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Bell’s palsy usually only lasts 1-3 months (up to 6), so it’s temporary. This occurred in 4 out of 44,000 participants in the trial and the FDA says that this is consistent with the normal rate in the general population (1-4 cases/10000 ppl). https://twitter.com/championtenza/status/1337021763876696064

The FDA also announced that it could not establish a causal relationship between onset of bells palsy and the vaccine.

It happens when one of the nerves in your face swells up and gets compressed so the messengers telling your facial muscles what to do can’t do their job right!

Bell’s palsy is associated with many things including: diabetes, pregnancy, lyme disease, viral infections (flu, colds, other upper respiratory infections), etc

Treatments can be to treat the cause (ie antivirals) or other tactics like steroids to help lower inflammation but it will usually start to improve within two weeks and isn’t known to cause long term complications in most cases. Treatment works best if started w/in 72 hr of onset

The main thing you can do if you have it is to take any medications your doctor has given you and protect the eye on the affected side especially to keep it from drying!

I absolutely understand wanting to really understand any medical endeavors/vaccinations so I just put this here so that this news doesn’t immediately freak everyone out and we can educate ourselves!

lastly, i don’t at all like the giggles i’m seeing on the tl about how people with facial paralysis look! keep that to yourself !!!! not funny!

info from NIH, Johns Hopkins, FDA, Cedars-Sinai