Top Stories | Center For Middle Eastern Studies

After the comparison with Hitler … Merkel faces harsh criticism against her policies

on: May 12, 2020

Berlin (reference) – Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing criticism, which is often repeated by opposition parties and many civil society figures. The criticism comes at a time when Germ... Read more

Erdogan using coronavirus to increase his popularity

on: May 12, 2020

Mahmud al-Batakoshi Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party does not allow the nation’s political parties to offer aid to ordinary Turkish citizens as their country battles... Read more

Russian hospital fire kills coronavirus patients attached to ventilators

on: May 12, 2020

Russian authorities have launched a criminal investigation after two deadly fires in hospital wards treating coronavirus patients in a matter of days. Five coronavirus patients attached to v... Read more

Paris bans drinking by the Seine after crowds celebrate lockdown-easing

on: May 12, 2020

Parisians have been banned from drinking alcohol on the banks of the Saint-Martin canal and the Seine river after police were forced to disperse crowds just hours after an eight-week coronav... Read more

UK coronavirus death toll passes 40,000, official figures say

on: May 12, 2020

The UK death toll from Covid-19 has surpassed 40,000, according to official figures, with almost 10,000 care home residents now having died from coronavirus. The Office for National Statisti... Read more

New coronavirus outbreaks ‘inevitable without robust UK strategy’

on: May 12, 2020

Further outbreaks of coronavirus and rolling lockdowns are inevitable under government plans to ease restrictions and send people back to work in England without a robust strategy to suppres... Read more

New Zealand backs Taiwan joining the WHO despite China rebuke

on: May 12, 2020

New Zealand’s foreign minister has said the country has to stand up for itself after China warned its call for Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Organization (WHO) could damage bila... Read more

Summer holidays likely to be cancelled due to coronavirus, says Matt Hancock

on: May 12, 2020

Summer holidays are likely to be cancelled this year, the health secretary warned, as he said the public need to prepare for the “reality of life” in a period of physical distancing. Matt Ha... Read more

Trump clashes with reporters then abruptly leaves press briefing

on: May 12, 2020

Donald Trump abruptly halted a press conference on Monday after being challenged by an Asian American reporter whom he told: “Don’t ask me. Ask China.” With the stars and stripes at his back... Read more

Using vape, e-cigarettes raises chances of coronavirus infection, death: US research Researchers in the United States found that using vape or electronic cigarettes increased an individual’s susceptibility to coronavirus infection and death. The researchers studied the statistical correlation between the percentage of vapers in US states and the number of coronavirus infections and deaths. Visit our dedicated coronavirus site here for all the latest updates. They found that US states that had a higher proportion of vapers also had a larger number of daily COVID-19 infected cases and deaths. They concluded that with every one percent increase in proportion of vapers in each state, the number of COVID-19 infected cases increases by 0.3139 and the number of deaths increase by 0.3705 in each US state. “The positive associations between the proportion of vapers and the number of COVID-19 infected cases and deaths in each US state suggest an increased susceptibility of vapers to COVID-19 infections and deaths,” the researchers said in their paper. Their research was supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization have warned that smokers face a greater risk of experiencing complications due to the coronavirus. There has been much debate on how smoking, whether regular cigarettes or vaping, affects an individual’s chances of getting infected with coronavirus and possibly dying from the disease. A French study was even looking at whether nicotine could prevent COVID-19 infection. The Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California San Francisco advised: “Reduce your risk of serious lung disease caused by coronavirus by quitting smoking and vaping.” The center explained that e-cigarettes impair the immune system and specifically, weakening the lung’s ability to fight off infections. It also cited several research papers of studies conducted on both humans and animals which suggest that smoking delays recovery from respiratory infections. “As of April 16, 2020, there were 12 papers that had data on smoking and COVID-19 disease progression, 10 from China, 1 from Korea, and 1 from the US. Our meta-analysis of these 12 papers found that smoking was associated with more than a doubling of odds of disease progression in people who had already developed COVID-19,” the center said.

on: May 12, 2020

xResearchers in the United States found that using vape or electronic cigarettes increased an individual’s susceptibility to coronavirus infection and death. The researchers studied the stat... Read more