In March of the previous year Dr. Gregory Poland found himself grappling with persistent tinnitus a condition he experienced shortly after receiving his second dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine in early 2021. Fast forward a year and a half after his first bout with COVID Poland shared with MedPage Today that his tinnitus has worsened. Interestingly numerous studies have demonstrated that COVID itself can trigger tinnitus.
Dr. Poland who serves as the director of the Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group in Rochester Minnesota and also holds the position of editor-in-chief of the journal Vaccine revealed that his symptoms now fluctuate and reach more intense levels throughout the day. He described it as akin to having a high-pitched dog whistle constantly blowing in his ears 24/7.
Expressing his concerns he said “I’m on a path that’s uncertain. Will this condition worsen? Could I lose my hearing?” However he emphasized that his decision to share his story was not about himself.
Since coming forward with his personal experience Dr. Poland disclosed that he has received hundreds of emails from individuals across the globe who claim to have developed tinnitus shortly after receiving a COVID vaccine. Despite his pro-vaccine stance Dr. Poland expressed a desire for further research to determine whether there might be a potential link between the two.
A search by MedPage Today in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) revealed just under 17000 reports of tinnitus following COVID vaccination in the United States. It’s important to note that according to the CDC “VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness” and these reports “may contain information that is incomplete inaccurate coincidental or unverifiable.”
Nevertheless Dr. Poland finds it “frustrating” that there has been little research on this topic despite the multitude of reports in VAERS. Indeed a search on PubMed also showed a lack of research in this area.
Tinnitus cases after COVID-19 vaccine
One physician Dr. Doris Lin of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill decided to investigate this subject. Her study titled “Tinnitus cases after COVID-19 vaccine administration one institution’s observations” was published in the American Journal of Otolaryngology earlier this year.
Dr. Lin explained “I began seeing a lot of patients during the pandemic with bothersome tinnitus. Some of the other providers here including the audiologists noted that some of the patients were associating the onset or worsening of their tinnitus with the COVID vaccine. We wanted to see how many patients and how many were even possibly related.”
The study involved searching a hospital electronic medical record database for patients diagnosed with tinnitus and those who received COVID vaccines between December 1 2020 and December 31 2021. They identified 1254 patients and after reviewing their charts found 27 cases in which individuals reported tinnitus onset or worsening shortly after COVID vaccination which occurred within 25 minutes to 4 weeks. Among these patients seven were male and 20 were female with ages ranging from 41 to 84 and a median age of 59.
However Dr. Lin and her co-author noted that with so few cases they couldn’t establish a definite correlation. As she put it “The retrospective study did confirm the low incidence of tinnitus after COVID vaccination but certainly was not able to answer if it was caused by the COVID vaccination itself.”
She also mentioned that while there were other patients who attributed their tinnitus to a COVID vaccine the research team had to set a time frame of 4 weeks post-vaccination as beyond that point there were issues with recall bias and multiple potential explanations.
Dr. Lin clarified that she currently has no additional research planned specifically related to tinnitus and COVID vaccines.
Regarding the CDC’s perspective a spokesperson stated to MedPage Today in an email that the agency is aware of reports in VAERS of tinnitus following COVID vaccination. They emphasized that tinnitus is a common condition presenting with various symptoms and courses and in many cases the cause is unclear.
The spokesperson pointed out that given the large number of people who have received COVID-19 vaccinations and the common occurrence of tinnitus in the population cases occurring shortly after vaccination are expected. To further evaluate these reports the CDC analyzed data from its Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD).
In contrast to VAERS which relies heavily on voluntary reports the VSD uses data from electronic health records making it less susceptible to reporting biases and other issues affecting spontaneous reporting to VAERS. The VSD analysis focused on the occurrence of tinnitus diagnoses in COVID-19 vaccinated patients during the 70 days following vaccination. So far there has been no observed clustering of tinnitus diagnoses post-vaccination in the VSD’s patient population of approximately 12 million people who received 6.6 million COVID-19 vaccine doses.
The CDC spokesperson emphasized that the information from vaccine safety monitoring systems does not currently suggest a link between COVID-19 vaccination and tinnitus. They also assured that the CDC will continue to monitor vaccine safety and evaluate tinnitus outcomes as more data becomes available.
A spokesperson for Pfizer echoed this stating that “tinnitus cases have been reviewed and no causal association to the COVID-19 vaccine has been established.” Moderna did not respond to a request for comment.
For Dr. Poland who experiences moments of maddening tinnitus finding solace often involves playing specific sounds through earbuds such as crickets and white noise.
Dr. Poland underlined the need for further research emphasizing that tinnitus is a challenging medical condition. Unlike some other ailments that can be measured or seen tinnitus often lacks evidence-based treatments. He emphasized the importance of transparency in medicine ensuring that people are informed about both the benefits and potential drawbacks of medical interventions building trust in the process.
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