‘Long COVID’ is keeping kids out of school, Merced doctor warns

MERCED, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Children being absent from schools has become such a major issue that the Merced County District Attorney has issued warrants for parents and guardians, but a doctor in Merced says the chronic absenteeism may actually be a symptom of “long COVID.”

According to Dr. Pam Roussos, the issue first came to her attention three years ago when COVID restrictions were lifted in schools: Merced schools then saw a 40% absenteeism rate.

“When we’re going over to [look at] the actual Covid, wastewater, we’re seeing right here that there was a huge peak in 2022 when schools opened,” Roussos said. “That was when we had that 40% chronic absenteeism.”

Roussos says, “long COVID,” is similar to measles.

In the same way that someone can experience acute measles, they could also experience acute COVID; Roussos says the experience would typically happen between one and two weeks.

However, while the initial infection can cause a few weeks of symptoms, Roussos says that people can experience after-effects for an indefinite amount of time.

Roussos says measles works the same way, the biggest difference is that there are decades of research regarding measles, not COVID.

“For measles, we definitely know that there’s been a long history and decades, if not centuries, of observation of what happens post-measles infection,” Roussos said. “This time, we’ve only had about five years of observation.”

Roussos says that in the past five years, experts have made a few observations and found that several variables can affect the severity of long COVID. She says the symptoms of long COVID can also be difficult to discern from other illnesses.

“For one, in children it’s not very, diagnosed because it’s new, it’s evolving and their symptoms are often very different,” Roussos said. “Parents might notice that the children are a little bit fatigued or they’re not able to do their normal activities.”

According to Roussos, the symptoms of long COVID can include:

• abdominal symptoms
• diarrhea
• difficulty sleeping
• anxiety
• immune dysfunction

While students are a population that is significantly more vulnerable than most to long COVID, Roussos says any setting can be vulnerable.

“Restaurants, stores, schools, nursing homes, hospitals, healthcare centers,” Roussos said. “This really is a bigger issue than what the schools are potentially aware of.”

According to Roussos, warrants aimed at quelling absenteeism won’t be effective if 10% of adults and up to 25% of children are suffering from long COVID.

“If we start to punish children and parents who are chronically absent and there’s an underlying undiagnosed long COVID illness, then that defeats the purpose,” Roussos said. “We really need to focus on the cause of chronic absenteeism.”

Roussos says that at this time, there are definitive ways to test for long COVID. But a diagnosis can be reached through online questionnaires and a doctor finding immune biomarkers, which Roussos says is indicative of long COVID.

Roussos says the best way to combat long COVID is proper ventilation, including air purifiers with MERV 13 air filters and even moving indoor activities outside.

“It really needs to be a comprehensive look at air quality and ventilation,” Roussos said.