilities, and competitiveness in innovation and solution development—contributing meaningfully to the broader goals of sustainable development across all sectors.
As part of BENEFIT’s active involvement in the competition, the company has announced that Hanan Abdulla Hasan, Senior Manager of Public Relations and Communication, will serve on the competition’s supervisory committee. Her upcoming participation reflects BENEFIT’s forward-looking commitment to championing academic and professional excellence.
Commenting on the occasion, Hanan Abdulla Hasan, Senior Manager of Public Relations and Communication at BENEFIT, said, “We are privileged to support this pioneering initiative, which aligns seamlessly with BENEFIT’s enduring commitment to fostering innovation and nurturing the potential of Bahrain’s youth. Our participation is rooted in a deep sense of social responsibility and a firm belief in the pivotal role of innovation in shaping a sustainable future. Through such platforms, we seek to empower the next generation with the knowledge, skills, and foresight required to develop impactful solutions that address future challenges, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030.”
Dr. Aseel Al Ayash Dean of the College of Engineering in Gulf University commented, “We extend our sincere gratitude to BENEFIT for their generous sponsorship and support of the Innovation and Sustainable Technology Solutions Competition. This contribution plays an instrumental role in helping us achieve the strategic goals of this initiative, namely, cultivating a culture of innovation and sustainability, encouraging efforts that address the imperatives of sustainable development, and enhancing the practical and professional capabilities of our students and participants.”
The event will bring together a diverse spectrum of participants, including secondary school students, university undergraduates, engineers, industry professionals, entrepreneurs, academic researchers, and subject matter experts representing a wide range of disciplines.
The competition seeks to inspire participants to develop and present innovative, sustainable technologies aimed at addressing pressing environmental, social, and economic challenges. It encourages the formulation of business models that integrate advanced technological solutions with core principles of sustainability. Moreover, it serves as a platform for emerging leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators to contribute to the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals, promote the ethos of responsible technology, and demonstrate its transformative potential across various sectors.
Attendees will have the opportunity to view a series of project presentations submitted by participants, covering diverse areas such as eco-friendly product design, smart and sustainable innovations, renewable energy technologies, water conservation and management, waste minimisation and recycling, green architectural solutions, and sustainable transportation systems. Outstanding projects will be formally recognised and awarded at the conclusion of the event.
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