Coronavirus, corruption, Isis and politics – Iraq battered by perfect storm of crises

Covid-19 is only one of multiple threats to life and livelihoods that confront Iraqis, writes Patrick Cockburn

Iraqis flock to Najaf’s Covid-19 cemetery to move their dead elsewhere (Reuters)

I am safe,” writes a friend in Baghdad, “and I have not been infected by the virus until now, but almost everybody else is infected.”  The coronavirus epidemic is sweeping through Iraq as its medical system collapses and many Iraqis assume fatalistically that they cannot escape the illness.

“No one cares about infection anymore,” continues the friend, though this indifference does not apply to herself as she mostly stays at home. “The majority do not wear a mask, especially in poor areas,” she says. “The most important thing for them is to work [in order] to make a living. The hospitals are full and the government is not interested in increasing their number.” More than 8,000 Iraqis have died and 300,000 have been infected by coronavirus according to the Iraqi Health Ministry, though eyewitnesses say that the real number is far higher.

The health system was already a wreck before the epidemic began because of the impact of 40 years of under-funding and under-staffing. Many doctors, a frequent target of kidnappers, have fled abroad. Curfews and lockdowns during the summer were often ignored in the cram-packed housing of Iraqi cities. In addition, some 60 per cent of Iraqis are aged under 25 and have less to fear, even if they do contract the virus.