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Can The Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Cause Bell’s Palsy?

Google University doctors are warning people that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine can cause Bell’s palsy.

Find out if the Pfizer mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 can really cause Bell’s palsy!

Don’t forget to also read Did The Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Kill 6 Trial Volunteers? and Did Pfizer Use Toxic Placebo In COVID-19 Vaccine Trial?

 

Bell’s Palsy : What Is It?

Bell’s palsy is a type of temporary facial paralysis, of unknown cause that involves the facial nerve.

There is usually a rapid onset of muscle weakness on one side of the face within hours or day, which can sometimes end in total paralysis.

This often results in a facial droop, with the inability to close an eye or one side of the mouth, which results in drooling.

Bell’s palsy is pretty common, affecting 1 to 4 per 10,000 people (0.01% to 0.04%) every year. That’s roughly 8~31 million people every year across the globe.

Bell’s palsy patients usually recover by themselves within a few weeks or months, and medical treatment usually involves only corticosteroids.

 

Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Trial : Four Volunteers Developed Bell’s Palsy

On 10 December 2020, the FDA released the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine briefing document for the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC).

The media quickly noticed that during the trial, four volunteers developed Bell’s palsy after receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. They also noticed that no one in the placebo group developed Bell’s palsy.

After the media posted feverishly on this “new development”, antivaxxers and Google University doctors quickly used the news to warn people about the dangers of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

 

Can The Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Cause Bell’s Palsy?

With so many people sharing news about these Bell’s palsy cases, people are wondering :

Let’s break down the facts for you, so you can better weigh the risks and benefits for yourself.

Fact #1 : Correlation Is Not Causation

It is important for us to understand that just because something happened during the vaccine trial, it doesn’t mean that the vaccine caused it.

For example, if you get infected with the flu virus after getting the COVID-19 vaccine, does it mean that the vaccine infected you with the flu virus? Of course, not.

Take a look at this example which shows how ice cream sales correlate with the number of shark attacks. But that doesn’t mean that selling ice-cream causes shark attacks, right?

Of course, we cannot know for sure that the Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccine cannot cause Bell’s palsy. We simply do not have enough information to make that conclusion.

However, it is also wrong to assume that those four cases of Bell’s palsy were caused by the vaccine, because that is no evidence of that either.

Fact #2 : The Cases Were Within Normal Incidence

What many people forget is that Bell’s palsy occurs naturally in the human population, at a rate of 1~4 per 10,000 people.

In the vaccine trial, a total of 21,823 people were given the BNT162b2 vaccine. We would expect 1 to 4 people in that group to develop Bell’s palsy naturally during the roughly 6 month trial period.

So the four reported cases would fall within the normal incidence range for Bell’s palsy – 0.01% to 0.04%. This was actually noted in the document THREE separate times :

The observed frequency of reported Bell’s palsy in the vaccine group is consistent with the expected background rate in the general population, and there is no clear basis upon which to conclude a causal relationship at this time.

This observed frequency of reported Bell’s palsy is consistent with the expected background rate in the general population.

The four cases in the vaccine group do not represent a frequency above that expected in the general population

Even if we do NOT take the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, we have a 0.01% to 0.04% risk of developing Bell’s palsy anyway… every year.

Fact #3 : All Four Cases Recovered / Are Recovering

Of the four volunteers who developed Bell’s palsy, one recovered within 3 days, while the other three were in the process of recovering after 10, 15 and 21 days.

This is nothing special because Bell’s palsy patients commonly recover within weeks or months, even without medical intervention.

Again, Bell’s palsy is NOT life-threatening, and generally resolves by itself.

Fact #4 : COVID-19 Mortality Rate Is Roughly 2.3%

Based on the 10 December 2020 global statistics, the COVID-19 mortality rate is approximately 2.3% – 69.9 million people were infected, and 1.59 million of them died.

Compare that to the “risk” of getting Bell’s palsy from the Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccine – 0.018%.

In other words, the risk of dying from COVID-19 (after getting infected) is 128X higher than the potential risk of getting a temporary facial paralysis from the vaccine.

If you wanted to bet your life, would you opt for the higher risk of dying from COVID-19, or the minuscule risk of temporary facial paralysis?

 

COVID-19 : How To Keep Safe!

Here are a few simple steps to stay safe from COVID-19 :

Recommended : COVID-19 : Hand Sanitiser or Soap? Which Is Better?
Recommended : Surgical Mask : How To CORRECTLY Wear + Remove!
Recommended :
Grocery Shopping Safety During COVID-19
Recommended : COVID-19 Food Safety : Fruits, Vegetables, Takeouts

 

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