EPIDEMIOLOGY 101: FREE ONLINE COURSE FOR AFRICA-BASED JOURNALISTS
Course dates: July 13 to 31, 2020
Timings: 90 minutes, Mondays & Thursdays, via Zoom [7 to 8.30 PM South Africa Time]
Rationale:
The COVID-19 crisis has put health reporting on the front pages of all media worldwide, but has also raised big challenges with fast-tracked research that is often contradictory, compromised normal standards of scientific peer-review and dissemination, sensationalized media reporting, and confused policy makers making irrational decisions.
All health and science journalists will benefit from understanding the fundamentals of epidemiology, so they can critical read medical research studies and media releases, and report them in an accurate and balanced manner. But many health journalists lack training in epidemiology and public health.
This short, introductory course builds on a similar course (https://www.teachepi.org/courses/epidemiology-for-health-journalists/) offered to Indian health journalists, aims at health/science journalists in Africa, and will use topical examples from COVID-19, to cover issues such as types of epidemiologic studies, how to measure disease frequency and risk, importance of bias and confounding, and review various common study designs, including observational studies and randomized trials. The main emphasis would be on how to consume and critically read literature.
Instructors:
Madhukar Pai, MD, PhD is a Canada Research Chair in Epidemiology & Global Health at McGill University, Montreal. He is Director of the McGill International TB Centre.
Ngozi Erondu PhD, MPH is an Infectious Disease Epidemiologist. She currently consults as an Associate Fellow at the Chatham House and a Senior Public Health Advisor at Public Health England.
Teaching assistants:
Iya Saidou Conde, MD, MSc received his MSc from the London School of Hyg & Trop Med. He is currently supporting the WHO Covid19 response in DR Congo.
Chido Dziva Chikwari, MSc, PhD received her PhD from the London School of Hyg and Trop Med. She works at the Biomedical Research and Training Institute in Zimbabwe.
Co-hosted by Bhekisisa, MESHA, Chatham House, and McGill TB Center.
To apply, visit: https://bit.ly/2MQaa5b
Deadline: 30 June.