By Staff
Wednesday, January 20, 2021 2:18 PM
So many ODs have already had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Women In Optometry’s latest Pop-Up Poll queries ODs about their experience with getting the vaccine.
Take the latest poll titled Vaccine Side Effects and answer questions about what your experience with the vaccine has been like.
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By Staff
Wednesday, January 20, 2021 11:00 AM
WASHINGTON—Retail sales during 2020’s November-December holiday season grew an unexpectedly high 8.3 percent over the same period in 2019 to $789.4 billion, exceeding the National Retail Federation’s holiday forecast despite the economic challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, NRF said last week. The numbers include online and other non-stores sales, which were up 23.9 percent at $209 billion.
By Staff
Wednesday, January 20, 2021 12:30 AM
NEW YORK—The only increase in optical sales last week (Jan. 11-17) was in the category of exams/refractions. Most other optical sales categories were down -4 index points for frame units and lens pairs and -3 index points for gross revenue. However, contact lens sales were down substantially over the course of the last week at a rate of -14 index points. Regionally, the Midwest and West suffered the largest declines in optical sales when compared with the Northeast and South, which also experienced decreases albeit at smaller rates.
By Staff
Tuesday, January 19, 2021 1:00 PM
Worldwide PC shipments totaled 79.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2020, a 10.7 percent increase from the fourth quarter of 2019, according to preliminary results by
Gartner. The research firm said that PC shipments reached 275 million units in 2020, a 4.8 percent increase from 2019 and the highest growth in ten years.
The accompanying
chart by Statista illustrates Gartner’s findings.
By Staff
Tuesday, January 19, 2021 12:30 PM
There's a new COVID-trend on the block:
doubling up on masks. Recently, both prominent Americans, like President-elect Joe Biden, and regular people have been wearing two face masks while out and about, to double up on coverage. But does it help, or does more fabric just make it harder to breathe? According to
The New York Times, double-masking definitely isn't necessary for everyone. But those who wear flimsier face coverings, or those who just spend a lot of time in contact with others, can benefit from the practice. Head over to
The New York Times for more.
By Staff
Friday, January 15, 2021 11:03 AM
The CDC is urging Americans to double down on precautions to thwart the spread of the coronavirus, as the new B.1.1.7 “super strain” takes hold in the U.S. New CDC modeling shows the new strain could cause more than half of new infections in this country by March, even as the U.S. races to deploy vaccines.
By Gwendolyn Plummer
Friday, January 15, 2021 8:33 AM
NEW YORK—Across the country, COVID-19 vaccine rollout has kicked off. Most states are still in the early phases of vaccination, which usually includes older, more vulnerable members of the population, and certain frontline and health care workers. In many states, those health care workers include ECPs. For many, receiving a COVID-19 vaccine is a cause for hope, joy and celebration. To honor the science that got us here, many in the optical community have taken to social media to share the news of their vaccinations—and to share what
The Cut is calling “The Vaxxie,” or the Vaccination Selfie. Here we take a look at The Vaxxie in the optical community.
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By Gwendolyn Plummer
Friday, January 15, 2021 8:30 AM
NEW YORK—Across the country, COVID-19 vaccine rollout has kicked off. Most states are still in the early phases of vaccination, which usually includes older, more vulnerable members of the population, and certain frontline and health care workers. In many states, those health care workers include ECPs. For many, receiving a COVID-19 vaccine is a cause for hope, joy and celebration. To honor the science that got us here, many in the optical community have taken to social media to share the news of their vaccinations—and to share what
The Cut is calling “The Vaxxie,” or the Vaccination Selfie. Here we take a look at The Vaxxie in the optical community.
By Staff
Thursday, January 14, 2021 12:57 PM
Now that people are getting vaccinated againt COVID-19, it's only natural to wonder how long it will take before things start to go back to
some semblance of normality. According to some experts, at least 50 percent of Americans will need to be vaccinated before we start to see a change in the infection rate—but that's not all there is to it. Head over to
Fast Company for the rundown.
By Staff
Thursday, January 14, 2021 8:00 AM
WASHINGTON—Imports seen during 2020 appear to be headed toward a new record despite the coronavirus pandemic, and remain at high levels as 2021 begins, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report recently released by the National Retail Federation (NRF) and Hackett Associates.
“Nobody would have thought last spring that 2020 would be a record year for imports, but it was clearly an unpredictable year,” NRF vice president for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said. “Consumers and retailers once again proved their resilience in the face of unprecedented challenges. Thanks in part to government stimulus, retail sales saw strong growth during 2020 even with the pandemic, and import numbers show retailers expect the economic recovery will continue during 2021.”
By Staff
Wednesday, January 13, 2021 12:30 AM
NEW YORK—U.S. optical sales continued their nationwide resurgence last week (Jan. 4-10) following the New Year and Christmas holidays. All categories, except exams/refractions, surged to numbers well above even pre-Thanksgiving levels. In fact, all categories, except exams/refractions, returned to sales rates comparable to pre-pandemic levels, and were even higher in the case of contact lenses, according to the latest Jobson Practice Performance Tracker.
By Staff
Tuesday, January 12, 2021 1:00 PM
Fatigue, post-exercise malaise and cognitive dysfunction (or brain fog) are the most common symptoms reported by COVID long haulers 6 months after contracting the coronavirus, according to a
new preprint study published on MedRxiv.
By Staff
Tuesday, January 12, 2021 11:00 AM
The United States has allocated more than 641,000 monoclonal antibody treatments for outpatients to ease pressure on strained hospitals, but officials from Operation Warp Speed report that more than half of that reserve sits unused as clinicians grapple with best practices.
By Staff
Monday, January 11, 2021 10:03 AM
The lockdown last spring caused patients to delay seeking routine medical care. Looking at the effects of this on vision, new research in Ophthalmology found that about 40% of people who were scheduled to see a retina specialist for intravitreal injections during this time either cancelled or were no-shows. They noted that the delay in care of about five weeks caused vision loss in many of these individuals. The chart review included patients aged 18 or older with DME and/or PDR, wet AMD or RVO who were scheduled to see a retinal specialist during the mandated lockdown starting in mid-March 2020. These individuals had received an intravitreal injection in the 12 weeks prior.
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