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Few studies have examined preventative behaviour practices with respect to COVID-19 among people living with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus). Using a cross-sectional survey from a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Canadian HIV Trials Network study (CTN 328) of people living with HIV on vaccine immunogenicity, we examined the relationships between participant characteristics and behavioural practices intended to prevent COVID-19 infection. Participants living in four Canadian urban centers were enrolled between April 2021-January 2022, at which time they responded to a questionnaire on preventative behaviour practices. Questionnaire and clinical data were combined to explore relationships between preventive behaviours and (1) known COVID-19 infection pre-enrolment, (2) multimorbidity, (3) developing symptomatic COVID-19 infection, and (4) developing symptomatic COVID-19 infection during the Omicron wave. Among 375 participants, 49 had COVID-19 infection pre-enrolment and 88 post-enrolment. The proportion of participants reporting always engaging in preventative behaviours included 87% masking, 79% physical distancing, 70% limiting social gatherings, 65% limiting contact with at-risk individuals, 33% self-isolating due to symptoms, and 26% self-quarantining after possible exposure. Participants with known COVID-19 infection pre-enrolment were more likely to self-quarantine after possible exposure although asymptomatic (65.0% vs 23.4%, p < 0.001; Chi-square test). Participants with multiple comorbidities more likely endorsed physical distancing (85.7% vs 75.5%, p = 0.044; Chi-square test), although this was not significant in logistic regression analysis adjusted for age, sex, race, number of household members, number of bedrooms/bathrooms in the household per person, influenza immunization, and working in close physical proximity to others. Overall, participants reported frequent practice of preventative behaviours., (© 2023. BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.)

The COVID-19 pandemic-with its wide-reaching social, political, and economic implications-showcases the importance of public health governance. Governmental accountability is at the forefront of societal preoccupations, as state actors attempt to manage the pandemic by using sweeping emergency powers which grant them significant discretion. Though emergency measures have tremendous impacts on citizens' lives, elected officials and civil society have little input in how governments wield these powers. We reviewed available mechanisms in Canadian private, constitutional, and criminal law and found them to be unlikely sources of much-needed accountability. Therefore, we propose that provincial and territorial legislatures modify public health legislation to expand mechanisms to foster public confidence in decision-makers, and bolster accountability to parliaments and citizens., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

This paper explores 18 infertile Canadian intended mothers' experiences using donor eggs to conceive. Their narratives reflect a persistent normative ideology of reproduction and motherhood in Canada, where reproduction is natural, and expected, mother and child are genetically related, and two (genetic) parent families are what is normal. These ideologies permeate intended mothers' experiences of infertility, and their relationship with their egg donor. Much of the intended mothers' grief over their infertility was attributable to the gap between their experience and their perceived sense of normality. While intended mothers' relationships with their egg donor varied across a 'relational spectrum', their desire to minimize the gap between their experience and normative motherhood resulted in many intended mothers choosing less inclusive relationships, to the left of the spectrum, so as to mentally distance themselves from their use of donor eggs. Ultimately, however, in choosing to pursue egg donation, and in normalizing a different understanding of motherhood for themselves, these intended mothers are influencing cultural practices in Canada. In the long run, they, and others like them, are likely to alter cultural attitudes and conceptions of 'normality' when it comes to reproduction and motherhood.