Has Gavin Newsom “disappeared” with Bell’s palsy or GBS after the COVID booster?

Governor of California Gavin Newson On Tuesday, November 9th, at the 2021 California Economic Summit in Monterey, he made his first public appearance in nearly two weeks and participated in a “fireside conversation.”

In the half-hour conversation, Newsom also talked about public concerns about his recent absence, focusing on core issues such as post-pandemic recovery and building a sustainable economy.

When he appeared in court alone on Wednesday, he made it clear Refuse His absence was related to accepting boosters.

Claim

After Newsom disappeared from public view after receiving Moderna’s enhanced injection of COVID-19, rumors began to circulate, and the lack of official communication in his office did not help.

On October 29, Newsom’s office issued a statement, canceling his scheduled appearances on the grounds of “family obligation”, including his planned meeting at the global COP 26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

The silence created an information vacuum, which was soon flooded with rumors and speculations about his health, as well as false and misleading accounts about the COVID-19 vaccine.

As the hashtags #whereisgavin and #whereisgavinnewsom became popular over the weekend, some unsubstantiated claims appeared, suggesting that his absence was due to serious or debilitating complications after receiving a follow-up vaccination, and he even died.

The Defender, a website run by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine organization founded by the well-known vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr, claimed on November 8 that it cited “sources close to Newsom.” Alleged that the governor had an adverse reaction to the vaccination and experienced “symptoms” […] Similar to those associated with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), this is a known side effect of many vaccines. “

Another outspoken vaccine skeptic, entrepreneur, and Silicon Valley veteran, Steve Kirsch, made similar claims on the so-called post-vaccination complications on his Substack blog, but said that the governor had instead Bell’s palsy developed.

“Did the vaccine cause Newsom’s Bell’s palsy? He was fine before and within a few hours after the injection. It was reported that he was paralyzed. It may be bad luck. But come on,” Kirsch wrote. His tweets collected more than 2,000 interactions.

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones also claimed that Newsom was “very sick” after being injected because of the “mixed vaccine” and cited the unspecified “California Law Enforcement” as his source of information.

These and other articles have further promoted the spread of social media rumors, and anti-vaccine content has infiltrated hashtags related to Newsom Twitter with Instagram, From vague guesses about side effects to claims that he was incapacitated and even died.

After a video was deleted, it seemed to show that his left eye and cheek drooped significantly when he spoke, like facial paralysis, and it was accompanied by the hashtag #GBS.

fact

The video claiming to show GBS symptoms on Newsom’s face is an example of manipulated content. The clip appears to have been edited from a pre-recorded video released by Newsom’s office on November 4th, wishing his followers a happy Diwali. The original video is the same in all aspects except that Newsom’s face does not show any signs of paralysis.

Both The Defender and Kirsch’s claims about health conditions caused by vaccine boosters are only supported by unnamed “sources”, as well as carefully selected and misleading statistics about the potential side effects of the vaccine.

Lists many potential side effects CDC As far as the different COVID-19 vaccines are concerned, most of them are mild, and the CDC confirms that booster injections are safe, including those that involve mixing different vaccines.

Currently, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not list Bell’s Palsy and GBS as possible side effects of Johnson & Johnson or Moderna vaccines.

“The frequency of reports of Bell’s palsy observed in the vaccine group is consistent with the background rate in the general population,” the CDC explained, noting that there is no basis to draw a causal relationship.

“Green Barley and Bell’s Palsy may be rarely associated with COVID-19 infection. Both are relatively rare and are also associated with other infections,” said Steven Puff, professor of neurology at Downstate University of Health Sciences, State University of New York, Brooklyn. Lakis told Weekly newspaper In an email.

He added that these associations are very rare and it is difficult to determine causality. “There is no evidence that vaccines, including boosters, increase the risk of these two neurological problems more than natural infection with COVID-19.”

Pavlakis also pointed out that under normal circumstances, these two diseases (GBS and BP) have a clinical nadir-which means that when the symptoms are the most severe-three weeks after the onset, most will recover within a few months. .

This is consistent with the Bell’s Palsy and GBS fact sheet issued by the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS), which states that the first two or three weeks of these two conditions are the most severe, and some patients may take several months to fully recover.

In both cases, the time frame discussed ruled out the possibility that the governor fell ill after receiving the injection on October 27, recovered in time, and appeared at the summit in less than two weeks.

Although it is impossible to completely rule out the possibility that the governor may experience certain side effects at this stage, there is no reliable evidence that this is indeed the case, or that his absence is related to health.

Newsom’s press secretary, Daniel Lopez, insisted that the cancellation was not due to boosters, and pointed out that the governor worked at the State Capitol last week and will resume his appearance in a statement to SFGATE this week.

Although he did not make an official public appearance, Newsom posted a family portrait on Instagram. On November 1, he appeared in Halloween pirate costumes with his wife and four young children. He later explained that he “will not give Trick or treat” his children.

In addition, according to various media reports, on Saturday, November 6, he attended the Ivy Getty wedding in the city hall, including ABC with Fashion.

Later Daily mail On Wednesday, the article made a similar statement about the response to the booster, but Newsom responded directly to this, refuting the claim that he suffered from the side effects of the vaccine.

“This is fabricated,” the governor told reporters during a visit to a coronavirus vaccination clinic in Los Angeles on Wednesday. “I have never been affected by the COVID lens in any way-the original or booster. Absolutely not. There is no fatigue.”

He also urged people to “pause and reflect on” “intentional distortions and misinformation surrounding the efficacy and safety of these vaccines.”

On the contrary, as Newson himself said at the event on Tuesday, the reasons for his brief withdrawal from public view seemed more mundane. He explained that shortly before he went to attend the UN meeting, his children “intervened a little bit.”

“They said they couldn’t believe I would miss Halloween,” Newsom said. “You know, it’s worse for Mom and Dad to miss Halloween than Christmas.”

ruling

Incorrect.

Newsweek fact check

The onset and recovery of serious diseases such as Bell’s palsy or Guillain-Barré syndrome usually involves a time scale that does not match the length of Newsom’s absence, and there is no other evidence that his short disappearance from public view is related to health, so This statement is wrong.