Anyone experience hearing loss after Covid vaccination?

Hearing Loss
#16

@xresolutionx are you fairly new to the forum? Of course I’m greatly concerned about any further loss to my hearing in my L ear, which has severe profound loss as it is.

But I’d rather have a life with severe profound loss (or 2nd CI if ever needed) than no life at all. Hence why I’m fronting up on Monday for the vaccination. As I fall into the “high risk” category I’m more susceptible to this virus than healthy people, I’m not stupid.

@d_Wooluf my heart goes out to all those families that have lost loved ones due to Covid in the US and globally. Here in Aus, our Gov/s were very pro active in the fight against this virus. In Melbourne we were in stage 4 lockdown for 4 months. All our borders were closed, we couldn’t drive/fly interstate/out of the cities, or overseas. We have been locked in Aus/ or our state for 12 months now, I consider us to be a very lucky country only having lost 909 lives to this rapidly mutating, horrid virus. Even though our health experts and scientists can’t tell us if this rapidly mutating virus is covered by the vaccines that are available today. Ive put my hand up!

3 Likes
#17

I agree. Masks, border closures, social distancing, hand washing. Whatever it takes. Maybe that makes me a sheep. For what it’s worth, my internet searches found instances of hearing loss due to the virus itself. They were usually temporary. Hopefully the same applies to any hearing loss after the vaccine.

By chance I came upon this article that addresses some covid-19 vaccine ‘myths’ including the one that covid-19 vaccines change the genome.

2 Likes
#18

There’s also Is hearing loss a symptom of coronovirus?

They say:" There are currently no published studies linking any form of ototoxicity or hearing loss as a side effect of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine." but they do say that some of the common treatments such as Remdesivir are potentially ototoxic.

5 Likes
#19

I was given the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccination almost 3 weeks ago. Since then I have experienced worsening tinnitus, (nausea and vertigo, which previously I have never suffered from) I don’t know if my symptoms can be linked to the vaccine. Though nothing compared to the disease.

2 Likes
#20

CDC reports on Thursday that Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are both quite safe with rare side effects:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/19/world/the-vaccines-are-quite-safe-and-side-effects-are-rare-the-cdc-reports.html

And straight from the CDC in less digestible format:

First Month of COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Monitoring — United States, December 14, 2020–January 13, 2021 | MMWR (cdc.gov)

4 Likes
#21

What is “gene therapy” ??? but a buzz word that has a suitable negative connotation (to some) to appeal to emotions rather than reason, when reasoning is clearly not involved here. It’s like talking about “cancer therapy” and putting a whole universe under one tent. I’m an ex-molecular biologist who has taught undergraduate and graduate biology courses as a college professor, including both classical genetics and modern molecular biology, cloning, transformation, etc. The vaccines involve the transient expression of an unstable mRNA molecule in muscles cells - the mRNA is so unstable it has to be refrigerated (short-term) or frozen (long-term) to keep in from breaking down in aqueous solution all by itself. This is not brand new unproven technology. It has been worked on for the past decade in attempt to develop a SARS-1 coronavirus vaccine, an HIV vaccine, influenza vaccine, etc., with no indications of any potential lasting long-term harm to animals or humans over that time period. Past vaccination technologies have largely depended on using a weakened attenuated LIVE virus (the Sabin polio vaccine, for instance) or chemically inactive dead virus (the original Salk polio vaccine). Yeah! Tell me it’s a lot safer to be injected with an attenuated virus (or an adenovirus carrying a piece of the SARS-2 coronavirus). The mRNA encodes a single protein, the spike protein of the COVID-19 coronavirus. Are our very own mRNA’s constantly in danger of transforming us - subjecting us to gene therapy?! Except for the protein the mRNA produces, which has no DNA altering capability or gene expression altering capability that we know of, it’s just another mRNA molecule that lives its life, expresses some protein and is destroyed. The benefit is that the protein is foreign, stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies and cytotoxic T-cells (along with T-memory cells) that the real virus with the same protein on its surface will meet up with and come to a bad end, rather than us.

From the CDC website: Understanding mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines | CDC

Facts about COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines

They cannot give someone COVID-19.

  • mRNA vaccines do not use the live virus that causes COVID-19.

They do not affect or interact with our DNA in any way.

  • mRNA never enters the nucleus of the cell, which is where our DNA (genetic material) is kept.
  • The cell breaks down and gets rid of the mRNA soon after it is finished using the instructions.

AND

mRNA Vaccines Are New, But Not Unknown

Researchers have been studying and working with mRNA vaccines for decades. Interest has grown in these vaccines because they can be developed in a laboratory using readily available materials. This means the process can be standardized and scaled up, making vaccine development faster than traditional methods of making vaccines.

mRNA vaccines have been studied before for flu, Zika, rabies, and cytomegalovirus (CMV). As soon as the necessary information about the virus that causes COVID-19 was available, scientists began designing the mRNA instructions for cells to build the unique spike protein into an mRNA vaccine.

Preaching about the evils of gene therapy in the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines reminds me of how Elmer Gantry made his living in Sinclair Lewis’s novel by that name (great movie with Burt Lancaster!).

10 Likes
#22

Just to add since everybody reporting here seems to be reporting minimal side effects. Don’t be surprised if the vaccine knocks you on your rear (figuratively) for a day or so, particularly after the second shot. This reaction may be more common in younger people. I say this not to frighten people but somewhat as a warning that it might not be wise to be vaccinated right before some important event and to reassure that if you don’t feel so great the day after getting vaccinated, it’s a normal reaction and an indication that the vaccine is doing a good job of activating one’s immune system.

9 Likes
#23

I’d second that thought as far as any reaction means that the vaccine is working. Seventeen hours after my 2nd shot, though, I haven’t had any reaction of consequence. The arm is a little sorer at the site of injection and I might have had a very mild case of the chills for a few hours, which the MD wife says can be associated with the body making a strong immune reaction (but since our house is at 60 deg F and I’ve been sitting around a lot, maybe I’m just too inactive?!). It’s hard enough to get vaccinated, so I’d say if some organization offers you the opportunity, grab it and follow their schedule rather than make folks herd cats by coordinating vaccinations around Johnny’s wedding and Sue’s college graduation (since the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine is ~85% effective in the short term, you might actually live for those events rather than being the rare young person who dies or infects someone else by dint of passing up the first opportunity to stop catching the virus or passing it on).

After you get vaccinated, if you’re in the U.S. and have a cell phone, you can register with the CDC v-safe program and they’ll text you on a daily basis so you can text back any side effects you experience and you can opt out any time. They did not anticipate my 2nd shot, though, and I had to visit their site again to register to record my 2nd shot experience.

v-safe (cdc.gov)

2 Likes
#24

Regarding events. I was just passing on advice I got regarding Shingles vaccine (if I’m remembering correctly, the second shot did knock me on my rear!) I don’t think many events in the traditional sense are being held due to COVID.

1 Like
#25

I’m going to be generous here and say you probably don’t understand enough about either the spike protein modification or the RNA splicing to make the assertion you’re making. They are ‘proper’ vaccines. Specifically they allow the body to create antibodies to combat the virus before you get exposed to the full version if the virus. You therefore get the vaccination benefit in the full traditional sense.
The fact that one approach modifies the viral RNA to achieve the effect isn’t any reason to introduce doubts to the wider public. In fact if you are claiming to be a medical professional, you ought to be reported to your professional body, because you’re in danger of disseminating false information and endangering lives.
Please consider deleting all of what you’ve posted above. There are no long term side-effects that have been recorded in relation to hearing from the meta studies of vaccination. Should you need to educate yourself in this respect, you should read the studies from Israel to see how effectively a population can be successfully vaccinated.

11 Likes
#26

Seems like apples and oranges. The CDC does advertise that the side effects of the Shingrix shingles vaccine in the worst sort of side reaction scenario " may affect your ability to do daily activities, but they should go away on their own in a few days." I haven’t heard anything like that for the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines for the great majority of folks.

Fact sheet: What You Can Expect After Getting Shingrix | Herpes Zoster | CDC

1 Like
#27

Just a couple of examples. Again, not saying to scare people. Just for awareness. And if people want to delay the shot, I certainly have no objections. There is way too much demand to try to shame people into getting vaccinated.

2 Likes
#28

I wouldn’t want to shame anyone. I’d just plan at a certain point to switch from “Masks required” to “Vaccination required” to participate in society, unless you’re tamper-proof card/cell phone/smartwatch app/smartcard says you have a medical reason to be exempted from vaccination. The Pacific Northwest has proven what happens in society where people try to have their kids skip out on measles vaccinations. Public health is not a matter of “when I feel like it, I’ll consider it, MAYBE…”

BTW, that’s a significant advantage of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. They are safe for immuno-compromised individuals so there should be very few reasons for anyone not to get vaccinated to meet public health requirements as advisable, as it obviously now is, unless with 500,000 already dead (at least), we instead want to shoot for making COVID-19 absolutely the leading cause of death in the U.S. over the past year. We can still aim for that if we count ~March 15th as when the pandemic really got going.

Another approach to encourage folks to get vaccinated would be if you decline the opportunity to get vaccinated “x” number of times and you later get COVID and have to undergo medical treatment, your insurance would not cover your medical expenses (or only with a MUCH higher co-pay) as you declined the opportunity to greatly reduce those expenses repeatedly by not getting vaccinated. A simple economic inducement. No shaming involved. If you get vaccinated but still get COVID, you’re still fully covered.

#29

I’m two weeks beyond my second Pfizer vaccine. No impact on hearing. In fact, neither my partner nor I had any reactions to either of the shots–except for a little soreness at the injection site.

3 Likes
#30

I think of much greater concern is known ototoxicity affects on hearing from antibiotics and NSAIDs if you get sick. Don’t get sick, take the vaccine.

(I don’t know what therapies hospitals are using to treat COVID, but we should all be careful with drugs that can “cause” hearing loss.)

4 Likes
#31

@MDB @jim_lewis the shingrix vaccine is a live vaccine, and that would be why it knocked you for six.
To the best of my knowledge Pfizer/BioNTech,
University of Oxford/AstraZeneca, Novavax, and Moderna are all attenuated vaccines. So these vaccines don’t pack as much punch as the Shingrix vaccine does.

1 Like
#32

I don’t think the strength of the immune reaction is dependent on whether it’s live vaccine or not. The first shot “primes” the immune system and depending on one’s immune system and likely a host of other factors, some people get enough of a reaction to lay them low for a few hours to a day. I’ve heard this from friends specifically with COVID vaccine and the articles I cited above report similar reactions. It’s quite possible one will have no or little reaction, but it is possible to have a fairly strong one. I’ve seen some people suggest premedicating, but I don’t think that’s a great idea.

3 Likes
#33

I had both doses of the Moderna vaccine, and it did not affect my hearing at all.

Side effects:

1st dose. Almost none. Slight discomfort in the arm near the injection site, not enough to call pain, but enough to notice if I moved my arm higher than horizontal. Removing the band-aid was the worst part of that.

2nd dose. The next day I had the heebie-jeebies for a few hours so I took a nap until they went away.

A small price to pay for the protection the vaccine offers.

WORST CASE if you get the vaccine, you are sick the next day

WORST CASE if you DON’T get the vaccine, you might die a horrible death, fighting for every breath in an isolation ward and not even being able to say good-bye to your loved ones.

Don’t believe the politicians, pundits, preachers, propagandists and the person on your social media account if they disagree with the scientific experts who spend their entire lives learning about communicable diseases and how to control them.

For those able to get the vaccine, it’s a no-brainer.

8 Likes
#34

No. Worst case if you get the vaccine is to have an anaphylactic reaction and die. It’s extremely unlikely, but it will likely happen to some people. I still think people should get the vaccine, but I am somewhat :slight_smile: obsessive about the truth.

1 Like
#35

Deaf_piper, I’ve had the first Pfizer shot. No noticeable hearing issues. However, just as a precaution you might want to ask your doctor for a prescription for Prednisone or something like it. Fill the prescription before you get the shot.

Then if you DO experience any hearing loss you can start taking the Prednisone immediately and it might reverse the loss. But you have to start taking it very quickly after the hearing loss starts.

This will almost certainly be unnecessary, but Prednisone is so inexpensive that it’s worth buying some to have on hand just in case, IMHO.