For many of us, the COVID-19 pandemic hit at a pivotal moment in our lives. Whether this was high school graduation, entering or finishing university, or in the middle of our academic careers, we all felt the impacts as restrictions tightened and Facetime calls became the norm instead of face-to-face conversations. When the 2022 to 2023 academic year started, we began to see these restrictions loosen as we returned to in-person classes and social lives around the university began to pick up. For the majority of those who caught COVID-19, it was easy to move on and adjust to these post-pandemic policies. Unfortunately, for approximately 15 percent of adults who caught COVID-19 in Canada, it has been hard—or even impossible—to move on from their infection. This is because they suffer from long COVID, a debilitating condition that can cause myriad issues in an academic or career setting.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ‘long COVID’ describes the persistence of symptoms long after the initial COVID-19 infection ends. The World Health Organization specified that the condition “occurs in individuals with a history of probable or confirmed SARS CoV-2 infection, usually three months from the onset of COVID-19 with symptoms that last for at least two months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.” This condition does not have an exact timeline, meaning any individual can suffer for weeks, months, or even years before the symptoms disappear. The symptoms themselves are variable, dependent on the individual, but often include fatigue, shortness of breath, and cognitive dysfunction. As one can imagine, any one—or combination—of these symptoms could drastically impact abilities to study or perform well at school.
As students at the University of Toronto, many of us deal with tiredness daily (shoutout to the Bay and Charles Starbucks for getting me through many sleepless nights), but the deeper fatigue caused by long COVID creates a recipe for difficulty in school. For instance, a study on fatigue in university students demonstrated that fatigue caused difficulties in task-switching and negatively impacted cognitive flexibility. When our courses expect us to be able to prepare for a laboratory in a science class and then immediately switch to writing a philosophy paper due the same day, long COVID fatigue may mean that it takes longer to adjust to this new task or even make it impossible to complete both effectively. On top of the issues caused by fatigue, long COVID can cause cognitive dysfunction. This broad term can include issues with attention, cognitive processing speed, and memory. Already, it is possible to see that these symptoms would cause difficulties being a student as we try to study for multiple midterms or pay attention in late lectures. In fact, the issues caused by long COVID have already been noted by university students across the world. A student from the University of Bristol discussed that after contracting COVID-19, she could no longer continue in person and was given the choice of taking a year off or completing online modules for classes. Her experience shows how long COVID can alter the course of a student’s academic career, even delaying graduation. Finally, outside of academics, individuals suffering from cognitive dysfunction and fatigue may have difficulties playing sports or going out with friends, which in turn can worsen mental health conditions.
Evidently, long COVID can drastically impact students— both socially and academically. Thus, it is high time that the university adjusts its accommodation policies to account for long COVID. While students are currently able to declare multiple absences, the university is planning to change their maximum absence declaration from 14 days to seven days. This policy fails to recognise the very real impacts of dealing with long COVID, the continuing symptoms of which may mean that students have to take longer periods of time away from in-person lectures. In my opinion, this absence declaration policy should be altered in order to recognise the fact that long COVID—and other conditions—can cause issues across many weeks, leading students to miss multiple lectures or tutorials that require attendance. Moreover, the university has yet to implement accessibility services for those dealing with the condition. This means that, despite one of the main symptoms of long COVID being cognitive dysfunction, students are unable to access extensions or extra time on testing. It would be beneficial for the university to provide extra support to these individuals, allowing them to access accommodations so they are able to excel in their courses.
Long COVID as a condition can have drastic impacts on individuals’ health and capabilities, which the university has not considered as we enter the new academic year. I hope that this article serves as a call for changes in accommodation policies and absence declarations that will assist all students in their academic lives.
