It appears that a lot of people didn’t follow the guidelines on how to protect themselves while enjoying the solar eclipse.
Ahead of the April 8th eclipse, NASA sent out a warning that looking directly into the eclipse without special glasses could cause major eye injuries.
“Viewing any part of the bright sun through a camera lens, binoculars, or a telescope without a special-purpose solar filter secured over the front of the optics will instantly cause severe eye injury” said NASA on their website.
The American Medical Association also warned people of the potential damage of looking directly into the eclipse.
Via PEOPLE
“Even a few seconds of viewing the sun during an eclipse can temporarily or permanently burn the macula,””Once retina tissue is destroyed, it cannot regenerate, resulting in permanent central vision loss.”
Unfortunately, during this afternoon’s peak totality in the United States, which occurred at around 3 p.m. EST, Google search trends for “why do my eyes hurt” exploded.
The google search trend map today of “my eyes hurt” perfectly aligns with the solar eclipse line of totality. 🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/q1TDb8Z7v2
— Danny Neckel (@DNeckel19) April 9, 2024