Health care’s social movement should not leave science behind

Americans are dying at startling rates, not only from COVID-19 but also its reverberating socioeconomic effects: massive unemployment, food insecurity, social isolation, and stress-related increases in smoking, alcohol use, opioid use, and suicide. To save lives, we need scientific advances, not only in biomedicine—virology, vaccine development, and critical care—but also in interventions that the address social determinants of health. Yet, at a time when a scientific approach is needed more than ever, science has been a key political battleground during the pandemic.