So where aren't we seeing uptake? What populations deserve sort of that equity focus at this point in time?

Um, so, so there's, there's many.

I mean, in the HIV epidemic, we know that, uh, we always wanna be thinking about some of the key populations that have borne a disproportionate burden.

And largely in Canada since the beginning of the epidemic, roughly half of the epidemic has occurred among gay, bisexual, other men who have sex with men.

However, within that group, there are actually many folks who are doing as a population or as a group actually fairly well in terms of PrEP uptake, and we see disproportionately low uptake among sexual minority men who may face intersecting identities that have been historically underrepresented.

So, for example, racialized GBM, gay, bisexual, other men who have sex with men, Black, Indigenous, two-spirit individuals are over-represented.

And then when we think about other populations aside from sexual minority men, as we mentioned a moment ago, Indigenous populations in some parts of the country, again, it's quite varied, right? There's many, many Indigenous identities and communities across this huge land, of course.

How can a physician walk through the risk assessment with a patient to determine if a strong recommendation should be made from our side of the table, as opposed to someone coming to us sort of self-identifying the risk?

Are you concerned that it's taking so long to arrive here?

Uh, you know, I've got faith in our regulatory s- apparatus here in Canada.

Their job is to carefully review the science, critically review every piece of documentation that they're provided by, uh, a drug company.

I think Canadians should be, um, pleased that we have a, a rigorous review process.

Um, does it take a little longer than we would like? Sure.

Maybe that happens to some extent, but I think it's a matter of, uh, Health Canada doing a s- a, a careful and thorough job at, at ensuring that a drug they are gonna say and ratify, you know, this, a, a, a, deserves regulatory approval because it's safe enough and effective enough for our populations.

I think that's a, a reasonable thing, uh, for them to do.

Yeah.