Iranians have taken to social media to mock the fanciful claims of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Commander, Major General Hossein Salami, that his scientists have invented a secret mobile coronavirus detection machine.
As Breitbart News reported, Salami managed to keep a straight face when he unveiled the device in April with the claim it can remotely identify infected people and contaminated areas within a range of 100 meters by using electric pulses and mobile radio receivers.
Salami said the unique device is so advanced it obviates the need for blood tests and delivers a result in just five seconds. He swore the invention would never be shared with America.
The Mehrs news agency added the device has been equipped with an antenna, with Salami boasting “a bipolar virus has been designed inside the device and its antenna is placed in front of the contaminated area up to 100m distance and can detect the contaminated area in five seconds using a magnetic field.”
The device has never been seen in public since it was announced and now Iranians are hitting back, teasing officials and asking why the machine – which everybody knew was another dubious “breakthrough” and “invention” – has not been mass-produced.
Even when launched it was the subject of critical evaluation that deemed Salami’s claim as nothing but baloney:
Introducing a brand-new, highly-sophisticated CORONAMETER from the fine medical professionals at the IRGC. Endorsed by Dr. Salami. pic.twitter.com/6uNQC5Gz5J
— Len Khodorkovsky (@MessageFromLen) April 15, 2020
Radio Farda reports the Iranian Physics Association issued a statement and said the claimed “invention” was “implausible and more like science fiction”.
People made fun of the amateur device and compared the dish to a cooking pot lid someone found in their kitchen.
Twitter was full of jokes on Monday by frustrated Iranians who are battling the triple threats of coronavirus, a devalued currency and fast rising prices.
One Twitter user commented that rather than being tested for its own veracity, the machine is putting the level of public respect for the Revolutionary Guards to test.
Another Twitter user mentioned the so-called invention in response to another user who was commenting on the huge devaluation of the rial. His reply to the first user who had said “no donkey could bring the economy to this point” was: “There are people who can make it drop as much as 400,000 but never mind, do you know anything about Mosta’an 110?”
A third Twitter user commented that authorities should have concentrated their efforts on mass production of Mosta’an 110 instead of masks and vaccines. “We could have exported it to earn some foreign currency and contain coronavirus at the same time’.
This is not the first time General Salami has boasted of Iran’s unique scientific capabilities.
Salami said last September Iran has special “hidden” military powers it is ready to unleash at any moment on an unsuspecting world, as Breitbart News reported.
Salami offered no evidence to back his claim of the so-called “hidden” powers of military persuasion.
Instead he warned enemies of his country of secret capabilities of Iran, adding Tehran has significantly enhanced its military power to create threats and problems unknown and unexpected for anyone who opposes it.
“Our enemies must know that we have increased our capability of creating unknown threats. We have not yet disclosed our main sources of power and what they have seen and we have used so far is a small part of our capacities,” the major general said.
Also last September, Salami said Iran’s enemies quake in fear at Tehran’s military power, claiming “we are so powerful that they are forced to falsely accuse us to be behind any incident.”
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