"We analyzed a survey on 398 cases of COVID-19 vaccination-related tinnitus, and 699,839 COVID-19 vaccine-related reports in the Vaccine Adverse Effect Reporting System (VAERS) database that was retrieved on 4 December 2021. We found that following COVID-19 vaccination, 1) tinnitus report frequencies for Pfizer, Moderna and Janssen vaccines in VAERS are 47, 51 and 70 cases per million full vaccination; 2) the symptom onset was often rapid; ... 6) tinnitus was correlated with other neurological and psychiatric symptoms; 7) pre-existing metabolic syndromes were correlated with the severity of the reported tinnitus. These findings suggest that COVID-19 vaccination increases the risk of tinnitus, and metabolic disorders is a risk factor for COVID-19 vaccination-related tinnitus...
Frequency of tinnitus by vaccine manufactures, lots and patient age groups
... The first COVID-19 vaccine-related tinnitus in the retrieved VAERS database was reported on 16 December 2020, and the last was reported on 26 November 2021. There were 750,273 cases in the database with unique VAERS_IDs, in which 668,978 cases reported adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines. Tinnitus was reported in 12,957 of all the cases, with 12,532 tinnitus cases related to COVID-19 vaccines. The frequency of tinnitus was significantly higher for COVID-19 vaccines (12,532/668,978 = 1.87%) than for other vaccines (425/81,295 = 0.52%, χ2 = 779.0002, p < 10–5), resulting in proportional reporting ratio of 3.58...
Mechanisms of COVID-19 vaccination-related tinnitus
... [M]ore tinnitus cases were reported following the first than the second dose. These mismatches suggest that the reported tinnitus was not due to overactive systemic immune responses to the vaccines. Instead, it is likely the vaccine adverse effect was mediated by a more direct pathway. Spike proteins have been shown to disrupt the blood-brain barrier, activate microglia/neuroinflammation and cause neuronal death. It may also cause aggregation of β-amyloid proteins, prions, α-synuclein and tau, potentially leading to neurodegeneration. It remains to be determined whether COVID-19 vaccines, which are modified forms of the spike protein, can disrupt brain function in similar ways and cause tinnitus and other neurological symptoms. In addition to direct interaction with the brain cells, COVID-19 vaccines can cause rapid systemic inflammatory responses secondary to reactogenicity of the vaccines. COVID-19 vaccines have also been associated with endothelial dysfunction and vascular inflammation, including brain blood vessels. These systemic and vascular inflammation [sic] could disrupt blood-brain barrier and other brain function, and potentially lead to tinnitus and other mental health issues."
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