Eye protection

Manhattan: Your article “People who wear glasses may be up to 3 times less likely to catch COVID, new study suggests” (Feb. 22) does not mention an important consideration: Researchers have been publishing papers since the middle of the last century that observe how the immune system behind the eye has a very reduced protective reaction to infectious invaders. Counterintuitively, the research community calls this reduced capacity “immune privilege,” where perhaps it should be called “immune underprivileged.” I have yet to see a study about whether COVID infections can be traced back to exposure through the eye or inhalation. While there is reason to assume the latter is much more common, we do not know if exposure through the eye yields a significant percentage of infected people. So yes, eyeglasses, eye shields and face shields are important protective measures in keeping the coronavirus at bay.

Ingrid Eisenstadter

Cops release surveillance images Tuesday of a suspect in a Spider-Man hat being sought for mugging a 68-year-old man at a Brooklyn train stop.

The suspect (photo) — clearly a fan of the city’s most famous wall-crawler — was one of two men cops say attacked straphanger Juraj Zima from behind as he got off an R train at the Bay Ridge Ave. station about 3:30 p.m. last Thursday.

One of the men struck Zima in the head while the other rifled through his pockets, taking his ID, MetroCard and $30 in cash.

The two crooks then split up, with the man wearing the red Spider-Man hat and a black surgical mask running out of the station. The other mugger jumped on the train as it departed the station. They have not been caught.

Zima suffered a cut to the left side of his face, his wife. Helen Zimova, told the Daily News on Saturday.

“They punch him, he’s a little bit bruised, but it’s fine,” she said as she bemoaned the rise in violence underground.

“It’s terrible, especially now,” said the 68-yearold woman. “There’s not much people, and it’s very scary traveling, and so much homeless.”

The attack comes as the NYPD has deployed hundreds of extra cops into the subway system to combat a rash of attacks that includes two stabbing deaths and a spree of mentally ill people pushing passengers to the tracks.

Cops are asking the public’s help identifying the suspects in Thursday’s incident and tracking them down.

Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. Thomas Tracy