Could wearing your goggles reduce your chance of COVID-19?

A snowHead

This research seems to indicate, that even wearing glasses regularly, can reduce your chance of catching COVID-19 by 82%. So perhaps we should all consider wearing our goggles in gondolas and cable-cars? Maybe even get clear goggles for bars and restaurants! snowHead

Insert your joke about "beer goggles" here >>>>

https://www.livescience.com/covid-19-glasses-protection.html

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/fullarticle/2770872?guestAccessKey=90df3083-7df3-4152-a3ca-edda946a76c6&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=091620

A snowHead

@Poogle,

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Sounds very tenuous. And no mechanism suggested.

Bluff.

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I was thinking that wearing a condom over your head would make the risk zero.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Must be worth some more research. Lets face it we were told that masks were of no use. It seems they are now.

Off to buy shares in safety glass manufacturers just in case. wink

After all it is free

@Poogle, Still don’t think it’s a very convincing paper.

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

@Poogle, that abstract seems to be quite devoid of indicating they have obtained any data to prove the point.

It is the case that liquid over the eyes (basically, tears) drain into the nose. If you had never thought about this, you might think of how one tends to get a sniffly nose after crying. So any contamination of the eyes could, at least theoretically, introduce coronavirus to the cells lining the nose which are susceptible. So it is with good reason that has been mentioned.

However to get infection there needs to be a sufficient amount of virus. If you imagine a worst case scenario of an infected person coughing into their hand and then using a door handle subsequently touched by someone else who then rubs their eye: quite apart from the fact that not all the virus reaching their hand will have been transferred to the door, and likely jsut a proportion of that to the next person, when you rub your eye only a small part of your hand will only ever contact your eye in a way that might transfer virus. So your chance of infection that way is likely to be considerably less than being close to someone else talking for a period of time and your breathing in the droplets they emit every time they make a "s" or "t" consonant.

Now if these people have some new data which suggests different, that is important. But there is no sign of that in the quoted abstract, and it seems more likely that only a few percent of cases at most are caught via the eyes which means the impact of spectaces impeding people rubbing their eyes is unlikely to be to reduce infections by 80%.

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@j b, it's an interesting discussion.

The seem to have found a correlation, but as we all know, correlation does not equal causation. But I do think the numbers seem quite firm: there is a big reduction in infection for people wearing glasses:

Results A total of 276 patients with COVID-19 were enrolled. Of these, 155 (56.2%) were male, and the median age was 51 (interquartile range, 41-5 Cool

years. All those who wore glasses for more than 8 hours a day had myopia and included 16 of 276 patients (5.8%; 95% CI, 3.04%-8.55%). The proportion of people with myopia in Hubei province, based on a previous study, was 31.5%, which was much higher than the proportion of patients with COVID-19 who had myopia in this sample.

But a search for: "virus transmission through eyes", throws-up numerous peer-reviewed papers, where the infection route is confirmed, with many very plausible explanations. It seems to be accepted in the medical community that this is a known transmission risk.

"The plural of anecdote is not data..." but: My mother was a GP, and never had a cold or flu for decades. She said it was because she had trained herself to never touch her face with unwashed hands.

snow reports

I always wear glasses rather than contact lenses to go to the supermarket which is the only shopping I do in person now

Thanks @Poogle, fair enough they come up with an observation even if as you say it does not demonstrate cause.

I am sure virus transmission through the eyes does happen, including for respiratory illnesses. And more generally, infective agents can certainly enter the body via facial touching - though I would guess the benefit of eliminating facial touching would be greater for non-respiratory illnesses like MRSA and norovirus. But your mother's story does give cause for thought.

You know it makes sense.

Back in April I was walking round my local Waitrose and there was a lady actually wearing ski goggles to her weekly shop! wondered if she was a snowHead

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

@snowymum, sounds like she was a something head, but it ain't snow.

A snowHead

276 subjects is simply not a statistically significant sample to conclude anything. Let alone that there's a meaningful reduction in viral infection rates for people wearing spectacles. Yes, it's a useful first step, but you'd have to do a whole load more work to even begin to claim a credible linkage. It's actually quite typical of an interesting small-scale retrospective exercise suggesting causality that gets disproven by larger-scale research. Typically, you'd first revisit the statistics to find equal correlations, such as that most people who died were admitted on a Tuesday, or owned a car, or commuted by bus, or had children etc. etc. i.e. spectacle-wearing was no more significant than a variety of other correlations. I don't criticise the research, but it's like step 1 of 10 in actually proving any linkage.

A snowHead

Everyone should be required by law to quarantine 24/7, 365 Never go outside, ever, period. Seal off your home from the outside and quarantine within from any other living creature, this includes any and all pets, even goldfish. Wear a mask AND goggles 24/7, even in the shower and shower or bathe at least five times per day WITH a 3% bleach solution. Gargle with hydrogen peroxide at least five times each day. Do not allow anyone to within your home to come near you at a distance closer than fifty feet. Constantly clean all surfaces within your home with a 5% bleach solution throughout the day. Vacuum each day, as well. Keep all windows and doors fully shut. Chimney flues, too. Live in constant fear as we must. We must. Trust no one. Everyone is a potential deadly carrier of COVID 1984. Trust only the government as only the government can save us. The government knows what is not just right, but just. The government will save us. If the day arrives whereupon the government claims it is safe, continue to follow these guidelines for at least 10 years.......

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Could wearing your goggles reduce your chance of COVID-19?

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