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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A well-known Iraqi doctor was arrested on Tuesday morning after being expelled from Iraq’s doctors syndicate for spreading misinformation about the treatment of coronavirus, the head of the syndicate told Rudaw English.
Baghdad physician Dr. Hamid al-Lami was taken into custody after spreading the false claim that COVID-19 was "made” in a laboratory, claiming that he can treat it with various mixtures of herbs and drugs.
When coronavirus vaccines were developed, and doses started arriving in Iraq, Lami launched a fierce media campaign against the vaccinations, saying they cause immune reactions that attack the lungs.
“The doctors syndicate warned him and asked him to stop his unscientific statements, but to no avail," the head of the Iraqi Doctors Syndicate, Jassem al-Azzawi, told Rudaw English on Wednesday.
According to Azzawi, Lami will be tried according to an article in the Iraqi Penal Code that holds accountable those who "spread a dangerous disease" or help spread it.
"Lami’s tribe attacked the Ministry of Health's inspection delegation to his clinic on more than one occasion, and threatened the Syndicate by attacking its headquarters in Baghdad," Azzawi said.
Lami released a video after he was expelled from the syndicate and prevented from practicing medicine privately, attacking its board and claiming that the doctors "take commissions'' from pharmaceutical companies, accusing the syndicate of standing in the way of his “national mission."
Earlier in May, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior and the Supreme Judicial Council announced the arrest of a person in Muthanna province, who claimed he could cure coronavirus with herbs.
The Director of Public Health, Riyadh Abdul-Amir, told state media on Tuesday that only 2% of Iraqis have received the vaccine so far, noting that this number is insufficient to reduce the number of cases.
Abul-Amir said the decline in the number of cases of infection was due to the immunity recovered patients have and has nothing to do with the vaccine, adding the proportion of those vaccinated is still low.
Three vaccines are available in Iraq – Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer – and the health ministry is urging people to register for vaccination online.
On Wednesday, Iraq recorded 4,609 new cases of coronavirus and 40 deaths according to the health ministry. Since the start of the pandemic, Iraq has recorded a total of 1,151,557 cases and 16,069 deaths.
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