PUBH X938 - Vaccines: policy, personal choices, and public health impact
Description
Angela Ulrich, PhD, MPH (she/her)
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP)
University of Minnesota
Vaccines are one of the most powerful public health tools ever developed. They have been instrumental in the prevention and response to infectious disease threats and have markedly reduced disease incidence, morbidity, and mortality worldwide. However, the vaccine landscape in the United States is rapidly changing. Vaccine mandates, policy shifts, partisan rhetoric, and concerns surrounding vaccine safety and efficacy are woven into an individual’s personal decisions to vaccinate themselves and their families. At the same time, declining vaccination rates and the dismantling of the federal vaccine infrastructure are having tangible impacts on the ability to prevent and respond to public health threats.
In this course, we will review how vaccines are developed, monitored for safety, and utilized for disease control; discuss current challenges and recent changes to vaccination policies; and examine how to communicate the value of vaccines to the public.
This non-credit course meets with the academic course PubH 7200-101 as part of the 2026 Public Health Institute.
Enrollment for this course opens on March 7, 2026.
Additional information can be found on the Public Health Institute website.
Objectives
By the end of this course, learners will:
- Understand how vaccines work
- How vaccine recommendations and guidelines are created
- Changes to US vaccine policy
- How to communicate evidence-based messages about vaccination to the public.
Registration & Cancellation
The registration fee for this course is $595. You will receive an email letter outlining program logistics two weeks prior to the start of the course.
Requests for refunds will be honored in full if a written cancellation request is received prior to the course start date. An administration fee of $50 will be charged to all refund requests received after the first day of class. The University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH) reserves the right to cancel any course. In the event of a course cancellation, registrants will receive a full refund of the program registration fee. SPH is not responsible for refund of travel or other costs incurred by registrants.
SPH will provide a certificate of attendance verifying 1.5 CEUs (15 contact hours) offered for this program. This course is eligible for 15 CPH recertification credits.
All courses are approved for CPH Recertification Credits by the National Board of Public Health Examiners.
Contact & Questions
Email phi@umn.edu.