Author: TheConversation

By Christopher Beem, Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State Decades ago I helped organize a conference that brought together vaccine skeptics and public health officials. The debate centered on what governments can and cannot demand from citizens, and what behaviors one can rightly expect from others. It took place many years before the current coronavirus pandemic, but many things that happened at that conference remind me of our circumstances today. Not least, as a political theorist who also studies social ethics, it reminds me that arguments grounded in self-interest can...

By Shi Yan, Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State University • David M. Zimmerman, Associate Professor of Psychology, Missouri State University • Kelly T. Sutherland, Ph.D. Candidate in Applied Psychology and Prevention Science; Data Manager at the Center for Open Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell • Miko M. Wilford, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Lowell Despite a constitutional right to a jury trial, more than 94% of criminal convictions in the United States result from guilty pleas, not jury verdicts. Even innocent people, those who did not commit the crimes of which they are...

By Ranjith Ramasamy, Associate Professor of Urology, University of Miami Contrary to myths circulating on social media, COVID-19 vaccines do not cause erectile dysfunction and male infertility. What is true: SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, poses a risk for both disorders. Until now, little research has been done on how the virus or the vaccines affect the male reproductive system. But recent investigations by physicians and researchers here at the University of Miami have shed new light on these questions. The team, which includes me, has discovered potentially far-reaching implications for men of all ages – including younger...