No one is suppressing anything. It is rare, it is listed as a known side effect, and its old news. Most people couldn't care less at this point..

Woah, I've never heard of this. Had COVID vaccine late April '21, developed tinnitus a few weeks later, hasn't gone away since.

As a healthy person, I'd have rather taken my chances with COVID than spending the rest of my life with tinnitus (I'm pretty sure I was exposed to COVID just before the lockdowns as I lost my sense of smell for a short while, but otherwise no other symptoms and I've never had it since).

EDIT: Not a AirPods user, I occasionally use the Apple iPhone headphones, but rarely, maybe just for a flight or occasional call.