Did NHS Issue Poster Warning COVID-19 Vaccine Causes Bell’s Palsy?

A photograph shows an official poster from the National Health Service warning that the COVID-19 vaccine causes Bell’s palsy.

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In January 2022, an image started to circulate on social media that supposedly showed an official poster from England’s National Health Service (NHS) warning that the COVID-19 vaccine causes Bell’s palsy. 

This is not a genuine poster from NHS. Furthermore, a link between the COVID-19 vaccine and Bell’s palsy has not been proven. 

A spokesperson for NHS told Reuters that the poster was fake. The Department of Health and Social Care, which oversees NHS, also said that these are not official posters from NHS.

It’s worth noting, too, that the person featured in this poster did not develop Bell’s palsy after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. This photograph has been available via stock photo websites since at least 2011. 

Anti-vaxxers have been pushing the Bell’s palsy claim since the COVID-19 vaccines were first introduced. While there have been some cases of people developing Bell’s palsy after taking the vaccine, researchers have not found a definitive link between the vaccine and Bell’s palsy, a temporary form of facial paralysis. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in September 2020:

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.

In January 2022, The Lancet published a paper that examined various studies into the relationship between COVID-19 vaccines and Bell’s palsy. That paper concluded there was not definitive evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines were linked to an increase in Bell’s palsy, and while research was still being done, one certainty remained: “The benefit of getting vaccinated outweighs any possible risk.”

Sources:

Cirillo, Nicola, and Richard Doan. “The Association between COVID-19 Vaccination and Bell’s Palsy.” The Lancet Infectious Diseases, vol. 22, no. 1, Jan. 2022, pp. 5–6. www.thelancet.com, https://ift.tt/KjpiGMS.

“Fact Check-Alleged Bell’s Palsy Poster in West London Was Not Authorised by the NHS.” Reuters, 20 Jan. 2022. www.reuters.com, https://ift.tt/nQ2lTLj.

“NHS Didn’t Create Poster Claiming COVID-19 Causes Bell’s Palsy.” AP NEWS, 18 Jan. 2022, https://ift.tt/omNMRLp.

Did NHS Issue Poster Warning COVID-19 Vaccine Causes Bell’s Palsy?
Source: Kapit Pinas