Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Publisher
CourseSource
Source Publication
CourseSource
Source ISSN
2332-6530
Original Item ID
DOI: 10.24918/cs.2025.39
Abstract
Vaccine hesitancy threatens herd immunity, contributing to the resurgence of measles outbreaks. This lesson engages upper-level biomedical science students in analyzing the complex interplay between vaccination rates, herd immunity and vaccine exemption policies through examination of the 2019 New York measles outbreak that threatened the United States’ measles elimination status. Students critically evaluate anti-vaccine misinformation, analyze epidemiological data and develop evidence-based policy recommendations to increase vaccination rates. The lesson combines team-based learning with authentic assessment through vaccine policy development, moving beyond knowledge acquisition and content to building scientific literacy and evidence-based reasoning skills essential for scientifically literate citizens and future healthcare professionals.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Klockow, Laurieann, "From Misinformation to Policy Solutions: Teaching Herd Immunity and Vaccine Hesitancy through Real-World Case Studies of Measles Outbreaks" (2025). Biomedical Sciences Faculty Research and Publications. 274.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/biomedsci_fac/274
Comments
Published version. CourseSource, Vol. 12 (2025). DOI. © 2025 Klockow. Used with permission.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.