April 28, 2021

Association of Facial Paralysis With MRNA COVID-19 Vaccines

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Vaccines and Immunity

Keywords (Tags): vaccination

• There was no evidence for an association between facial paralysis and mRNA vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 compared to other vaccines, according to a study using World Health Organization data. Among 133,883 cases of adverse drug reactions reported with mRNA vaccines, 844 (0.6%) total facial paralysis-related events were identified, 749 of which were reported with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and 95 with the Moderna vaccine. The authors also identified 5734 (0.5%) and 2087 (0.7%) cases of facial paralysis among 1,265,182 cases of adverse drug reactions reported with other viral vaccines, and 314,980 cases reported with influenza vaccines, respectively. The authors concluded that if an association between mRNA vaccines and facial paralysis does exist, the risk is likely very low.

Renoud et al. (Apr 27, 2021). Association of Facial Paralysis With MRNA COVID-19 Vaccines. JAMA Internal Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.2219