Spring 2027

Conspiracies in Public Health

Explores how skepticism and conspiracism affect public health interventions like vaccination and HIV treatment. Prepares health professionals to educate communities about these topics.

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Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

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Lectures are mid-sized, with a median of 57 enrolled students in the recorded sections.

Section enrollment · Fall 2026 snapshot ↗

What you’ll be able to do

  • Describe popular and less popular conspiracy theories related to biomedical and public health interventions and their origins.

  • Explain the psychological and psychosocial basis of conspiracy theory adoption and perpetuation.

  • Implement techniques to change individual and public opinion and behaviors related to public health and medical interventions.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades

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Prerequisites

Course map

Graduate/professional standing

  • Graduate/professional standing
POPHLTH 721

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Prerequisite text tree
  • Graduate/professional standing

Professors

Spring 2027

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Historical instructors & teaching patterns

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Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

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Student experience

the class

Skepticism and conspiracism can be barriers to successful implementation of public health and medical interventions such as vaccination, fluoridation of water, and HIV treatment. Conversations between people with opposing viewpoints, whether face-to- face or via social media, often devolve to disparagement and dismissal. Awareness of or experience with such exchanges causes us to avoid tackling such "hot button" topics with friends, colleagues, and members of our communities. While it is all too easy to believe people who adopt conspiracy theories to be members of the fringe, research has shown that medical conspiracy theories are widely known, broadly endorsed, and highly predictive of many common health behaviors. Prepares health professionals to educate communities about important public health and medical interventions.

difficulty & workload

No workload feedback recorded.

Topics

  • Barriers to public health interventions including vaccination, water fluoridation, and HIV treatment due to skepticism and conspiracism.
  • Psychological and psychosocial factors underlying the adoption and perpetuation of conspiracy theories.
  • Dynamics of conversations between opposing viewpoints regarding health topics, including face-to-face and social media interactions.

Skills

  • Describing conspiracy theories related to biomedical interventions and explaining the psychological and psychosocial basis of their adoption.
  • Implementing techniques to change individual and public opinion and behaviors related to public health and medical interventions.

Grades

Instructor

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Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

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Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
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  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "15904235b7706636678b738c26c04af01020e2fa065348cfe1d7db140064cc93",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}