Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSHL) After Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine

I’ve been running the US’s largest and most successful volunteer website to help WA residents directly book COVID-19 vaccines (COVIDWa.com) so it was incredibly ironic that the morning after my 2nd dose of Moderna I began to lose my hearing in one ear. Within 3 days I couldn’t hear anything. After a week on Prednisone & Valtrex I regained functional hearing but was left with 30-50 dB loss above 6 kHz and ringing at 11 kHz at 40% volume. I feel lucky that my ENT co-authored the Clinical Practice Guidelines for SSHL but as I sit in session #7 of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy without any improvement I’m starting to run out of options.

I’d like to strategize how to work together with Tinnitus Talk. My main goal is to get people to report issues directly to VAERS. This could still be within population norms but we don’t know if it’s not reported. Second goal is to get sound medical advice such as the CPG to people and ensure SSHL is treated immediately and effectively. My last goal is to connect everyone to Tinnitus Talk for long term support. I look forward to hearing from others and learning more.

 

Very sorry to hear you experienced SSHL. I have hearing loss from a virus several years ago, and it is frustrating that there is not a common treatment practice. I received oral steroids followed by intratympanic injections. My hearing did not improve, but my loss was beyond a 70 dB drop and my ear specialist said that is hard to recover. However, I have read of good success for those who experience SSHL and so I’ll be hoping for the same good outcome for you.

What were your ENT’s thoughts on whether the vaccine was linked to your SSHL? When we were trying to identify the cause of my loss, the ENTs that I saw felt events weeks prior or even earlier typically lead to the destruction of auditory hair cells and that there’s a delay between their destruction and the loss of hearing. Guessing it probably depends on the cause since obviously acoustic traumas are different, so I would be interested in your ENT’s thoughts on if there’s a possible link and what it could even be.

 

@Markku and @Hazel would be the people to talk to, to discuss such matters regarding outreach.

 

Hi George,

I'm sorry that you are experiencing this. Hopefully the Hyperbaric Oxygen treatment will be helpful and you would see results long term.

Stay strong, if you need to speak to someone about living with tinnitus, I'm here.

 

I'm very sorry to hear you're experiencing this.

This, 100%. If I got a vaccine and then developed a new audiological problem the next day I would 100% be convinced it was the vaccine, but, of course, if we take the sheer number of people being vaccinated right now, some number of them will develop tinnitus shortly after being vaccinated by sheer chance.

I realize you clearly understand this, I am just spelling it out because it's a common point of confusion here, and so I appreciate having someone who is dealing with this shittiness having the presence of mind to talk about population norms. I think you are responding to this in a more level headed way than I would.

 

I received the Moderna shot #1 on March 5 and 3 days later experienced SSNHL and tinnitus in my left ear (moderate high frequency loss). Coincidence? Dumb luck? The vaccine? Nobody knows or will ever know. Statistically we could say that anything is possible as a result of the vaccine, from nothing to death, and everything in between.

In fairness, this is not my first time in the SSNHL rodeo, and was actually in the rare air of someone that had a complete recovery after oral steroid and intratympanic injections. This was about 8 years ago, with the difference being it was low frequency loss and no tinnitus. It would be nice to hit the easy button and say it was the vaccine, but I can't quite do that. Nor can I say that it wasn't the vaccine, because as we all know, this vaccine has not been vetted under normal circumstances.

Statistically some people are going to get flu like symptoms, some will get rashes, some will get nothing, and some will die. Is it that big of a stretch to think that tinnitus and and SSNHL is magically off the table in a scenario such as this? When I started treatment the second time around the ENT doctor said to not expect the same result as last time, the success rate of even having some sort of recovery is 23%.

Unfortunately I did not get the same result, and I am now faced with living with this for the rest of my life. Time to make some lemonade I suppose.

At any rate, as I queried my ENT about COVID-19, the vaccination, and this condition, he basically shrugged his shoulders and responded with, I don't think there is a correlation, but there isn't enough evidence really out there to say one way or another (paraphrased). Hmmm, ponder that for a second. Not enough evidence. We don't know what lays dormant in our bodies, waiting for the right moment, the right set of circumstances, or the introduction of a foreign substance, to trigger who knows what.

Bottom line, in my opinion, most people will get through this vaccine without much of an issue. My parents in their late 70's and early 80's got both Moderna shots with nothing more than a sore arm and the need to take an extra nap. For a random select group, fate will not look on you (us) as kindly. Was this going to happen to me on March 8, 2021, if I did not get the shot? Maybe... maybe not. I will never know.

 

@Tinker Bell, how did you find out a virus caused your hearing loss? What tests were run? Were you put on antivirals?

 

Here's an update on my case. 10 sessions of HBOT at 2 ATM didn't do anything additional for me. I had my hearing tested afterwards and there was no change. 11 weeks after onset I still have hearing loss at the upper frequencies and tinnitus.

The two COVID-19 vaccine Facebook groups now have over 3000 members, but those are from both the US and internationally. So the big numbers thankfully didn't materialize and a JAMA article was published on May 20th which also says the numbers are low. However, the article doesn't take into account that VAERS has been running about a month behind and even further to get doctors reports so the denominator they are using is too high because they assumed all reports were in the system as of 2 weeks prior. And they were heavily filtering VAERS possibly only including reports directly from doctors which are a small fraction of reports as most doctors refuse to submit reports. So the numerator is too low. But I won't argue with the overall sentiment that we are not experiencing an epidemic of SSNHL.

However, those who think that my case was statistically unrelated now have another strong counterargument. 2 weeks after my son received his 2nd dose of Moderna (I had signed him up for J&J but then they substituted Moderna) he suffered SSNHL as well Now try explaining away that one! Thankfully a course of Prednisone has brought back most of his hearing and since he's only 5-10 dB worse he didn't develop any tinnitus.

 

Ok, here is the deal. Who posts on this forum? People who just got tinnitus and are trying to find answers. It's a human tendency for us to say, hey I took a vaccine shot, and the next day I got SSNHL! So, cause and effect, right? Well, there are a million and a half factors that can cause SSNHL, and folks can get SSNHL for no reason at all. I tend to think the vaccine had no role in this because if it did, there would've been higher incidences when compared to the placebo, and would've raised a flag during trials.

It is irresponsible and misleading to blame it on the vaccine when there is no evidence to suggest it is the case.

 

In the span of 2 weeks, can't there be other factors that can contribute to SSNHL?

 

It really isn't. Sudden hearing loss on its own is a pretty rare occurrence, and thought to be partly immune mediated. Most immune reactions aren't systemic for a virus, COVID-19 is the rare case where it would be, further compounding the issue is that the mRNA vaccine is new, so unlike having the antigen injected locally for a reaction, this protein could be produced systemically.

Within 2 weeks but after 3 days is enough time to consider the vaccine as highly suspect barring anything else (e.g., going diving or to a concert).

Once the stats are run I'm sure we will see significance beyond an alpha of 1% (probability relationship is chance) that the vaccine caused a marked uptick in SSNHL compared to historical averages, barring other factors like lifestyle and stress of the pandemic.

Given how massive the sample size is, this will yield very significant and likely results. We won't know for a couple of years and I can see a lot of lawsuits coming. Being told something is safe and effective is pretty dogshit when it has emergency approval off a completely new methodology of immunity, further compounded by a mutating virus which is here to stay due to extreme incompetence in our governments, rendering the vaccine much less effective.

 

Well, vaccines work, you can look at the stats in the US. Compare that to countries that are not vaccinated. The Government might be incompetent, but science is not, and mRNA is a groundbreaking tech that will cure cancer one day.

 

I am sorry HBOT did not work. There are not many options after SSHL. Corticoids, HBOT, not much more. Some people recover spontaneously.

As for the vaccine, these are today's news:

Third person dies in Japan after taking contaminated Moderna coronavirus vaccine | Japan | The Guardian

Neither governments nor pharma companies are taking any responsibility for side effects or deaths produced by the vaccine. It is a shame that governments are urging people to vaccinate in these circumstances.