Corona: Iranische Impfstoffe erweisen sich als Flop

Man wolle das westliche Imperialistenzeugs nicht verimpfen, hieß es damals und produziere deshalb seine eigenen Stoffe im Iran. Später war die islamische Republik dann eines der von der Pandemie mit am härtesten betroffenen Ländern, bis heute ist unbekannt, wie viele Menschen, auch aufgrund eines Mangels an Impfstoffen, bislang an Covid starben. Derweil erweist sich, wie eigentlich nicht anders zu erwarten, das aufgelegte Programm zur Produktion eigener Impfstoffe als Flop:

Iran’s homegrown Covid vaccine factories are shutting down for lack of demand as many vaccinated with foreign vaccines refuse to get homegrown ones as boosters.

The whole scheme of producing domestic vaccines now seems little more than wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and precious time in preventing tens of thousands of deaths in 2021.

According to the latest official figures, nearly 65 million Iranians have had one dose, 58 million two doses but only 27 million have had a third shot of the vaccine. Of the total of 150 million doses administered so far, the Chinese Cinopharm accounts for over 80 percent and AstraZeneca for around 10 percent. Vaccine imports stopped a few months ago and the only vaccines available for a booster now are homegrown variants.

Only a total of 20 million (13%) used in the vaccination program so far were produced by the seven Iranian developers that received support and funding from the government. None of Iran’s seven homegrown vaccines has received the approval of the World Health Organization.