A University of Toronto investigation into a course that taught antivaccination materials has concluded the instructor’s approach did not warrant concern.

The three-page report, written by the vice president for research and innovation, suggests the course was not “unbalanced” because the students had previously taken other courses that gave them a grounding on the controversy surrounding vaccines.

“Students taking (the course) ... are in their final year of study and are expected to approach controversial topics with a critical lens,” wrote Dr. Vivek Goel, who was the founding president and CEO of Public Health Ontario, the province’s public health agency.

He noted that there were no complaints from students about the course, Alternative Health: Practice and Theory.

Goel noted, though, that the course would have been stronger had it relied more on the scientific literature. And he suggested if it is taught in future students should be given a better understanding of the “context for their assigned readings,” which include videos of and articles published by prominent figures in the antivaccination movement.

As well, he said the course would benefit from having its curriculum developed in consultation with experts in the university’s health sciences faculties. The course was offered as part of the health studies program in the department of anthropology at the university’s Scarborough campus.

“While I do not find that the course is unbalanced, in the sense of the term used above, I do believe it could be strengthened by greater engagement of academic colleagues through such a review process,” Goel said.

A Canadian physician who blogs about evidence-based medicine found the logic in the report difficult to grasp.

“I’m really speechless,” said Dr. Jen Gunter, a Canadian obstetrician and gynecologist who practices in the San Francisco area.

“To say that ‘Oh, in other areas of their education they learned other things’ ... that’s just a cop out. I’m really at a loss. They have to explain this further.”

The university asked Goel to look into the course after some of its professors and a number of external experts complained about it.

Homeopath Beth Landau-Halpern taught the fourth year course in 2014 and 2015. She is the wife of the Scarborough campus dean Rick Halpern.

Landau-Halpern did not respond to requests for an interview. And the university said Goel was not available to discuss his report.

But Althea Blackburn-Evans, the university’s director of media relations, said the course will not be taught in summer school this year or in the coming academic year.

The course description, still available online, says one of the focuses of the course would be “the explosive issue around vaccine safety.”

It also suggests students will be taught about quantum mechanics and the role it plays in health — a claim which inspired some scientists at the university to write a separate complaint to president Meric Gertler, saying the course readings “promote a completely unscientific view of quantum mechanics, in the form of quantum mysticism and quantum healing.”

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Earlier this year Queen’s University experienced a similar controversy when complaints about a course taught by instructor Melody Torcolacci raised concerns about the university’s kinesiology department. Queens investigated and determined that Torcolacci would no longer teach Health 102.

Gunter said the two situations are similar — and disturbing.

“Many of us worry that these types of things represent an overall erosion of academia,” said Gunter. “This sort of erosion of letting things creep in that don’t have any proof, it starts to contaminate the scientific process.”