Has anybody gotten tinnitus after having COVID? Is it a more common side effect than is being report

Another Quora question, and here’s my answer/opinion…

Yes, but tinnitus is very complex and very common. With an estimated 1 in 10 people having tinnitus, and just about everyone having COVID, there’s going to be a lot of people developing tinnitus alongside COVID just through chance.

COVID (and any illness) can cause stress. Stress worsens the perception of tinnitus.

So more crossover there too.

That being said, the inner ear is very sensitive to hypoxia (a lack of oxygen in the tissues/blood) so there is a known biological mechanism by which COVID could indeed cause tinnitus/hearing loss. I suspect we will see these results in due course.