It is obvious. The prevalence of diabetes and high blood pressure varies by neighbourhood in Toronto. The following maps from Ontario Community Health Profile Partnership (OCHPP) website display this geographical disparity. The maps use a colour scale; the darker the area higher the rate. We can find a clear geographical gradient. It ranges from 4.4 per 100 (the lightest colour) to 19 per 100 individuals (the darkest colour) with regard to diabetes (Map 1). But the rates vary from 16 per 100 (the lightest colour) to 31.6 per 100 for high blood pressure (the darkest colour) (Map 2). Map 1:…

Those who know public health know Prof. Irving Zola‘s “upstream vs downstream” parable. Irving Zola is a medical sociologist. His friend, John McKinlay, describes Zola’s parable in his 2019 article, “A case for re-focusing upstream: The political economy of illness”1. The “Upstream boat” sails through this upstream path. Following is the reproduction of the parable; ” I am standing by the shore of a swiftly flowing river, and I hear the cry of a drowning man. So, I jump into the river, put my arms around him, pull him to shore, and apply artificial respiration. When he begins to breathe,…