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I caught covid in 2020. One of the strange effects was tinnitus in left ear. The strange thing is I started noticing the 'ringing' almost right at same time I dimly perceived I was getting sick, when things were still just at 'mild headache' level.

I wonder if this is the work of spike protein causing some physical damage?

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One of the interesting mechanisms is that the spike proteins poke out of already infected cells and activate a calcium-ion channel which ultimately triggers infected cells to fuse together so you get these massive cells with 20 nuclei all producing more virus and fusing other cells.

It seems like this mostly targets reparatory cells, but it's probably not great for hearing/smell if something similar happens to those cells.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02039-y

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