As Iran's hardline dailies including the Kayhan, which is funded by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's office, and Javan, an IRGC mouthpiece, have harshly attacked movie stars and soccer players for criticizing the authorities following the Covid deaths of two famous soccer champions.

Highly popular former Iranian Champions League players Mehrdad Minavand and Ali Ansarian died of Covid-19 within a week, leaving the entire nation in mourning, with movie stars and soccer players taking the lead in criticizing the government for delay in procuring vaccines.

Iranian social media is filled with videoss of movie stars sobbing for the champions league players, cursing Hassan Rouhani's administration and sometimes Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for not doing what they should have done to protect the nation. President Hassan Rouhani promised on Saturday, [February 6] that the government will roll out vaccination within days.

The government's inaction and conflicting remarks about Covid vaccination, as well as Khamenei's January 8 ban on US and Britis vaccines have fuelled the anger of young Iranians.

Even before hardline dailies began to attack the celebrities for criticizing the regime, some social media users reminded others that the two champions, both in their early 40s, would have not been vaccinated even if they lived in the United States or the United Kingdom.

But emotional sentiments are at a sensational peak and no one listens to such arguments. One TV celebrity cries out in one of the videos saying that she is fed up with young men and women dying daily. Another movie star. who was harshly criticized by the Kayhan, apparently named and shamed state officials for not doing enough.

All this happened in the same week when Iran said the first batch of vaccines have arrived from Russia. However, an official said that the entire batch, some 20,000 doses, are going to be administered to medical personnel.

Meanwhile, the people's distrust of the Russian's vaccine is no secret as even some parliamentarians have voiced their opposition to purchasing vaccines from Russia.

There is also a lot of controversy surrounding the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccines provided via the World Health Organization’s Covax mechanism. After a flood of social media criticism officials finally said on Friday that 4.2 million doses are on their way to Iran. Other officials, weary of Khamenei's response, have tried to pretend the vaccine was bought from a country other than UK.

However, it is not yet clear if and when the vaccines will arrive as there so many conflicting statements by Iranian officials.

Rouhani said on Friday that Iranian homegrown vaccines will be provided by mid 2021. But Iranians find it hard to believe a politician who will no longer be around by that time as his term of office ends in June. Trusting an Iranian vaccine, is yet another problem.

Criticism of Iranian celebrities for making disturbing remarks that fuel further concern and stress among the nation about the pandemic and availability of vaccines is also abundant among proreform newspapers.

In a report full of expert opinion about the pandemic and vaccines, Arman-e Melli newspaper warned about "social panic" spreading as a result of the death of the two soccer players.

The daily observed that the people are exerting pressure on the government to provide the vaccines as soon as possible. Amir Mahmoud Harirchi, a sociologist, told Arman-e Melli that what causes more concern among the people is conflicting statements made by the officials.