Another Post-Covid Tragedy: Tinnitus, an inescapable, incurable cacophony of noise

Guess in what other chronic illnesses tinnitus appears?

In early 2021, Gregory Poland, MD, got his second mRNA vaccine for Covid-19 and promptly developed “unrelenting symptoms of tinnitus,” an incurable ringing (among other loud noises) in the ears which, in the most severe cases, can block all other sound. (1)

People have committed suicide to escape what is benignly described as “ringing in the ears.” (2)

After having a Covid-19 infection (following his initial two Covid-19 vaccinations), Poland’s tinnitus worsened, he told Investigative Writer Jennifer Henderson at MedPage Today. Covid-19 is known to cause tinnitus, but it hasn’t been widely publicized—or perhaps appreciated—that tinnitus can result from vaccination. (1)

Ironically, Poland is the director of the Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group (Rochester, MN) as well as editor-in-chief of the journal Vaccine. He told Henderson that his tinnitus sounds like “having a high-pitched dog whistle blown into his ears 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

“I'm on a road that I don't know where it leads," Poland told MedPage Today. "Is this going to get worse? Am I going to lose hearing?"

According to the Mayo Clinic, most people have “subjective tinnitus,” meaning only the patient can hear the buzzing, roaring, clicking, hissing, humming, or “rhythmic pulsing or whooshing,” according to mayoclinic.org. (3)

Fifteen to 20 percent of people have tinnitus, which is usually caused by an underlying condition like ear injury, hearing loss, head trauma or circulatory system disease, according to the Mayo Clinic. Treatment of an underlying condition can improve tinnitus symptoms, as can “other treatments that reduce or mask the noise, making tinnitus less noticeable.” When tinnitus develops in the absence of an underlying disease, the only treatments noted by the Mayo Clinic are “masking devices” that create white noise to suppress tinnitus symptoms, or counseling, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or “tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT).” None of these cures tinnitus, but they “may help you notice tinnitus less and feel less distressed by your symptoms,” Mayo Clinic’s patient information states. (3)

In addition to being distressed by his own symptoms, Poland told MedPage Today that he’s received “hundreds of emails” from and about people who’ve developed tinnitus after getting an mRNA Covid-19 vaccine.

MedPage Today searched the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and found almost 17,000 reports from people in the US who developed tinnitus after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was quick to dismiss these reports, telling the publication that “VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness. ... [such reports] may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable.” (1)

Poland is also concerned that, as MedPage Today discovered, there’s been a “dearth of research” into the correlation of Covid-19 vaccines and the development of tinnitus. Pfizer, a major manufacturer of the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, told MedPage Today that “tinnitus cases have been reviewed and no causal association to the Covid-19 vaccine has been established.” The other mRNA vaccine developer Moderna had no comment. (1)

Since both Covid-19 and the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines can cause (or are associated with) not only hearing loss but also tinnitus, it shouldn’t be any surprise that people with Long Covid also report a high frequency of tinnitus.

Business Insider recounted the tragic story of Long Covid patient Kent Taylor, a 65-year-old restauranteur, who committed suicide March 18, 2021. Taylor’s family described his suicide as the outcome of his “battle with post-COVID related symptoms, including severe tinnitus." (4)

“A preliminary study published on March 21 [2021] found that 15% of people who had COVID-19 reported having tinnitus,” Business Insider correspondent Marianne Guenot reported more than two years ago. “7.6% reported hearing loss, and 7.2% reported vertigo, which is also related to the ears.”

That preliminary study was published by Dr. Kevin Munro and colleagues at University of Manchester (UK). Munro told the New York Times that, “within 24 hours of publishing the study, he received about 100 emails from grateful patients saying that their doctors were dismissive of their symptoms.” (4)

Ilan Schwartz, MD, Ph.D., described his post-Covid-19 tinnitus as “a cicada invasion” in a tweet on April 11, 2021. For those of you lucky enough to live outside the areas where thousands of cicadas emerge from a 17-year-long hibernation and immediately start making noise, the insect-produced cacophony is nearly unbearable and impossible to escape—essentially like tinnitus.

Does tinnitus develop in other chronic illnesses? In a word, yes: As long ago as 2013, a joint report from the Food and Drug Administration and the Center for Drug Evaluation briefly discussed tinnitus as a symptom in ME/CFS. (5)

And a September 21, 2023, online report from TrebleHealth discussed a tinnitus “co-occurring condition ... [with] chronic fatigue syndrome, which goes beyond mere tiredness. Individuals with this syndrome face a severe, long-lasting condition that is challenging to diagnose and can substantially affect their overall health.” The TrebleHealth website, primarily intended to help people deal with tinnitus, described ME/CFS to be a “chronic stressor” that can contribute to the severity and volume of tinnitus. (6)

A study conducted in Brazil and published in Clinics (Sao Paulo) and listed in the National Library of Medicine discussed “audiological manifestations” in people with AIDS or who test HIV-positive. This study found that “The most frequent symptom found among HIV-positive subjects in RGI [Research Group I] was dizziness (61% of the cases), followed by tinnitus (39%) and a sensation of ear fullness (33%). In RGII [Research Group II], hearing loss was most frequent (52% of the cases), followed by tinnitus (44%) and dizziness (33%).” (7)

What is causing people with all of these chronic illnesses to develop this tortuous symptom?

With tinnitus occurring in the Covid-19 trifecta—SARS CoV2 infection, Covid-19 vaccines, and Long Covid—there appears to be a clear connection with a viral infection, or an effect of a viral infection.

Instead of using ME/CFS to define—or define away—Long Covid, why not use Covid-19 to figure out how to treat tinnitus in all chronic illnesses in which it occurs?

And how about funding more serious research into how to control, if not cure, tinnitus so that it no longer affects people trying to cope with other, even more serious symptoms.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.     Jennifer Henderson. “Tinnitus Worsens for Vaccine Scientist Who Points to Onset After Covid Vax: Gregory Poland, MD, said his tinnitus got worse after Covid infection.” MedPage Today, October 26, 2023. https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/107033
2.     Kyu-Man Han et al.; “Tinnitus, depression, and suicidal ideation in adults: A nationally representative general population sample [South Korea]”; J. Psychiatr. Res. 2018 Mar:98:124-132.  doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.01.003.  Epub 2018 Jan 10. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29406247/
3.     “Tinnitus.” Mayo Clinic staff, mayoclinic.org. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tinnitus/symptoms-causes/syc-20350156
4.     Marianne Guenot. “COVID-19 long haulers are reporting an unbearable ringing in their ears that's still there months after they got sick.” Business Insider, April 19, 2021. https://www.businessinsider.com/tinnitus-covid-19-long-haulers-haul-ringing-ear-2021-4
5.     “Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.” Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Report published 2013 on fda.gov. https://www.fda.gov/media/86879/download
6.     Jenna Fenton, Au.D. “Tinnitus and Chronic Fatigue: Are the Two Related?” TrebleHealth, September 21, 2023. https://treblehealth.com/tinnitus-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/
7.     Carla Gentile Matas et al.; “Audiological Manifestations in HIV-Positive Adults.” Clinics (Sao Paulo). 2014 Jul; 69(7): 469–475. doi: 10.6061/clinics/2014(07)05

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Neenyah Ostrom was the first reporter in the United States to report weekly for a decade on ME/CFS. Her reporting on the Chronic Fatigue Syn­drome epidemic from 1988-1997 is getting increased atten­tion thanks to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  He discusses her work exten­sively in his 2022 best seller, The Real Anthony Fauci. Ostrom’s groundbreaking reporting on Chronic Fatigue Syn­drome and AIDS appeared in the New York Native from 1988 to 1997.

Ostrom wrote the Foreword to the recently published THE REAL AIDS EPIDEMIC: How the Tragic HIV Mistake Threatens Us All by Rebecca Culshaw, Ph.D.

Ostrom is the author of four books about the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome epidemic: What Really Killed Gilda Radner? Frontline Reports On The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic (1991; TNM Inc., New York, NY), 50 Things Everyone Should Know About The Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Epidemic And Its Link To AIDS (1992; TNM Inc. and St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY; published in Japanese by Shindan-to-Chiryo, 1993; and in French by Les Edi­tions Logiques, 1994), and America’s Biggest Cover-Up: 50 More Things Everyone Should Know About The Chronic Fatigue Syn­drome Epidemic And Its Link To AIDS (1993; TNM Inc., New York, NY); and America’s Biggest Cover-Up: 50 More Things Everyone Should Know About The Chronic Fatigue Syn­drome Epidemic And Its Link To AIDS, Updated 2^nd Edition(2022, available as a Kindle ebook and paperback on Amazon.com). Her most recent book, Ampligen: The Battle for a Promising ME/CFS Drug (2022) is available as a Kindle ebook and paperback on Amazon.com

 In 1995, Ostrom and New York Native were rec­ognized as having reported one of the top 25 most-censored stories in the U.S. press by 1995’s Censored: The News That Didn’t Make The News And Why (The 1995 Project Censored Yearbook by Sonoma State University Professor Carl Jensen, introduction by Michael Crichton; pub­lished by Four Walls Eight Win­dows, New York, NY, 1995).

Ostrom is ghostwriter/editor of seven popular science books. Additionally, she was an editor of Total Breast Health: The Power Food Solution For Health And Wellness by Robin Keuneke, which was chosen as a Publishers Weekly “Best Book of 1998” in the category of Breast Health (Kensing­ton Publishing Corp., April 1998).