One of the legitimate criticisms made about the previous administration in Iran — not just by politically motivated conservative politicians in the country, but also by the general public — is that numerous promises were made about vaccines, both about their production and import, yet those promises gave mostly false hope to Iranians. Now, just one month into office, President Ebrahim Raisi appears to be following that tradition.

At a Cabinet meeting today, Raisi said “there is good news” regarding imports of vaccines and domestic production. Raisi did not offer specifics but said that due to the work of the Health Ministry and other organizations in Iran, vaccinations have increased two to three times, though he didn’t offer what time frame in which that increase has taken place.

Iran’s new health minister, Bahram Einollahi, followed up with ambitious claims, saying they predict that by the end of October they will have imported 40 to 50 million vaccines and have 70% of the population vaccinated.

According to publicly available information, which may not be reliable given that most rely on the Iranian government for tracking, almost 10% of Iran’s population is fully vaccinated currently. For a country of approximately 83 million to jump from a 10% vaccination rate to a 70% vaccination rate in two months would take a massive effort. According to Einollahi, vaccinating everyone above 18 years of age, which is their goal, will require 120 million doses.