An entire generation is passing on the health care sector.

Why would 95% of grade 12 students (97% in the North) apply to a college or university health care program when they are ineligible to work in the field?

These highschool students are not so-called “anti-vaxxers”. Almost all of them have chosen to take other teenager-required vaccines to attend school. But still, 95% of them made a different choice on the COVID shots. They are making a choice that is against the public health recommendations and a choice that will make them ineligible to work in the field.

Every day we see headlines about the healthcare crisis in Canada. There is a perpetual shortage of qualified health-care workers in our country. Last week the premier of Ontario announced new changes that will let health-care workers licenced in any province to work in here.

Last year the Canadian and provincial governments started aggressive campaigns to recruit health-care workers from overseas. Primarily from developing countries. Our leaders are spending millions to solve the problem that only seems to be getting worse by the day. The Ontario government recently claimed that job postings for Personal Support Workers has more than quadrupled since 2017.

The poaching of health-care workers from places that likely need them much more than we do has dominated the headlines over the last year. Another emerging storyline is the fact that thousands of health care workers who have been fired over vaccine mandates are ready, willing and able to return to work at any time. This idea is often discounted because most assume that these individuals represent too small of a number to make a meaningful difference in the workforce.*

*This is an argument I challenged earlier this week. Check it out.

But the under discussed story is the overall lack of desire for jobs in the field.

Every province and institutions has increased the incentives for students to choose health care. But still, enrollment is not keeping up with the demand presented by the amount of staff leaving the field through retirement, burnouts or firings (because of failure to abide by vaccination policies).

This problem is even more pronounced in rural and northern communities. In his latest annual report, the Director of the Au Chateau nursing home in Northern Ontario, stated that one of the major challenges of the home was recruiting. He pointed out that locally,

“colleges have seen PSW enrolment decline tremendously”

Colleges are actually offering health care programs for free. Yes. A free post-secondary education if you choose health care. But still, no one is taking them up on their offers.

One of the reasons for the lack of enrolment is the low wage for many jobs in this field. Others blame the fact that the healthcare field is perpetually understaffed which leads to terrible employee moral and makes the prospects of joining them unattractive.

The Elephant in the Room

Less than 10% of individuals under 30 are “up to date” on their COVID shots and likely ineligible to work in the field.

But there is one other reason that must be considered for the current and eventual decline in enrollment for all health-related fields.

In order to be employed by the majority of health care settings in Ontario, you must be “up to date” on your COVID shots. Most workplaces are no longer governed by provincial or federal laws on these rules so they adopt their own policies. For most health care setting across Ontario and North America, the current requirement is that 3 shots of COVID vaccines are needed to work in the field. This could soon become 4 shots as the definition of “up to date” is always changing.

Currently in Ontario, only 21.3% of 12-17 year olds have chosen three shots. Only 4.6% have chosen four shots. As of January 15th less than 10% of those under 30 have chosen a COVID shot in the last 6 months.

Again, this problem is also felt more in Northern and rural communities. In the North Bay and Sudbury districts, only 16.2% of high school students have 3 doses and less than 3% have chosen 4.

This is the generation deciding what career field they will enter and 79% (84% in the North) of them are ineligible to work in any health care setting today. Over 95% of them will be intelligible when these workplaces inevitably change their policies once again.

Why would 95% of 17 year old students in grade 12 (97% in the North) apply to a college or university health care program? Why would any parent recommend this avenue for their children?

I know the common argument; Health-workers have always been required to keep up with their vaccinations, so this is no different. But as I noted earlier this week, the COVID shot is not like any other vaccine. Not even close. And the uptake is not the same.

One of the routine shots for 14-17 year olds in Canada is the Tdap vaccine (protecting against Tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis). This one is required to attend high school and is highly recommended to work in the healthcare field in Canada.

So what is the uptake rate on this Tdap among the same cohort?

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada in 2019 (last available data on this immunization) over 95% of 14-17 year olds had chosen the Tdap vaccine and were up to date. That is likely because the Tdap vaccine has been used for over 25 years (since 1996) with a very low serious adverse events rate.*

As summarized in a great post on Twitter and verified in the Public Health Ontario and PHAC data, the Tdad vaccine (single dose) has averaged 0.10 serious adverse events per 100,000 doses between 2012 and 2019. Compare this to the COVID vaccines (multiple doses) which have averaged 2.93 and 4.02 serious adverse events per 100,000 doses.

*A serious adverse event is labelled as a serious if it results in a hospitalization or death.

This means that a 17 year old has approximately a 33x higher chance of being hospitalized by a COVID shot than from their Tdap shot. 100x higher chance when you consider that they need 3 of them to currently work in healthcare (compared to only one Tdap shot). This does not even take into account that teens (and especially male teens) are disproportionately much more likely to succumb serious adverse events from the current COVID vaccines.

So these highschool students are not so-called “anti-vaxxers”. Almost all of them have chosen to take their regular childhood immunizations. But still 95% of them made a different choice on the COVID shots. They are making a choice that is against the public health recommendations and a choice that will make them ineligible to work in the most short-staff sector of our society.

It’s time to turn the page before too much damage is done.

The obvious solutions is to set aside beliefs, differences in opinions, and even basic health recommendations for a minute. It doesn’t matter if the Public Health consensus in Canada still thinks that all 17 year olds should be “up to date” om COVID shots. All that matters is that they aren’t. And this doesn’t seem to be changing.

It’s seems clear that that most doctors only view the COVID “vaccines” as a form a personal protection and no longer a tool to prevent the spread. Additionally every health care setting in Canada is experiencing just as many COVID outbreaks as before the vaccine rollout. It’s also clear that our health care sector is in crisis.

So it’s time we just let people make their own good or bad personal health choices. It’s time that we welcome back the 95% of high school students to choose health care as a career. We might be able to save our collapsing health care system in the process.