MemberLol.
Okay.
Understatement. If I ever offer to cure your tinnitus but refuse to tell you what the cure is, and also ask you to sign a legal waiver in case I cause your severe injury or death, I'll expect you to discern it as more than a "bit of a risk".
Disagree.
My take: natural immunity has been hastily swept under the carpet for no logical reason.
Also, viral load is tractable. How do I know this? Because it was exhibited at the start of the pandemic. I followed the snowballing of COVID-19 over social media, and at the very start the people in both China, the U.S and Italy who were dying most frequently from infection were healthcare workers, meanwhile civilians were mostly recovering. At the outset the absolute worst place you could find yourself was a hospital, and the hypothesis was: the higher viral load as a result of greater exposure.
Your chances of experiencing anything greater than mild symptoms were a lot better, if like me, you brought the virus home on some shopping and became infected. Hence so many average joes complaining of something like a "bad flu" in 2020 and also high incidence of "carriers" that experienced no symptoms at all.
Sure, I take your point and admire that you appear to demonstrate an understanding of virological mechanisms, but here's the thing:
Primary Subjective Evidence
In 2002 I develop mild tinnitus.
Between 2002 and 2006 I suffer several acoustic traumas, that increase my tinnitus, however it remains mild.
2007 I'm infected with an Influenza that causes mild but permanent hearing loss, and my tinnitus jumps from mild to moderate.
(irrelevant) Events of 2009 then take place and I'm left with the severe tinnitus I have now.(irrelevant)
Skip to 2020. I'm infected with COVID-19 twice. Neither time my tinnitus increases.
By 2021 I've probably been infected with the same virus seven times over as I no longer go to much length to avoid it, and I've never experienced the same symptoms again, nor has my tinnitus increased.
Family members have all had COVID-19, none of them became seriously ill. None have developed tinnitus. Those that had tinnitus already have no increase in their baseline.
Secondary Subjective Evidence
Extended family members who were infected (I have around 20) become infected, none become seriously ill or develop tinnitus.
None of their friends or acquaintances develop tinnitus or need hospitalisation (we are now talking about a specimen sample size of 100+ people)
Even @Tinker Bell, one of the most outspoken COVID-19 fearmongers on this forum has inadvertently backed up my position:
A virus other than COVID-19 caused her severe hearing damage years ago, and yet, she lived at least 1 year and (roughly) 3 months unvaccinated while this highly infectious virus was rapidly spreading, and it did nothing to her tinnitus.
Another COVID-19 fearmonger @Ed209, mentioned he and some family and friends were hospitalised with this virus, as if this anecdotal experience proved beyond doubt the it was lethal (and I'm not going to deny his reality), and yet while browsing Tinnitus talk I accidentally tripped over this thread:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/i-feel-the-need-to-vent.39201/
Quick read suggests @Ed209 and much of his circle suffered from quite a few health complications prior to COVID-19's emergence; so it's not that surprising.
Objective Evidence
My point still stands. While I do not have access to Tinnitus Talk's numbers for each year, I'm confident in conjecturing that the number of members did not increase three-fold between 2020 and 2021. Nor was there a sudden return of members - whose accounts had become inactive prior to 2020 (noted as a result of bored browsing through old threads and profiles) - all experiencing worsened tinnitus as a result of a virus.
Okay @Matchbox, if you want to be autistic about it: hands up, I've lumped influenza in with coronaviruses, pretty sure most layman do, unless they're actual virologists, because y'know, pretty much identical behaviour, infection rate and symptoms.
I mean, no offense or anything, but you realise you're contradicting the Ex-Vice President of Pfizer, and one of the most prominent virologists on the planet who have absolutely nothing to gain and everything to lose by going against the mainstream narrative... It's weird, but I'm just somewhat more inclined to take their side when one of them says the mutations to COVID-19 haven't been enough, for what the media is telling us is happening, to actually... happen.
Another understatement.
Lol, mate, if me miscategorizing Flu as a coronavirus gives you a "yikes" moment, wait until you see where these vaccine "mandates" are going. Just keep telling people how bad this virus is; help spread the fear, and you're not going to have to volunteer for anything.
The good news is that managing to avoid saliculates can bring days and days of perfect pure silence. As an aside, as this is a vaccine thread, I'm not having the jabs. I know that louder or constant tinnitus will drive me insane so I have declined the many 'come & get vaccinated' invitations I've received.
