BAGHDAD: War-scarred Iraq is seeing thousands of new COVID-19 cases a day but few people wear face masks and even fewer are vaccinated, sparking fears of an “epidemiological catastrophe.”
Healthcare workers say they are battling not just the pandemic but also a widespread skepticism over vaccines, borne of misinformation and public mistrust in the state.
“I don’t like the vaccine or the mask,” said Nehad Sabbah, 36, speaking on a Baghdad street and reflecting a widely held view. “I’m not afraid of getting sick.”
Even as she acknowledged the risk of catching the novel coronavirus that is now infecting some 8,000 people a day in Iraq, she stressed that “I’m not going to take the vaccine.”
Since the vaccine rollout began in March, Iraqi health authorities have fully inoculated only around 1 percent of the country’s roughly 40 million people.
Iraq — where the economy is still recovering from decades of war and insurgency and many people live in poverty — has recorded over 1.4 million COVID-19 cases and more than 17,000 deaths.
But across the capital, mask-wearing has become lax and restrictions have loosened considerably.
Sarmad Al-Qarlousi, who heads Baghdad’s Al-Kindi Hospital, was insistent that, unless far more citizens get jabbed, the country is spiraling toward “an epidemiological catastrophe.”
“We have entered the third wave and we have to be ready,” he said.
“We are trying to control the disaster, and we are advising people to take the vaccine.”
The hospital’s 54 intensive care unit beds have been fully occupied all year, and there is a long waiting list.
In one of the air-conditioned rooms of the COVID isolation ward, a woman in her late twenties was gasping for air as a ventilator aided her ravaged lungs.
“She has been here for 15 days,” said her 20-year-old sister Roqayya Abdel-Moutaleb as she gently stroked her arm. “We come regularly to support her.”
She has been taking turns with her mother to tend to her sister, while her nieces and nephews — prevented from visiting the hospital for fear of contracting the virus — fret over their mother.
Asked about her feelings about the vaccine, Abdel-Moutaleb however retorted firmly that “it’s too risky ... this vaccine isn’t safe.”
The UN World Health Organization says that the “approved COVID-19 vaccines provide a high degree of protection against getting seriously ill and dying from the disease.”
It also says on its website that they “are safe for most people 18 years and older, including those with pre-existing conditions of any kind, including auto-immune disorders.”
Iraqi Health Ministry spokesman Saif Al-Badr blamed the general hesitation to get inoculated on a “misinformation campaign which preceded the arrival of the vaccine.”
Even doctors have been complicit in spreading false news. Hamid Al-Lami, a general practitioner, was arrested and banned from practicing medicine in May after asserting that the virus was curable with natural herbs.
Another rumor about vaccines which spread widely was the unfounded claim that they cause infertility.
Populist cleric Moqtada Sadr, with millions of ardent followers, initially lambasted US-manufactured vaccines but, after he received his first jab in April, registrations for the vaccine rose significantly.
SKepticism and apathy remain especially rife amid younger Iraqis, the 60 percent of the population aged under 25.
One of two young men smoking cigarettes in an upmarket Baghdad district said that “we don’t trust the government or the types of vaccines it has brought.”
Iraq has so far ordered 18 million doses of various vaccines, including AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech.
The Health Ministry’s Badr said that “the situation so far is under control despite the obvious increase in cases.”
He also said no cases of the highly contagious Delta variant had been recorded so far, even as it has flared in neighboring Iran and many other parts of the world.
Kholoud Al-Sarraf, dean of the pharmacology faculty at Baghdad’s Al-Esraa University, was not so optimistic and advocated a two-week lockdown to stem the rising caseload.
She also urged a stepped up effort to convince Iraqis to get vaccinated.
“People are scared,” she said. “They say they would rather catch corona, which would give them natural immunity. That’s the general mindset.”
Iraqis remain skeptical of vaccines as COVID-19 cases rise
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Iraqis remain skeptical of vaccines as COVID-19 cases rise
- Since the vaccine rollout began in March, Iraqi health authorities have fully inoculated only around 1 percent of the country’s roughly 40 million people
US envoy to travel to Israel in bid to seal Hezbollah ceasefire
BEIRUT: US envoy Amos Hochstein said he will travel to Israel on Wednesday to try to secure a ceasefire ending the war with Lebanon’s Hezbollah group after declaring additional progress in talks in Beirut.
Hochstein, who arrived a day earlier in Beirut, said he saw a “real opportunity” to end the conflict after the Lebanese government and Hezbollah agreed to a US ceasefire proposal, although with some comments.
“The meeting today built on the meeting yesterday, and made additional progress,” Hochstein said after his second meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, endorsed by the Iran-backed Hezbollah to negotiate.
“So I will travel from here in a couple hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can,” Hochstein said.
The diplomacy aims to end a conflict that has inflicted massive devastation in Lebanon since Israel went on the offensive against Hezbollah in September, mounting airstrikes across wide parts of the country and sending in troops.
Israel says its aim is to secure the return home of tens of thousands of people evacuated from its north due to rocket attacks by Hezbollah, which opened fire in support of Hamas at the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Hezbollah, still reeling from the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah and other commanders, has kept up rocket fire into Israel, including targeting Tel Aviv this week. Its fighters are battling Israeli troops on the ground in the south.
Although diplomacy to end the Gaza war has largely stalled, the Biden administration aims to seal a ceasefire in the parallel conflict in Lebanon before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.
“We are going to work with the incoming administration. We’re already going to be discussing this with them. They will be fully aware of what we’re doing,” Hochstein said.
Lebanese army says soldier killed by Israeli fire
- South Lebanon and the capital have seen heavy strikes in recent days
BEIRUT: The Lebanese army said Israeli fire killed a soldier on Wednesday, a day after it said three other personnel died in a strike on their position in south Lebanon.
South Lebanon has seen intense fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants whose group holds sway in the area.
A soldier “died of his wounds sustained due to the Israel army targeting of an army vehicle” in south Lebanon, a statement on X said, after reporting two personnel wounded in the incident near Qlayaa in south Lebanon.
On Tuesday, the military said three soldiers were killed when “the Israeli enemy targeted an army position in the town of Sarafand,” where the health ministry said eight people were wounded.
AFP images showed destruction at the site in Sarafand on the Mediterranean coast, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the southern border, with a concrete structure destroyed and a vehicle among the debris.
Israel army says hit over 100 ‘terror targets’ in past day
The Israeli military on Wednesday said it struck more than 100 “terror targets” in Lebanon over the past day and had “eliminated” two Hezbollah commanders at the weekend.
The targets included “launchers, weapons storage facilities, command centers, and military structures,” the army said in a statement.
The announcement came as US envoy Amos Hochstein was in Lebanon, seeking to hammer out a truce between Israel and Hezbollah.
The military also said “on Sunday, the (air force) eliminated the commanders of Hezbollah’s anti-tank missile and operations unit in the coastal sector” who were “responsible for terror attacks against Israeli civilians.”
The army added that its troops continued to conduct “limited, localized, targeted raids” in southern Lebanon.
Since September 23, Israel has ramped up its bombing campaign in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops, after almost a year of cross-border exchanges begun by Hezbollah in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.
South Lebanon and the capital have seen heavy strikes in recent days, though the situation was calmer in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, with US envoy Amos Hochstein visiting for truce talks.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported Israeli shelling and air strikes in south Lebanon overnight and on Wednesday, saying Israeli troops were seeking to advance further near the town of Khiam.
Hezbollah on Tuesday said it had attacked Israeli troops near the flashpoint border town.
The NNA also said that Israel forces were “attempting to advance from the Kfarshuba hills... to open up a new front under the cover of fire and artillery shells and air strikes.”
“Violent clashes are taking place” between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, it added.
Hezbollah said it carried out several attacks on Israeli troops near the border Wednesday.
Syria war monitor says 4 fighters dead in Israeli attack on Palmyra
- State news agency SANA said an “Israeli attack... targeted residential buildings and the industrial area”
Beirut: A war monitor said Israeli strikes on central Syria’s Palmyra on Wednesday killed four pro-Iran fighters, while Syrian state media reported an unspecified number of wounded in the attack.
“Four non-Syrian fighters from pro-Iran groups were killed and six others including civilians were wounded in a provisional toll of the Israeli strikes” on Palmyra, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The strikes targeted “a warehouse in the industrial area and a restaurant and buildings near the ancient city of Palmyra,” the Britain-based Observatory added.
State news agency SANA said an “Israeli attack... targeted residential buildings and the industrial area” of the city, renowned for its ancient ruins.
State television reported unspecified “wounded due to the Israeli attack that targeted the city of Palmyra.”
Since the civil war erupted in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting the army and Iran-backed armed groups, including Hezbollah.
The Israeli military has intensified its strikes since almost a year of hostilities with Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon escalated into all-out war in late September.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes in Syria, but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence there.
Erdogan says Turkiye prepared if US withdraws from Syria
ISTANBUL: President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkiye is prepared if the United States decides to withdraw troops from northern Syria, broadcaster CNN Turk and other media cited him as saying on Wednesday.
In an interview with reporters on his way back from the G20 summit in Brazil, Erdogan said Turkiye’s security is paramount and it is holding talks with Russia on the issue of Syria.
40 killed in central Sudan paramilitary attack on village
PORT SUDAN: A medic on Wednesday said 40 people were killed “by gunshot wounds” during a paramilitary attack on the Sudanese village of Wad Oshaib in the central state of Al-Jazira.
Eyewitnesses in the village told AFP the Rapid Support Forces, at war with the army since April 2023, attacked the village on Tuesday evening. “The attack resumed this morning,” one eyewitness said by phone Wednesday, adding that paramilitary fighters were “looting property.”
