Who Is the Iranian-Made COVID-19 Vaccine Called After?

Iran's efforts to vaccinate its population against the COVID-19 virus have resulted in a third home developed vaccine, one that has entered the clinical trials phase last Monday.

The third Iranian vaccine has been called Fakhra, inspired by the name of the Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh who headed Iran's nuclear program for years before he was assassinated last November near Tehran.

According to several local sources, Fakhrizadeh had been supervising the development of this vaccine prior to his assassination, which is why the vaccine has been named after him.

Moreover, the vaccine's human testing trial was started with his son, who became the first person ever to receive it last Monday, in a public event media representatives were able to attend.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was one of the most important scientists in Iran was killed last November with several gunshots, ones that Iranian officials accused Israel of saying that Fakhrizadeh and other Iranian scientists have been on the Israeli radars for years.

For the last year, Iran has been announcing several locally-developed COVID-19 vaccines. These vaccines are meant to help the country overcome the coronavirus outbreak at a time international sanctions could jeopardize its ability to obtain ones developed around the world. 

On the 19th of February 2020, Iran announced its first case of coronavirus. So far, confirmed infections have reached 1.77 million while figures reported to the WHO point at 61,492 total deaths.