An outstanding article by two Iranian doctors on why Iran’s coronavirus problem is so huge.  The article lists a number of reasons, and I think the only reason not included was the refusal to close shrines especially in Qom (where people dry and kiss and touch the metal bars at the shrines).  “How Iran Completely and Utterly Botched Its Response to the Coronavirus,” Kamiar Alaei and Arash Alaei, New York Times, March 6, 2020.

“Iran Army Called To Help With Virus Control In Qom As It Imposes Quasi-Quarantine,” Radio Farda, March 6, 2020.

Hossein Sheikholeslam has died—he was one of the student hostage takers responsible for the 1979 Iran Hostage Crisis, and later for years in the Iran Foreign Ministry–and notably past Ambassador to Syria.  When you are ambassador to the Assads, that is not the mark of being a boy scout.  I shouldn’t even demean scouting with such a reference, as it is a deadly and discriminatory and anti-human rights and anti-United Nations and anti-everything position.  “Iran: 124 dead from virus including FM’s adviser, could use force to stop travel,” Times of Israel, March 6,  2020.

“Senior Iranian Security Official Succumbs to Coronavirus as Rouhani Describes Countrywide Infestation,” David Israel, JewishPress.com, March 5, 2020.