C O VID-19 A YEAR O N

Students and staf continue to feel the efects of COVID-19 one year after the spread of Omicron

With the abandonment of mask and 6-foot distance requirements, it may seem as if the days of COVID-19 are no longer. Yet for the students and teachers struggling with longterm coronavirus symptoms, the ghost of COVID-19 lingers.

In November of 2021, junior Reid Kaluger began to lose his sense of taste and smell just as his other symptoms of COVID-19 died down. Presently, over a year after catching the virus, Kaluger has yet to fully regain these senses.

“At frst, I thought it was cool because I can’t smell bad things. But after a while, I realized my smell was not coming back. That was when I realized it was actually a pretty [unfortunate] thing,” Kaluger said.

According to Kaluger, his loss of smell seems random; there are some things he can smell, others he can’t. His reduced taste, however, is a greater “disappointment.”

“I eat less of what I used to eat because it’s become harder fnd foods I like. My selections are going down a bit. Certain foods I can’t really taste at all anymore, like cereal and cheese,” Kaluger said.

Although losing senses of taste and smell are the most well-known symptoms of COVID-19, efects can extend to injuries and degradations to other parts of the body, such as in the case of English teacher Megan

Walker. Although she contracted the virus from her preschool-aged son nearly a year ago, Walker still struggles with fatigue and muscle weakness, symptoms she noticed were lingering months after her initial sickness.

“I couldn’t walk from my couch to my kitchen holding my four-month-old child. It was very, very, difcult. I kept calling my doctor, and they kept saying to just give it time, but it was the beginning of March [two months after contracting the virus]. I started to think, ‘This isn’t normal. I need to go see someone,’” Walker said.

After multiple physician appointments and inefective prescriptions, Walker was referred to a UCLA long COVID-19 clinic. However, the massive infux of patients prevented her from getting an appointment until several months later, forcing her to manage her symptoms with little aid.

“It was a really, really rough couple of months. I wasn’t able to play with my kids. I wasn’t able to take my daughter for a walk