We Know COVID Causes Tinnitus; What About the COVID Vaccines and Boosters?

Healthcare worker giving a shot to a patient; COVID vaccinations cause tinnitus concept

"Mounting evidence—from scientific studies and case reports—suggests that there might be a connection between COVID vaccines and rare cases of severe tinnitus," reports Tara Haelle at National Geographic.

However, the CDC disputes the connection and says it will not pursue a study. The reason is that tinnitus is linked to about 200 disorders: it can be caused by everything from the common cold and age-related hearing loss to earwax blockage and taking certain medications.

Also, a study that compared how many people were diagnosed with new-onset tinnitus 21 days after the COVID vaccine versus other common vaccinations found that the other common vaccinations were higher. Just because it's low risk doesn't help the approximately 16,000 Americans who got some form of tinnitus after getting their COVID shots.

One theory is that the vaccines and boosters may be interacting with pre-existing risk factors for tinnitus. This seems to indicate, then, that the first vaccine would be the riskiest -- and we're way past that point in time. It's not written in stone, though: one patient reports that their tinnitus started a few weeks after their second shot in the initial round of vaccinations. Another reports the same, and says their tinnitus worsened with the third shot.

Erika Edwards at NBC News reports that "Shaowen Bao, an associate professor in the physiology department of the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona, Tucson, believes that ongoing inflammation, especially in the brain or spinal cord, may be to blame."

All of the reports of links between COVID vaccinations and tinnitus are anecdotal, but some health professionals are taking them seriously.

“Tinnitus is a prominent symptom in many people with long COVID and in those with vaccine-associated conditions,” says cardiologist Harlan Krumholz, who is director of Yale University’s Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, as reported by Nada Hassanein at USA TODAY. He says he and his team "are seeking to bring together many people with this symptom and hope we can learn together what might be the cause – on the path toward evidence-based strategies to help these people."

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