How US Sanctions Could Worsen Iran and Venezuela Virus Responses

FEATURING VIJAY PRASHAD – Iran’s death toll from the coronavirus could rise into the millions, warned government officials this week as a massive jump in fatalities was observed. The hardest hit nation in the Arab and Muslim world, Iran has so far lost nearly 1,000 lives and documented more than 16,000 confirmed cases of infection from Covid-19. But, in addition to contending with an unknown and terrifyingly infectious disease, Iranian authorities are struggling to marshal the necessary medical resources in the face of draconian US and European sanctions.  Across the world in Venezuela, a similar situation with sanctions is transpiring.

Vijay Prashad, Director of Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, Writing Fellow and Chief Correspondent for Globetrotter, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He is also a professor of international studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut and the author of 18 books, including Arab Spring, Libyan Winter, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South; and The Death of a Nation and the Future of the Arab Revolution.