Why Iran Is Such a Coronavirus Threat

For years, Tehran was remarkably good at fighting epidemics. This time, a bungling and an isolated regime is worsening global risk. The U.S. could actually help.
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Since Iran announced its first cases of the novel coronavirus more than two weeks ago, a growing number of analysts and physicians have questioned Tehran’s death toll tallies. Others, including one of Iran’s own members of parliament, have accused the government of deliberately covering up the extent of the outbreak in the country. Despite a rising domestic and international clamor, Iran has been unwilling to quarantine high-risk areas and has yielded to its clerical establishment by not barring the public from visiting major religious sites at the epicenter of the virus.

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