A new study by Chinese researchers has found that eyeglasses may be a protective factor against COVID-19. Their findings, published in JAMA Ophthalmology this week, said that people who wear eyeglasses for long periods of time are less susceptible to COVID-19 infections.
According to Fox News, scientists have speculated that the eyes could potentially be a source of infection. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Yat-Sen University previously published findings that verified “the ocular surface cells including conjunctiva are susceptible to infections by SARs-CoV-2, and could therefore serve as a portal of entry as well as a reservoir for person-to-person transmission of the virus.”
The current study, from The Second Affiliate Hospital of Nanchang University of China, found that fewer people who wear glasses were admitted to the hospital since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan in December 2019, according to Fox.
The authors theorized that eyeglasses hindered the transmission of the virus from entering the eyes and also inhibited people from touching their eyes to potentially transfer the virus.
“For daily wearer of eyeglasses, who usually wear eyeglasses on social occasions, wearing eyeglasses may become a protective factor, reducing the risk of virus transfer to the eyes and leading to long-term daily wearers of eyeglasses being rarely infected with COVID-19,” said the researchers, according to Fox News.