Wearing glasses can reduce the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2

Scientists found that people who regularly wear glasses have a 15% lower risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 than people who never wear glasses – Photo: New York Times/Getty Images

People who regularly wear glasses have a lower risk of being exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, while wearing contact lenses does not offer such protection.

This is the conclusion of a large-scale study on the importance of protecting the eyes from the risk of becoming an entry route for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The Virus Watch study involved more than 19,000 people in England and Wales. Participants had to answer a questionnaire about wearing glasses or contact lenses.

From the beginning of June 2020, participants weekly update their status related to COVID-19. More than 11,000 people send blood samples for testing every month to report whether they have SARS-CoV-2 infection or not.

After assessing the factors that could potentially affect the study results, the scientists found that people who regularly wear glasses have a 15% lower risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 than people who never wear glasses. . For contact lens wearers, the protective effect is 0%.

Therefore, according to the researchers, wearing glasses should be considered as one of the measures to prevent the risk of transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the community and may be valuable to consider when dealing with epidemics. future transmission, as well as preventing the risk of virus transmission in high-exposure areas such as healthcare facilities.