SSM Population Health This article proposes that non-state armed groups may make different decisions than state governments in response to public health challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws upon the case of Hezbollah in Lebanon to investigate whether movement levels differed between areas with Hezbollah’s private governance in comparison to other areas of…
Read MoreMiddle East Eye This article shows how the pandemic and the subsequent rush towards vaccination illustrated the tremendous gap between rich countries and poorer countries and also the immense inequities that exist between countries and regions themselves. The article points to the Middle East as the region where inequities have been most intense. Article
Read MoreNature Communications This article investigates the relative contributions of regional and intercontinental connectivity to the source-sink dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 for Jordan and the Middle East. By integrating genomic, epidemiological and travel data, the authors show that the source of introductions into Jordan was dynamic across 2020, shifting from intercontinental seeding in the early pandemic to…
Read MoreEgyptian Streets Egypt’s Minister of Finance declared during his proposed budget speech that the country had lost 440 EGP, about 23.4 billion dollars due to the Russian-Ukrainian war and the COVID-19 pandemic over the span of the last two years. Article
Read MoreDoctors without Borders This article from MSF reports on the failure of the COVID-19 vaccine Humanitarian Buffer (HB) in its mission to support populations hit by the pandemic and struggling to have access to immunization. The HB is part of the COVAX mechanism from the WHO and aims to assist populations who do not have…
Read MoreAmnesty International Amnesty International reports on many barriers preventing residents from getting their vaccines in a mountainous area by the Tunisian-Algerian border where the organization has conducted field research. They say that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the weakness of right to health protections in Tunisia and particularly when it came to vaccine rollout programs and…
Read MoreJournal of International Women’s Studies This article examines the response of the North African countries to the COVID-19 pandemic, the opportunities and the challenges facing the region, and the lessons learned in order to be better prepared for impending crises. Journal Article
Read MoreJournal of International Women’s Studies This article explores how foreign aid and COVID-19 assistance, including medical supplies and COVID-19 vaccines’ supply, have created a new source of soft power for the UAE. It presents an overview of UAE’s history of humanitarianism, conceptual and theoretical framework, methodology, factors enabling UAE’s COVID diplomacy, and the UAE’s contribution…
Read MoreZoonotic Diseases This article investigates the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic in Northwest Syria, a conflict-affected region, for nine months. The novelty of the study is provided by simulating the progress of the COVID-19 outbreak in conflict settings, as it is the first study to predict the dynamics of COVID-19 disease in Northwest Syria by…
Read MorePreprints This article investigates the impact of COVID-19 on seven air pollutants from the period January 2020 to December 2020 in the State of Kuwait. Authors found that concentrations for the pollutants decreased during the pandemic due to the decrease of anthropogenic sources including such as traffic and petroleum activities, but the concentration for PM2.5…
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