output could be increased by roughly 271 billion US dollars .........................

According To estimates from the WHO, global output could be increased by roughly 271 billion US dollars if all patients with severe visual impairments received the appropriate eyewear.



Global Vision Crisis

However, the global crisis in relation to the number of uncorrected visual defects that could be removed by eyeglasses or contact lenses is worsening. 2.2 billion people do not currently have access to eyecare, 625 million people have to live with defective vision or the threat of blindness because there are simply no eye doctors or optometrists in their country who could examine their eyes and fit the appropriate eyewear. However,defective vision will increase around the globe in the future – because, for example, the world population will grow faster than the number of optometrists,making it increasingly difficult to guarantee widespread eye care. But also because our modern lifestyle poses new challenges to good and healthy vision.Experts estimate that 1 billion people will be affected by high myopia, or severe short-sightedness, in 2050 - 15 October 2018

As a responsible company and a leading supplier of medical solutions for eye and vision care, ZEISS together with the Christoffel Mission For the Blind (CBM) and other partners is committed to ensuring that more people in all regions of the world gain access to this care.


What glasses help when, and why early detection is so important: what everyone should know about good vision is contained in the brochure “A Clear View of Life“.

see all of it:s


https://www.zeiss.com/week-of-sight/...tml#didyouknow

How many people need glasses depends on the definition of “need”.

For many years the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) have endorsed relatively low estimates of the number of people who need but don’t have glasses to see in the distance: fewer than 200 million globally. That is because their criterion for need was a visual acuity of 20/60 (6/18) i.e. if you had visual acuity of 20/60 or better in at least one eye, the WHO said you did not need glasses.

However, someone with acuity of only 20/60 will fail the driving sight test in countries such as the UK; according to the UK government, such a person cannot drive safely without glasses. Most researchers would consider 20/60 too poor for a child in school to function in the classroom. (To be as fair as possible to the WHO/IAPB position, it is not so much that they said someone with visual acuity of only 20/60 does not need glasses, rather that they simply failed to say anything much at all about ordinary people who just need a pair of glasses; all the research papers and policy announcements and campaigns focused on the minority of people with the most severe cases of refractive error.)
More recently, the optical industry – especially leading suppliers of lenses for glasses such as Carl Zeiss Vision and Essilor – have endorsed much larger numbers for the population in need: about 2.5 billion globally. This is based on a definition of need that is more in accordance with the expectation of eye care professionals that most people should achieve “20/20 vision”. Influential researchers and public health officials are beginning to accept these larger numbers.

Perhaps the estimates are inflated to support philanthropist and corporate growth initiatives? There are people in modern society today that have poor V/A and should wear corrective lenses but do not, for various reasons.

That's really interesting

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Originally Posted by Lab Insight

Perhaps the estimates are inflated to support philanthropist and corporate growth initiatives? There are people in modern society today that have poor V/A and should wear corrective lenses but do not, for various reasons.

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Lab Insight, is your thinking going in the same direction as mine ?

A few years back Essilor started to educate a couple of thousand young people in India to refract and hand out and sell glasses in mostly remote outlying areas. They also bought up one of the largest group of labs there, and have progressed to become one of the largest suppliers. So they created an all over impression of being the good guys.

I am now wondering if Zeiss is intending, or economically being pushed to follow similar steps as their now French/Italian competition

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Originally Posted by Robert_S

That's really interesting

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Yes it is...............................

Is it for the good of humanity or the start of a commercial expansion ?