I’ve had it since I was in grade school and so has my brother. I just read a Medscape item about the Silent Worldwide Epidemic of myopia. It seems that this chronic condition has become much more widespread in recent decades. In France, the prevalence of myopia during the 50’s was 15%, and now it is 40%. In some parts of Asia, the item says, the prevalence of myopia among young adults is as high as 90%. The earlier one develops myopia, the earlier that it can progress to blindness, says this report.
Well, La-Dee-Fucking-Dah! In the United States, myopia affects virtually 100% of Republican lawmakers and their adoring voters. Among Christian Nationalist Evangelicals, it progresses rapidly to irreversible Willful Blindness – a legal rather than medical diagnosis, by the way.
The article recommended that children be encouraged to play outside in the light of the sun, and that their screen time be monitored. Near visual work worsens myopia. So does dogma, I would add. And, having your head up your ass is bad too. So, I would add to the experts’ recommendations that we cut down on Christian indoctrination, Sunday school activities, and expand the scholastic curriculum to include a wider range of authors and their works to include but not be limited to the sad history of American colonization, enslavement of people of color, and institutionalization of inequality including treating women and children as chattel.
I’m just saying – as a geriatric myopic myself.