Policy shifts for evolutionary medicine

Evolutionary medicine, which blends principles from evolutionary biology and medicine, is poised to offer fresh solutions to several of today’s major public health issues. In their Frontiers in Science article, Natterson-Horowitz et al. shed new light on current health challenges—ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to obesity and its associated comorbidities—through the lens of evolutionary principles (1). Despite its potential, evolutionary medicine is still in its infancy, and, with a few notable exceptions (2, 3, 4), its tenets have yet to find their way into mainstream medical practice and health policy.