In, "The New Public Health Hegemony: Response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in Toronto", Sarah Sanford and S. Harris Ali, discuss the SARS outbreaks in Toronto and the subsequent effects through the lens of hegemony. Hegemony "... explains how the dominance of one group emerges in society through the acquisition of compliance from the general population" (Sanford & Harris, 2005, p.2). This becomes a very effective form of social control because those who are being subordinated are willing participants in the subordination and those who are subordinating are put into their positions by those below them.
The article also discusses the "underlying ideological element of public health as a 'moral enterprise' " (Sanford & Ali, 2005, p.7). Public health services tell us the way we should be living our lives and there are consequences for those who do not. People who get lung cancer are immediately assumed to be smokers whether they are or not, and then it is considered their fault that they have this horrible disease. Even today there is a debate over whether or not soda should be taxed because of its implications in obesity and other health problems. Many people see it as okay to tax soda because it is bad, and the people who drink it willingly deserve the health problems they get.
The inequalities that are inherent in a capitalist society are also inherent in the systems within it. Just because the public health systems are charged with maintaining the greater good, does not mean that they are blind to class, creed, or even color. The incidents in Toronto at the height of SARS only give us a window into the possibilities of complete and utter inequities that could take place if a true outbreak of any magnitude ever took place here.
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