FDA Staff Recommends Watching for Bell’s Palsy in Moderna and Pfizer Vaccine Recipients

Bell's Palsy

U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff recommends monitoring people who get Pfizer or Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine shots for possible cases of Bell’s Palsy, saying it’s not necessarily a side effect but worth watching out for, reports CNBC.

A 54-page staff report released Tuesday said there were four reported cases of Bell’s Palsy among Moderna’s more than 30,000 clinical trial participants. Three of the participants who got Bell’s palsy also received the vaccine instead of a placebo shot. Pfizer’s trial similarly had four reported cases of Bell’s palsy out of some 43,000 participants. All four Bell’s palsy cases in Pfizer’s trial got the vaccine and not the placebo.

And this:

Two of the cases of Bell’s Palsy among Moderna’s vaccine group have since “resolved” while one was still ongoing at the time of the report, the FDA staff said. The vaccinated participants experienced the paralysis between 22 days and 32 days following inoculation, they said.

Mark your calendar, 22 days out is January 6. It is going to be a scary New Year's greeting for a few.

All for a vaccine that protects against a virus that is not a severe problem for 99.9% of the population.

Bell’s Palsy causes a sudden freezing or weakness in a person’s facial muscles that’s temporary for most people, according to the Mayo Clinic. 

-RW h