Banning US and British COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic
In January 2021 Khamenei banned imports of US- and British-made COVID-19 vaccines, calling them untrustworthy and saying they might be used to infect other nations. The Red Crescent then dropped a donated shipment of Pfizer doses. In August 2021, during a deadly fifth wave, he called securing vaccines by any means the country's most urgent issue.
Editorial timeline of public reporting, not a legal finding.
- Bans imports of US and British vaccines - Reuters, The Guardian and Al Jazeera reported that in a televised speech Khamenei said imports of US and British vaccines were 'forbidden', that he did not trust the two countries and that it was 'not unlikely' they would want to contaminate other nations. He also voiced doubts about France, citing a past infected-blood scandal. Iran bans COVID vaccines from UK, US
- Red Crescent drops a donated shipment of 150,000 Pfizer doses - Al Jazeera reported that after the speech, the Iranian Red Crescent Society's spokesman said it would act on the Supreme Leader's remarks, halting plans to import 150,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine secured with help from philanthropists. Iran bans COVID vaccines from UK, US
- Twitter removes his vaccine tweet - BBC Persian and VOA reported that Twitter removed a post from Khamenei's account calling US and British vaccines untrustworthy, for violating its rules on misleading COVID-19 information. توییتر پیام آیتالله خامنهای درباره واکسن کرونا را حذف کرد
- During the fifth wave, calls vaccines the country's 'first and foremost, urgent issue' - Reuters and IranWire reported that with more than 500 deaths a day by official figures, Khamenei called on authorities to secure vaccines by any means necessary, describing it as 'the country's first and foremost, urgent issue'. IranWire noted he had told people in March 2020 not to make the coronavirus 'a big issue'. Iran's Khamenei sees urgent need to curb COVID-19