Sound-Disturbing Rare Vaccine Side-Effect

"It was like someone suddenly blew a dog whistle in my ear. It has been pretty much unrelenting."

"[I] can only begin to estimate the number of times I just want to scream because I can't get rid of the noise or how many hours of sleep I've lost. [The sound is] particularly loud at night when there are no masking sounds."

"What has been heartbreaking about this, as a seasoned physician, are the emails I get from people that, this has affected their life so badly, they have told me they are going to take their own life."

Gregory Poland, MD, director, Mayo Clinic Vaccine Research Group, Rochester Minnesota

Gregory Poland, MD, director of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group in Rochester, Minnesota, remains a steadfast vaccination advocate -- even though he developed tinnitus soon after receiving his second dose of COVID vaccine.

"One case of tinnitus following the first dose decreased over a couple of days. But hearing loss recurred after the second dose, and the patient was started on steroid treatment; no risk factors were recorded."

"Another case described bilateral tinnitus more than a week after the first dose and worsening 1.5 weeks after the second dose."

"Receipt of unspecified medications were recorded, and the patient consulted an ear, nose and throat physician."

"Another described hearing loss occurring which decreased within two days after the first dose, but recurring with the second dose, which required steroid treatment."

Dr.Christian Rausch/Dr.Qun-Ying Yue, Uppsala Monitoring Centre, Sweden

Lara Antal / Verywell

The World Health Organization published a report in which they cited extremely rare occurrences of hearing loss, along with additional auditory issues after injection of the COVID-19 vaccine. "The most-reported COVID-19 vaccines in these cases were Pfizer/BioNTech", making up approximately 80 percent of the reported cases, according to the WHO bulletin.

The report by the WHO resulted from notifications it has received of tinnitus, a hearing problem causing ear ringing, that may be associated with the vaccines. The Uppsala Monitoring Centre is a Swedish non=profit organization which identified the adverse side-effect for the WHO, with which it forms a collaborative service.

Out of the 11 billion vaccines administered globally, the WHO reported 367 cases of tinnitus and 164 cases of hearing loss with onset ranging from a few minutes following administration of the vaccine, to 19 days afterward. Most commonly the alarming side-effect tends to appear within a day of the inoculation with the vaccine.

Dr. Poland, a vaccinologist, developed tinnitus after his second dose of the vaccine was administered. In an interview he spoke of his experience when the sound first hit him while he was driving back from the hospital after receiving his second dose, when he almost veered out of his driving lane and the circumstances for an accident developed. In speaking with MedPage Today, Dr.Poland described his life-altering tinnitus condition.

As a health professional in that very field of vaccination, he believes -- despite his debilitating side-effect -- in the critical importance of the role of vaccines in controlling the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Because he feared the possibility of contracting COVID, then spreading the virus among his patients, he decided to forge on, and received a booster.

According to the findings of the Uppsala Monitoring Centre, those who reported tinnitus occurring following inoculation, ranged in age from19 to 93. Of the cases reported, 63 percent were women. This symptom, recognized as an unusual and still-rare side-effect of the COVID vaccine, was recorded in 27 countries including the United States, United Kingdom and Italy. Over a third of the cases reported were from people working in the health care industry.

A man gets a Covid-19 vaccination shot at a clinic. The CDC and drugmakers have investigated anecdotal reports of tinnitus following Covid vaccination but have found no cause-and-effect link. Nick Wagner / Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images