Syndemic, social anomie and complexity of the COVID 19 emergency

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, declared in 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO), has become one of the crises with the greatest impact on health and its social determinants. Syndemics appear when the health inequity of the prevailing biopolitics displays its power over life. In order to face this syndemic, it is necessary to understand, improve and consider the social determinants of health, with the purpose of restoring the well-being conditions of the population and thus reducing social inequities. The presence of unhealthy environments, the stigmatization of the sick or of health service providers manifested through acts of aggression and violence, reveal social anomie; a moment when the state loses its capacity for normative regulation, which can result in forms of individual and collective resistance that have an impact on preventive work.

The recognition of the syndemic by the political and social actors and the common citizen must move towards a more egalitarian scenario and reassess anomic behaviors. It is necessary to empower the population, promote citizenship, as well as the use of scientific evidence, reconfigure health care systems and, above all, fully integrate the population into the decisions taken and implemented by the state.

Actions against the syndemic and the social anomie resulting from the pandemic and exacerbated by economic-social factors, requires citizen convergence and the reformulation of state biopolitics.