Health by Hayden Johnson
Premium Content Highly-paid workers at the coalface of Queensland s COVID-19 response are becoming harder to recruit, prompting fears a worsening skills shortage will hamper the state s ability to fight public health emergencies. Environmental Health Officers, grassroots workers on the frontline of the pandemic, are increasingly hard to source as school leavers instead study the more high-profile nursing, teaching or corporate careers. During COVID-19 officers have assisted Queensland Health s contact tracers, screened airport passengers and assessed the spread of the deadly virus. Just eight students will graduate from Griffith University s Environmental Health course this year, prompting fears from course Professor Anne Roiko that the lack of interest would result in chronic skills shortages over the next decade.