'Occupational hazard': The teachers battling Long Covid

Auckland teacher Josh McMillan is still struggling with breathlessness and throat complications after a severe bout with Covid-19. "It feels like I've become an old man." Photo / Michael Craig

Teachers have told of debilitating health problems months after contracting Covid-19 – an ever-present risk in our classrooms they say still isn't being taken seriously enough.

The pandemic has stretched schools to the limit this year, with sick leave among teaching staff already ballooning by 80 per cent.

But less clear is the toll of Long Covid: a wide range of long-lingering symptoms that accompany perhaps one in 10 infections - and which one expert has called an "occupational risk" for teachers on the front line.

For Auckland teacher Josh McMillan, symptoms like brain fog, fatigue and breathlessness have been a daily reality since a severe bout with the virus.

"Things that I've never experienced in my life have suddenly appeared," he told the Herald.

"Last week, I was ready to go home at one o'clock in the afternoon ... I just didn't have the brain power to get to the next lesson. It feels like I've become an old man."

Another Auckland secondary teacher, Richard Smythe, caught Covid-19 back in term one – most likely from pupils in his class who'd tested positive.

His infection left him with unexplained heart palpitations, constant tiredness and sleeping problems, until his GP finally diagnosed him with Long Covid.

"I'd wake up after having a 10-hour sleep and then feel like I needed another 10-hour sleep. That tiredness hasn't gone away."

Memory problems, too, have persisted – and there'd been times where he'd needed reminding on how to get to classrooms, or even what time of day school finished.

But, amid extended periods of sick leave, his biggest worry had been for his students.

"You have a heart for everyone you teach and you feel like you've let them down, even though you know it's not your fault."

One secondary school staff member, who asked not to be named, said her lasting symptoms from a May infection have remained severe – forcing her to take nearly five years' worth of built-up sick leave in just a few months.

"I can't afford to get sick again. I can't afford to have a relapse. It's really tough."

All the while, she said her school had been hit hard by Covid-19 – with up to 17 staff off on some days.

"Who was covering that? By the time school holidays came around, everyone was exhausted. Coming back this term, we've already had six or seven staff off a day."

Another teacher told the Herald that, three weeks after her own infection, she'd been too weak to walk down her own stairs.

Since returning to work, days have been hard.

"I'm in charge of special needs at my school, which is quite a stressful job," she said.

"I thought some of what I was feeling was just work-related stress. But when I went back to my doctor, she told me that my brain fog should have lifted, and my lung capacity should be better."

Before receiving a diagnosis, she'd "limped on" until she was eventually forced to appeal to her bosses to work from home whenever she could.

Although masks were being strongly recommended for school staff and students this term, the Government has stopped short of reintroducing classroom mandates. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

"These days, by Wednesday or Thursday, I'm in bed no later than 8pm, when my memory function completely drops off," she said.

"I feel like I use all my good at work – then I've just got nothing left for home."

On top of that relentless exhaustion was a fear of catching the virus again.

"I don't want to get it again, but I'm very aware that I'm being sent back to a school where Covid is essentially living and breathing," she said.

"Education is hard anyway, but when you're not feeling 100 per cent, it really impacts the way you perform."

Another teacher at an Auckland junior high school said her battles with Long Covid were similarly relentless.

"There have been times driving home where I've wanted to pull over to the side of the road and call somebody to come and fetch me."

The teachers told the Herald they were passionate about their jobs – but worried that enough wasn't being done to protect those on the front line.

"As teachers, we sit in rooms with perhaps 125 different people every day that can potentially make us sick," one said.

"Outside of healthcare, I can't think of many other jobs that come with that level of exposure."

While acknowledging the pandemic had put pressure on all sectors, they wanted to see greater Government support for schools and teaching staff over the long term, including safer work environments and better sick leave provisions.

This year schools have been able to draw on a special Government relief fund to help cover absences of teachers and other staff, and pay for relievers filling in for them while away sick.

That fund also extended to teachers who needed ongoing sick leave because of Long Covid – and disregarded sick leave could also be granted if a person's ongoing illness with Covid-19 could be directly traced to their employment.

"We are currently looking at other support options for Terms 3 and 4, that will reduce the burden on schools to submit claims for relief teacher costs for the remainder of 2022," the Ministry of Education's leader of operations, Sean Teddy, said.

New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) national president Liam Rutherford said that, while teachers with Long Covid had approached his union for help, the exact impact on the sector was unknown, given that data wasn't being reported.

Rutherford said sick leave was a priority issue for teachers and a claim in ongoing collective agreement negotiations – and there also remained a chronic shortage of relief teachers available to support the system.

New Zealand Post Primary Teachers' Association (PPTA) president Melanie Webber was aware of teachers who'd had other medical conditions aggravated by Covid-19, causing them to use more sick leave.

"We're also aware that some teachers have had difficulty getting access to leave that they are entitled to, often due to the shortage of relief teachers, and PPTA is trying to resolve this."

University of Auckland immunologist Anna Brooks said that, so long as Covid-19 continued to circulate and reinfect people, the risk of Long Covid remained. Photo / Supplied

University of Auckland immunologist and Long Covid researcher Dr Anna Brooks said the UK's experience had already shown the health and teaching workforces to be most at risk.

"But unlike in hospitals, where workers are given PPE and N-95 masks, there's no such stringency in schools because mask-wearing isn't mandatory," she said.

Although masks were being strongly recommended for school staff and students this term, the Government had stopped short of reintroducing classroom mandates.

Brooks said that, although scientists were still learning about Long Covid, so long as the virus continued to circulate and reinfect people, the risk remained.

In classrooms, where children could be similarly vulnerable, mitigation measures like mask use and ventilation were all the more crucial, she said.

Otago University epidemiologist Dr Amanda Kvalsvig – who has called for a "high suppression" approach to Covid-19 focused on air quality, masks and staying home when sick - said New Zealand should be "highly concerned" about impacts on school staff.

"It's not sustainable to have high levels of sickness absenteeism among staff and students, with the risk that some may not be well enough to return to school for months after their initial illness," she said.

"You then risk creating a domino effect, where covering for absent colleagues creates additional risk of stress and burnout for the staff who are left.

"We simply cannot afford to let the school system fall over, even temporarily, because of the potential life course impacts on those students who are at a critical point in their education journey."