How to test your eyesight after a coronavirus infection

A rather unusual press conference, given by Dominic Cummings, Prime Minister Johnson’s chief political adviser, in the rose garden of 10 Downing Street, informed me that a coronavirus infection can adversely affect one’s eyesight. Mr Cummings, accused of breaking the guidelines he helped to draft for ordinary citizens, justified a drive to a beauty spot with his wife and young child by explaining that he needed to verify whether his eyesight was good enough to drive back to London to resume work, after recovering from a coronavirus infection.

The following solutions to Mr Cummings’ dilemma have occurred to me. I wonder if my readers can think of any others.

1.     Take your wife and child on a 30 mile drive to a pleasant location on your wife’s birthday. If you do not strike another vehicle or kill a pedestrian, and if your passengers return unscathed, your eyesight is adequate.

2.     Take the same drive by yourself, for the safety of your wife and child. Consider driving to a less desirable location. If you do not strike another vehicle or kill a pedestrian your eyesight is adequate.

3.     Call your colleagues the Chief Medical officer or his deputy for advice.

4.     As stated in the Highway Code and the regulations for UK driving tests available by searching the internet: “You must be able to read (with glasses or contact lenses, if necessary) a car number plate made after 1 September 2001 from 20 metres.”

5.     Call the national health advice service by dialling 111.

6.     Stay at your temporary address in Durham and follow the government’s advice, which you helped to draft, to work at home.

By way of context for my non-UK readers, Mr Cummings has been accused of disregarding the rules that we have all been required to follow during the lockdown. Some people have been fined by the police if they have been found to break the rules.

Helpful guidance as to the regulations can be found online, by a simple search, in A guide to the standards of vision for driving cars and motorcycles. The regulations are defined thus:

“The legal eyesight standard means that you must be able to read a number plate from 20 metres. You must not have been told by a doctor or optician that your eyesight is currently worse than 6/12 (decimal 0.5) on the Snellen scale. If you are in any doubt, you should discuss with your optician or doctor. If required, you may wear glasses or corrective lenses to meet both of these standards. If you do not meet this standard you cannot drive on a public road. If you do drive on a public road, you are guilty of an offence. You should regularly check yourself, whether you meet this standard. Also, if the police suspect that you do not have the relevant standard of vision, they can make you take the ‘number plate test’. If you cannot read the number plate, your licence may be revoked and you could be prosecuted.” Driving 30 miles to find out whether you can see clearly is not generally recommended.