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.
Les articles de presse sont une source sous‑utilisée de renseignements locaux sur des questions de santé publique complexes et structurelles qui ne sont pas abordées dans les politiques ou prises en compte dans la collecte de données courantes. Nous avons appliqué des méthodes de revue systématique aux articles de presse en ligne et créé un ensemble de données sur les interventions et les initiatives des municipalités face aux problèmes de toilettes publiques durant la première année de la pandémie de COVID-19. L’utilisation de modèles fondés sur la consommation pour l’usage de toilettes a fait la manchette durant les périodes de fermeture et de confinement. Nos résultats ont montré que de nombreuses municipalités se sont attaquées à ces problèmes, mais largement en usant de mesures temporaires relatives à la pandémie, ne tenant pas compte des besoins des groupes marginalisés.
Keywords: COVID-19; Canada; equity; media; news; public health; toilets; washrooms.
Systematic news media scanning offers a different way to connect the disconnected for issues neglected in policy and unaccounted for in mainstream data collection. Public washrooms are critical public health infrastructure, yet they are scarce and there is little data on their provision. We adapted systematic review search methods to online news media to capture municipal responses to public washroom pressures during the first year of the pandemic. The resulting dataset showed that 33 unique municipalities across all provinces were represented in news coverage; responses to public washroom pressures were overwhelmingly temporary, pandemicspecific and lacked consideration for needs of diverse user groups.