Adam Smith’s Green Thumb and Malthus’ Three Horsemen: Cautionary tales from classical political economy

This essay identifies a contradiction between the flourishing interest in the environmental economics of the classical period and a lack of critical parsing of the works of its leading representatives. Its focus is the work of Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus. It offers a critical analysis of their contribution to environmental thought and surveys the work of their contemporary devotees. It scrutinizes Smith's contribution to what Karl Polanyi termed the "economistic fallacy," as well as his defenses of class hierarchy, the "growth imperative" and consumerism. It subjects to critical appraisal Malthus's enthusiasm for private property and the market system, and his opposition to market regulation. While Malthus's principal attraction to ecological economists lies in his having allegedly broadened the scope of economics, and in his narrative of scarcity, this article shows that he, in fact, narrowed the scope of the discipline and conceptualized scarcity in a reified and pseudo-scientific way

Single-dose BNT162b2 vaccine protects against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection

The BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) is being utilised internationally for mass COVID-19 vaccination. Evidence of single-dose protection against symptomatic disease has encouraged some countries to opt for delayed booster doses of BNT162b2, but the effect of this strategy on rates of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection remains unknown. We previously demonstrated frequent pauci- and asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection amongst healthcare workers (HCWs) during the UK’s first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, using a comprehensive PCR-based HCW screening programme (Rivett et al., 2020; Jones et al., 2020). Here, we evaluate the effect of first-dose BNT162b2 vaccination on test positivity rates and find a fourfold reduction in asymptomatic infection amongst HCWs ≥12 days post-vaccination. These data provide real-world evidence of short-term protection against asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection following a single dose of BNT162b2 vaccine, suggesting that mass first-dose vaccination will reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission, as well as the burden of COVID-19 disease

Isotretinoin Administration Improves Sperm Production in Men with Infertility

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2017-06University of Washington Abstract Isotretinoin Administration Improves Sperm Production in Men with Infertility John K. Amory MD, MPH Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Dr. Nina Isoherranen, Associate Professor Department of Pharmaceutics Objective: There is currently no effective medical therapy for men with infertility due to oligoasthenozoospermia (OA). As men with OA have lower concentrations of 13-cis-retinoic acid in their testes, we hypothesized that men with infertility from OA might have improved sperm counts when treated with isotretinoin (13-cis-retinoic acid). Design and Setting: We conducted a single-site, single-arm, pilot study to determine the impact of therapy with isotretinoin on sperm indices in 19 infertile men with OA. Subjects: Subjects were men between 21 and 60 years of age with infertility of more than 12 months associated with sperm concentrations below 15 million sperm/ml. Intervention: All men received isotretinoin 20 mg by mouth twice daily for 20 weeks. Outcome Measures: Subjects had semen analyses, physical examinations, routine blood counts, and chemistries every four weeks during treatment. Results: Nineteen men enrolled in the study. Median (25th, 75th) sperm concentration increased from 2.5 (0.1, 5.9) million/ml at baseline to 3.8 (2.1, 13.0) million/ml at the end of treatment (p=0.006). No significant changes in sperm motility were observed. There was a trend towards improved sperm morphology (p=0.056). Six pregnancies (three spontaneous and three from ICSI) and five births occurred during the study. Four of the births, including all three of the spontaneous pregnancies, were observed in men with improvements in sperm counts with isotretinoin therapy. Conclusions: Isotretinoin therapy of men with OA is associated with improvements in sperm production. Additional studies of isotretinoin therapy for men with infertility from OA are warranted