COVID-19 Booster Caused Hearing Loss, Tinnitus, Middle Ear Myoclonus

Just following up - checking around for relevant studies on this connection - most of the large scale studies I can find are assessing data in 2020 (e.g., Munro December 2020 is cited by many sources) when we were dealing with more dangerous variants. I hope there will be some more up to date accurate and reliable data available. It may be that the picture has changed somewhat.

On the tinnitus.org.uk website - a study cited (University of Manchester 31.7.2020) claimed that 6% of hospitalised cases developed tinnitus. Another study cited on the same website (MRHA 2022) found that the vaccine risk was 1 in 7000 overall which they rated at rare - this is based on the yellow card self reporting system - so we are assuming that all those who had the vaccine and subsequently got tinnitus - followed through and reported it.

So approx 1 in 20 hospitalised cases resulted in tinnitus.

And 1 in 7000 vaccinations resulted in tinnitus.

Even on the basis of these results - it is nowhere near 1000 times more likely to get tinnitus through COVID-19 infection compared with getting the vaccination. It is more like 300x IF we accept that mild COVID-19 cases result in the same % of tinnitus outcomes as hospitalised cases - something which is really probably very unlikely. Bear in mind - only a small percentage of overall covid19 confirmed infections end up in hospital.

Therefore the true figure could be way below 300x and could even be below 100x. Taking into account that the hospitalised cases are based on the Alpha and Delta variants - and the Omicron variants seem to be more transmissible but less dangerous - and the picture is far from clear. Therefore - I personally would not make any claims about whether there is more risk for tinnitus from taking the vaccine - or not. I would be neutral. And I have only presented this little study of the stats because the relative risk was brought up.

These risks could be useful to know - when someone with a good health profile and under 40 (for example) - is weighing up the relative risks. If you have a 1 in 2000 chance of being hospitalized from COVID-19 as an unvaccinated person (or had 2 vaccines and contemplating the booster) - and a further risk of just 1 in 20 of getting tinnitus - that would equate to an overall risk of 1 in 40,000 of getting tinnitus from COVID-19. Or take the vaccination and be subject to a 1 in 7000 risk.

I am not saying that I have a high level of confidence that any of my calculations are correct. I am moderately confident that my approximations are fair. But neither am I highly confident that declining the vaccination poses more risk of tinnitus than accepting it - based on my review of the stats - and it would vary depending on the individual.

I appreciate that there are other studies and I have used those from tinnitus.org.uk as they are a respected organisation providing - on a non-profit basis - the best possible information they can find for tinnitus sufferers.

 

We won't have real hard numbers on a lot of this for years, if ever. Certainly worth considering that a lot of the vaccinated have also had COVID-19. I've seen anecdotes in both directions here -- one person who got tinnitus following the vaccine, after having COVID-19 and someone else who got tinnitus following COVID-19 even though they had not had a negative reaction to the vaccine.

It's mysterious and I think it's possible to dive as deep as you can into the data and come to a variety of different conclusions, because some of the data is so far from equivocal. At the same time, the peer reviewed data that is available certainly shows substantially more dangerous and weird long term problems following COVID-19, than the vaccines. Audiological stuff is just part of that and I think it's unwise to make your audiology the sole focus of one's health concerns, but, to each their own.

One nitpick.

My read is that Omicron is substantially more transmissible and less deadly than Delta, but both more transmissible, and around as dangerous, as wildtype. The impact is being mitigated substantially by vaccines, but we're still tracking around 3000 deaths a week which works out to the equivalent of a bad flu season, every ten weeks, forever. The effect of the vaccines seems to fade pretty quickly, it also does not seem like the vaccines do too much to prevent long COVID-19, and an increasing amount of the workforce seems disabled by this.

This is why the vaccine debate doesn't matter to me too much at this point: masks work better, I trust the PPE I use in situations I consider to warrant it, and the vaccines lack any sterilizing immunity and also appear to have retroviral action (https://www.mdpi.com/1467-3045/44/3/73/htm) which makes me raise my eyebrows slightly at the idea of just getting a booster every four months forever.

We're not getting out of this; COVID-19 won, as far as I can tell. My opinion is that things will limp along in the weird way they have been until the upcoming recession kicks the legs out from a lot of it and various houses of cards come down.

China will probably eventually have to contend with massive mainland spread. Hope not, because if/when that happens, it's another baseball bat to the global economic machine's kneecaps.

Also I guess figuring out of the "real" hazard ratio is 1000:1 or 100:1 isn't that important to me because we're still talking 2 orders of magnitude on something that I'm going to be exposed to eventually, but it would still take a bunch to convince me that it's anywhere closer to 100:1. I'll continue to follow most of the large peer review data analytics when they drop but beyond that I'm done tracking this stuff day to day at a micro level because it doesn't seem to matter much, already got my shots, probably not getting more barring some real convincing data, definitely keeping up with masking as long as transmission is high.

Monkeypox is concerning, too. World is full of nasty pathogens; a warming climate full of travel and forced migration events is wonderful fuel for them.

 

The actual risk varies from person to person. Depends on age and general health profile and it is not that easy to calculate. I presented some figures and my reasoning in another post.

But in the wake of economic woes - wars etc - COVID-19 has taken a back seat now. Those who have not bothered vaccinating - like me - will not bother - and those who have had it - will feel glad they did - except those of course - who experienced side effects - like tinnitus.

As for the death rates - I believe they will come down - for obvious reasons - the population becomes on average more resistant just as it did in times of the plague in England and Europe.

I take your point that there are other risks re COVID-19 besides ear health but I suppose for those of us suffering from tinnitus - we have a unique perspective.

 

We do, and so we balance a lot of stuff. General wariness had caused me to avoid flu vaccines for a long time. When we had kids my wife encouraged me to dig into the mortality data and I quickly concluded that, while the risk was small, vaccinating myself against the flu for the first 4-5 years of my kids life meaningfully reduces their mortality risk without meaningfully changing any known risk to me. Not suggesting anyone else should come to the same conclusion, only that everything we do is a navigation of risk calculus, whether or not we are aware of it. When we subconsciously choose to walk under a covered overpass near a construction zone instead of on the sidewalk along side it, we're engaging in risk mitigation, but at the same time there's always the possibility that the covered overpass collapses on us and the sidewalk remains unscathed. If this happened it wouldn't mean we made an incorrect risk assessment, it would mean that we became an outlier to statistical norms.

 

I suppose it depends on the overall odds. If we take two risk levels: 1 in 1 million if you get vaccinated - and 1 in 100,000 if you don't. Or even maybe 1 in 10,000. I would probably reject the vaccine - as 1 in 10,000 is still an incredibly small risk. But if it is 1 in million vs 1 in 500 - that might make me think. I rejected the COVID-19 vaccines because even though I acknowledge that my risk level would be reduced - the odds are still very much long for me to be fairly confident that COVID-19 is not going to take my life or change it in any significant way.

 

I was fine with the first two vaccines. I had the booster vaccine followed by a headache that last many, many weeks. Unsure if the headaches are more frequent now or not, I am predisposed to them due to having TMD and light sensitivity from dry eyes. Tinnitus AFAIR stayed the same, but then my crappy headache was distracting a lot of my attention. I have Trigeminal Neuralgia too, so I have empathy for you. Thankfully mine only tends to flare up under certain triggers. Haven't seen any consultant for my tinnitus, TMD or Trigeminal Neuralgia.