Iran is ominously missing any cases according to this data. I guess you could say Iran is a known unknown.
https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-supreme-leader-khamenei...
These are the early stages of what looks to be a pandemic of a disease at least an order of magnitude, possibly several orders of magnitude [2], more lethal than seasonal flu, which is no picnic already. Isn't that enough to be worrying about, all on its own?
[2] CDC headline numbers for the 2019-2020 flu season, vs. the commonly given 2% lethality guesstimate.
The New England Journal of Medicine says it may likely be considerably less than 1%:
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387
People should remember the context of a respiratory disease in China. 2/3rds of men smoke, and air pollution is common. Things also spread faster there as it’s densely populated with lower hygiene standards than developed countries (for example: spitting is still common in some areas).
And, it does appear to be less lethal outside of China. That may be because healthcare systems are not yet overwhelmed, or it may be because of the smoking and pollution exposure in the different demographics. It is probably even both of those things.
They are guessing this shift could be due to a combination of reduced transmission load and refining treatment protocols.
So the question is why is it ominous that no one in Iran has isolated and uploaded a sequence?
Not ominous as in any way indicative of a conspiracy or otherwise.
Most of the initial testing was sent to Australia and I'm not sure what capability NZ medical labs have yet and I doubt they are sequencing much. There is a chance that the Iranian was sequenced, with media referred to a "deeper" testing protocol after initial tests where negative.