Shafaq News/ Social media users have been sharing a post that makes several claims of serious negative health effects from the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, including four cases of Bell’s palsy.

Vaccinations with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine have begun in the UK and the vaccine has been also authorized for use in Bahrain and Canada.

At the time of writing discussions were underway at the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about whether to approve the vaccine in the United States, after FDA staff said in briefing documents that the vaccine’s efficacy and safety data met its expectations for emergency use authorization.

The FDA briefing documents also showed that it is true that there were four cases of Bell’s palsy among those who received the vaccine.

Bell’s palsy is a sudden weakness or freezing of muscles on one side of the face, which in most cases is temporary.

The briefing said that the frequency of Bell’s palsy in the vaccine group is “consistent with the expected background rate in the general population”, adding there is “no clear basis upon which to conclude a causal relationship at this time”.

 The FDA said it would, however, recommend “surveillance” for cases of Bell’s palsy as the vaccine is sent out to larger groups of people.