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Dear Editor:

I would like to thank the Toronto Star for continuing to inform us with
numerous front-page stories about the major breakthroughs being made by
biomedical researchers (Toronto team unlocks immune system secret, Jan.
18).  Sadly, just about all of this research is limited to studies of mice with
potential implications for improving human health in the far-off future.

Why then is the Star not covering the very many health studies that are
emerging about how social factors such as poverty, social isolation, lack of
support and food affect human health?  Similarly, many health researchers
are also turning their attention to how the effects that political decisions made
by governments threaten the health of the population by increasing the gap
between rich and poor, removing the social safety nets that keep people
healthy, and weakening the glue of social cohesion that keeps people from
turning on each other, thereby weakening their health and producing illness.

Perhaps for every ten stories the Star covers on biomedical aspects of
health, it can consider reporting one on the social determinants of health.
This would be a small beginning in providing some balance to its reporting
of health issues.

Dennis Raphael
Associate Professor of Public Health Sciences
University of Toronto
416-978-7567

cc. Carol Goar, Tanya Talaga, Ombudsman, Tom Walkom