“Syndemics and Clinical Science”

When policymakers ask why some communities have higher death rates from COVID-19 compared with other communities, those working from a syndemics framework argue that multiple factors synergistically work in tandem, and populations with the highest morbidity and mortality experience the greatest impact of these interactions. In this piece, Emily Mendenhall and her co-authors use specific case examples to illustrate these concepts. They discuss the emergence of syndemics, how epidemics interact, and what scientists, clinicians and policymakers can do with this information.