DAYTON, Ohio — As the pandemic continues, more and more information about COVID-19 is becoming available. Researchers at the University of Dayton learned that the coronavirus may impact college students in more ways than originally thought. 

​It was a struggle figuring out how to make college work in the pandemic world, and at the University of Dayton, after many students contracted the virus early in the semester, the school started the year virtually. That is when assistant professor in psychology Julie Walsh-Messinger said her coworkers noticed something was off with some of their students.

“Earlier in the semester, a couple of my colleagues were talking about how they were noticing really bizarre things from our students like they were showing up to class on the wrong day or turning in things early but apologizing for it being late," Walsh-Messinger said.

Walsh-Messinger recognized those symptoms after dealing with them from COVID-19 herself.

“I couldn’t keep track of anything, and so I thought, 'I wonder if that’s what’s going on with these students,'" she said.

Which is what started the idea for a new study to see how many students that had recovered from COVID-19 have lasting symptoms. The study titled The Kids Are Not Alright showed that more than half of the students reported having symptoms for more than 28 days. 

“I wasn’t anticipating that our 18-22 year olds were going to experience the same thing," Walsh-Messinger said.

Spectrum News 1 was hoping to speak to a student that is experience post-COVID syndrome, but because of those lingering health issues was not able to. 

Those symptoms included fatigue, fever, loss of taste and smell, and headaches. Walsh-Messinger said students weren’t connecting the dots that these symptoms could still be connected to their prior COVID-19 diagnosis.

“They’re not necessarily attributing, what we call brain fog, not being able to think clearly or you’re having slowed thinking, breathing difficulty, and chest pain, it’s not getting connected," she said.

The study is one of the first in the nation to explore how the virus is impacting college-aged young adults. Researchers are hopeful it brings more awareness to doctors about the impacts of the virus to a younger population as well as to professors as they continue to teach these students.

“It’s a tough time for all of us and we all have to be so flexible to begin with," Walsh-Messinger said. "But I do think it’s important that if you’ve got students and you know that they have COVID and they’re doing some really wonky things, it’s not the student, they’re recovering.”