Now that you’ve learned a little bit about infectious diseases and epidemiology, you’re developing the tools you need to be an informed consumer of the news about COVID-19 and other emerging infectious diseases. Here’s your chance to put it to the test:

For this week’s initial response: Find and debunk a myth about COVID-19 or another emerging infectious disease. Use evidence and epidemiological reasoning to refute incorrect claims, and be sure to be clear about which issues are definitely wrong, and which issues are more uncertain.

For your follow-on participation: Make at least two substantive responses to your classmates, as usual.

Don’t forget to use (and cite) evidence to support your arguments in both the initial response and your follow-on participation. You may use whatever citation style you prefer.

Detailed instructions (from the syllabus)

Initial response (50% of discussion assignment grade): A post of approximately 200-350 words that directly addresses one of the week’s discussion topics and cites appropriate evidence to support your ideas (details below). Due: 11:59 PM Thursday.

Follow-on participation (50% of discussion assignment grade): Write two or more substantive posts in response to other students’ initial responses and cite appropriate evidence to support your ideas (details below). Substantive posts do more than say, “I agree,” or “I disagree.” They add new evidence and new insight to the discussion. Follow-on posts should generally be 100-250 words long, but shorter or longer responses are acceptable as long as they make a significant contribution to the week’s discussion. Due: 11:59 Sunday.

Your initial response and follow-on discussion posts should cite evidence from sources such as journal articles, reports by governmental and non-governmental organizations, news articles, and / or class lectures. Personal correspondence with global health practitioners or personal experience may also be used, provided that other forms of evidence are also presented. You may choose whatever citation style you are most comfortable with.

For each component of the discussion assignment, you may earn a Pass (100%), a Fail (0%) or partial credit (50%). Partial credit may be earned by partially completing the assignment (e.g., posting only one follow-on response; making a substantive initial response, but failing to cite any evidence; making a substantive and useful response that is somewhat off-topic; etc.)