PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. — Vision specialists are seeing another by-product of the pandemic: more patients experiencing eye strain and vision problems as the use of digital devices has surged.

Studies show people are now spending up to 13 hours a day watching screens, increasing their exposure to blue light, which is similar to damaging ultraviolet light.

“Recent research shows that a specific part of the blue spectrum is also toxic, particularly to the retina, and so we’re concerned with all this extra exposure we’re going to see long term problems from the blue light there are also short term problems with something we call digital eye strain,” said Dr. Scott Edmonds, Chief Eye Care Officer for United Healthcare Vision.

To protect your vision, keep devices at least 30 inches from the eyes and take a break from looking at a screen every 20 minutes for 20 seconds, focusing on an object in the distance.

Unvaccinated Adults and COVID Tests

And researchers say that about half of unvaccinated adults who thought they had COVID-19 were proven wrong by antibody tests.

The social media survey by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found that 45% of people who thought they had COVID, but never confirmed it, actually had no spike antibodies.

In those confirmed to have been infected, tests showed that 99% did have COVID antibodies.

Those with confirmed cases still had COVID antibodies nearly nine months after infection.

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