Systematic news media scanning and synthesis: creating a dataset of emergent initiatives and localized responses to public washroom provision in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

News media are an underused source of localized information on complex and structural public health issues that are neglected in policy and unaccounted for in mainstream data collection. We applied systematic review search methods to online news media and developed a dataset highlighting municipal reactions and initiatives in response to public washroom pressures during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reliance on consumer-based models of washroom access “became news” amid the closures and lockdowns. Our results showed that many municipalities were grappling with the issue, but overwhelmingly responding with temporary and pandemic-specific measures that did not address the needs of marginalized groups.