We will use the recent measles outbreak in the United States as a lens into the history and also (murky) future of infectious disease outbreaks in our human race. We’ll cover outbreaks and outbreak dynamics, along with foundational topics in microbiology, immunology, and infectious disease. We’ll also situate the current measles outbreak in the context of the ongoing conversation about vaccination, autism, and the complicated search for truth in the age of easy information.

This course requires no specific scientific knowledge, however a rudimentary understanding of biology is helpful.