During the Covid pandemic the world was focused on staying healthy and staying alive with particular focus on the respiratory system and other vital parameters.

Scant notice was given to the fact that thanks to people being forced to be indoors ,practically all activity involved the eyes…. Either in the form of work from home or for leisure and gaming activities. Kids had to endure close to two years of Home schooling.

This led to a different pandemic… of eye and ophthalmic related problems!

Children who had never had any numbers or refractive errors suddenly complained of decreased vision due to short sightedness induced by prolonged staring at a screen.

Adults who had back to back zoom calls or binge watched TV shows had a high incidence of DRY Eyes and Computer vision syndrome.

Others who had chronic conditions , like glaucoma or retinal conditions ,which require continual supervision had no recourse to do so. This has led to several people with drastically reduced eye sight and worsening of glaucoma control. Cataracts were left unchecked and untreated.

With the Covid pandemic on the wane it is time to address this other pandemic on a war footing.

Regular eye exams and advanced screening tests where required are the need of the hour.