From COVID19 to Cholera: Repeating Patterns in Iranian Pandemic History

Stanford Iranian Studies Program

Dr. Amir Afkhami April 16, 2020 Why has the novel coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic been so widespread and deadly in Iran and what are the consequences of the outbreak? This lecture will attempt to answer these questions by presenting a timeline of the COVID19 outbreak in Iran and the historic and political determinants that shape Tehran’s public health policy against the pandemic. Amir A. Afkhami, MD, PhD, is an associate professor with joint appointments in psychiatry, global health, and history at the George Washington University. He is also the director of preclinical psychiatric education at the George Washington University School of Medicine. He is the author of A Modern Contagion: Imperialism and Public Health in Iran's Age of Cholera (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019). Previously, he served on the legislative staff of US Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and he led the U.S. State Department's Iraq Mental Health Initiative to rebuild Iraq’s mental health delivery capabilities.