Iraq is too broken to protect itself from covid-19

PITY THE doctors of Iraq. Thousands are thought to have contracted covid-19. If the disease doesn’t get them, local tribesmen might. “Every time a patient dies we all hold our breath,” says Dr Tariq al-Sheibani, the director of a hospital in southern Iraq. A month ago a young man from the Hasnawi tribe died of covid-19 in his hospital. That night, as Dr Sheibani left work, 20 of the dead man’s relatives beat him unconscious. The doctor is trying to press charges (CCTV cameras captured the scene), but officials told his family that they would be safer if he did not.