Association of Daily Wear of Eyeglasses with Susceptibility to Covid Infection | Hacker News Reader

Association of Daily Wear of Eyeglasses with Susceptibility to Covid Infection

jamanetwork.com

13 pointsnotacoward10 comments

Interesting results, but this seems like a rather small sample - 276 hospitalized patients. Id like to think we have enough data now to analyze these things more holistically, but I guess not?

The bottleneck isn’t patients, it’s researchers. ICU nurses aren’t going to record every possible relevant piece of information from a patient.

Does anyone have statistics on how many people are underserved medically in China? One reason this could happen is that people with glasses are more privileged, tend to work office jobs, etc.

In the USA, our underclass (DoorDash, et al) is able to afford eyeglasses, but that's not necessarily the case elsewhere.

In China, at least in cities, glasses are cheap. And so are eye tests (or at least tests to check the level of myopia in each eye).

IIRC, myopia is less prevalent in rural China than in cities, presumably because kids in rural areas spend more time outdoors. So perhaps people with glasses are more privileged on average, but maybe not because eyecare is unaffordable.

That's a good point, I forgot about the outdoor link. People who spend more time indoors are probably more likely to a. have an interest in computers/knowledge work and b. more likely to have ample space to spend time indoors comfortably.

In many places with multi-generational (cramped) housing, it's common for young people to spend much more time outdoors to get away from their parents.

How about glasses protecting the eye and membranes from aerosolized virus droplets?

Yes, the article summary suggests that glasses protect the virus from entering the eyes. But it talks more about how glasses reduce the number of times you touch your eyes.

Confirms my intuition, but the magnitude of the effect seems like it’s probably overstated. 5.8% vs 31.5% would suggest a lot more infection occurs via the eyes than seems plausible.

I wonder about the timing and behavior aspects. If there was near total compliance with masks and if they are highly effective then it would make sense that remaining infections were via the eye.

But I'm surprised wearing a mask with glasses wouldn't lead to more incompliance or accidental exposure due to fogging..

Eye transmission. Shocker. Eye protection is for you. Masks protect others against you. It’s always this way with aerosol viruses. I don’t know why they were so certain that this one only infects through the lungs. Actually they also said masks don’t work, until they did. Why would any rational person keep trusting para-scientific authorities? I’m not authority nor expert, but I’d recommend mask and goggles for any high-traffic low-volume spaces. In other SARS epidemics, it was spreading through poorly-designed ventilation of hospital bathrooms. Apparently thats the worst aerosol environment, so be especially careful in public bathrooms, avoid if possible. Don’t expect that we’ll ever snap back to normal.

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