ARTICLE IN PRESS+Model OPTOM-362; No. of Pages 2 Journal of Optometry (2020) xxx, xxx---xxx www.journalofoptometry.org SCIENTIFIC LETTERS From evidence to fake news terms of methodology, for avoiding potential bias. To extract conclusion from a weak meta-analysis, based on weak stud- i a L a t p g p s w a O p w f a t d w o t C a f t t d t i f R The last months, Coronavirus has invaded everything. Every aspect of life has been affected and our concept of reality has changed. Of course, Optics and Optometry as a Health Care Profession, was never going to be immune to all these changes it has been experienced since March 2020. Nor to the uncertainty of the coming months or years. A notable aspect of the impact of the coronavirus in our profession has been, and continues to be, the disinforma- tion, and especially related to the greater or lesser safety of the use of glasses compared to contact lenses. A scientific article published in February described the conjunctivitis as one of the main symptoms of COVID-19 (even though only 0.8% of patients presented it).1 This study, together with another relating that coronavirus could remain on inert sur- faces such as silicone rubber, has provoked an information stream contraindicating the use of the contact lens due to the risk of coronavirus infection.2 Fear of coronavirus has led to the recommendation of the disinfection of contact lenses for 6 h with hydrogen peroxide without neutralization, when there are recommendations for disinfection of other objects with hydrogen peroxide 6 times less concentrated for just one minute.3 The scientific evidence prior to the coronavirus pandemia shows that contact lenses disinfection is safe even against pathogens more resistant than the current coron- avirus. So, what is causing such disinformation? A cocktail of excess and uncontrolled scientific ‘‘evidence’’ together with the desire to find the most shocking headline, mixed with some of coronavirus panic.4 As health professionals, optometrists should meditate, and at the same time, disclose to the entire society, that a scientific article is not enough to create scientific evidence. In this coronavirus era it has been published on this topic almost 10,000 articles in less than 5 months, most of them as a pre-print without having to go through peer reviews. It seems that everything about coronavirus can be published and probably that is the first mistake. But, it is essential to be critic reading any scientific article and keep in quarantine any conclusion that it may obtain, even when it seems logical or beneficial to our interest. Meta-analysis is a very strong tool to support the scientific evidence. It is defined as ‘‘examination of data from a num- Please cite this article in press as: Carracedo G, Villa-Coll https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optom.2020.07.003 ber of independent studies of the same subject, in order to determine overall trends’’.5 However, not only the studies should be independent, but they should be very robust in https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optom.2020.07.003 1888-4296/© 2020 Spanish General Council of Optometry. Published by BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) es evaluation, is more dangerous than to do the same from unique study, due to higher meta-analysis credibility. The misuse of a recent meta-analysis, published in the ancet, has caused the use of spectacles to be recommended s a suitable means of prevention.6 A previous belief, about he safety of spectacles due to the indication of approved ersonal use of protective glasses (medical masks, safety lasses or face shields) in specific settings for infected atients care already existed. Nevertheless, these facial hields provide a completely different protection from that hich the standard prescription spectacles could provide nd should be not considered eye protection for coronavirus. nly one study,7 also in pre-print, about the effect of eye rotection (face masks or goggles) against Covid-19 infection as analyzed. The study was carried out on health care pro- essionals who worked in patient care with this pathology, nd no differences were found in terms of preventing infec- ion between those who wore eye protection and those who id not. The rest of the data described in the Lancet article ere extracted from other studies about the infection with ther coronaviruses such as MERS or SARS and therefore, he same behavior could not be deduced for others such as OVID-19. There is insufficient evidence now to support such radical recommendation for the general population. In summary, it is so important that Heath Care Pro- essionals are very careful providing scientific evidence han to spread this information to the population. Without he enough critic mind to detect what is real and confi- ence information, some professionals and institutions in he optical sector have adopted this biased and insufficient nformation in order to be the first one to advise. And there- ore, moving from evidence to fake news. eferences 1. Seah I, Agrawal R. Can the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID- 19) affect the eyes? A review of coronaviruses and ocular implications in humans and animals. Ocul Immunol Inflamm. 2020;16:1---5. 2. Kampf G, Todt D, Pfaender S, Steinmann E. Persistence of coro- naviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with ar C. From evidence to fake news. J Optom. (2020), biocidal agents. J Hosp Infect. 2020;104:246---251. 3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc. gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/faq.html#How-to-Protect-yourself, 2020. Elsevier Espa?a, S.L.U. 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E-mail addresses: jgcarrac@ucm.es (G. Carracedo), villacollarc@gmail.com (C. Villa-Collar). 15 June 2020 8 July 2020 ARTICLEPTOM-362; No. of Pages 2 4. Gonzalez-Meijome JM. Science, pseudoscience, evidence-based practice and post truth. J Optom. 2017;10:203---204. 5. https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/meta-analysisMeta- analysis definition. . [Accessed 6 June 2020]. 6. Chu DK, Akl EA, Duda S, et al. Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: a systematic review and meta- analysis. Lancet. 2020;395:1973---1987. 7. Burke RM, Balter S, Barnes E, et al. Enhanced contact inves- tigations for nine early travel-related cases of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States. medRxiv. 2020, http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1101/2020.04.27.20081901, published online May 3. (preprint). onzalo Carracedo Please cite this article in press as: Carracedo G, Villa-Col https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optom.2020.07.003 Optics II (Optometry and Vision) Department, Faculty of ptics and Optometry, Universidad Complutense de adrid, Madrid, Spain PRESS SCIENTIFIC LETTERS ésar Villa-Collar ∗ Department of Pharmacy, Biotechnology, Nutrition and ptics and Optometry, Universidad Europea de Madrid, illaviciosa de Odón, Madrid, Spain lar C. From evidence to fake news. J Optom. (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.optom.2020.07.003 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0020 https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/meta-analysis http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 http://refhub.elsevier.com/S1888-4296(20)30085-6/sbref0025 dx.doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.27.20081901 dx.doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.27.20081901 mailto:jgcarrac@ucm.es mailto:villacollarc@gmail.com From evidence to fake news References