For students with chronic illness and preexisting conditions, attending university was already like pushing a car with an empty gas tank down Hillsborough Street in neutral. Taking necessary COVID-19 precautions made managing these conditions that much more alienating and the road before the gas station that much longer. 

These students already struggled to manage their symptoms while keeping up with their “normal” friends, challenging classes and demanding work schedules. They did this all while trying not to feel like a shell of a person during what, for most people, are the prime years of their active life. These students are more estranged than ever before as they were forced to take cover in the face of the world’s first pandemic in a century.

Managing doctors’ appointments, the needle pricks, the exhausting symptoms and countless emails to professors for extensions was once supported through the Student Services Center and the Disability Resource Office. However, now that many of these students are away from campus to protect themselves from a deadly COVID-19 infection, they are overwhelmed, almost out of resources and without a friend to lean on.

NC State’s wellness days may provide some extra time to take a break from the paralyzing “I feel like I forgot to submit an assignment” anxiety, but it does not make the virus go away; it does not provide an opportunity for students who need the most protection to see their friends for a mental health recharge — nothing can.

Many of these students are holding out hope for their approved vaccination appointment days to arrive, but even then, there is a waiting period of 21-28 days between shots — if supplies are available in time. Whether students choose the single or double shot vaccine, there is a two week waiting period for full vaccination effect. Even then, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends maintaining COVID-19 precautions until they know more about how the vaccine affects the spread of the disease. 

When you look into the future and see the possibility of fully in-person classes in the fall 2021 semester, it seems like these students may not have to continue to be tucked away. However there will never be a “normal” for our students with such illnesses and preexisting conditions. There will still be the burden of managing daily symptoms with friends, classes and work. That is why these students are some of the strongest in the Pack and some of the most determined people NC State professors have had the privilege of teaching. 

Check on your friends with preexisting conditions and illnesses. Remind them this isolation is not forever. Reassure them of how far they have come and how hard they have worked to be here, to live and to thrive. Continue to protect the pack by following NC State COVID-19 precautions so that we can all be together again in the fall with a full gas tank.