Signature Injury Syndrome
Ramsay Hunt Makes a Facial Impression Begging for Honesty
The world watched as Canadian pop star Justin Bieber demanded fully vaccinated concert attendees on his “Justice” world tour. It is reasonable assumption that there were no exceptions to this policy including himself. So if he was fully vaccinated in 2021 and then contracts COVID-19 illness in February, 2022 after the vaccine failed, he had at least three exposures to the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. In June 2022, he developed Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, which is reactivation of the herpes zoster virus, a rare condition that previously occurred in older adults who had the chicken pox rash as children. Because this syndrome causes not only facial paralysis but dysfunction of nerves that would impact his singing, hearing, vision, and balance, Bieber cancelled the rest of his tour in September of 2022—similar to one going on temporary disability. When this made the news in June of 2021, doctors went on television to explain to public what Ramsay Hunt Syndrome was, why it occurs, and what the consequences may be for the unlucky victim. Not in a single interview mentioned papers published describing the Ramsay Hunt being triggered by COVID-19 vaccination. Listen to Dr. Andrew Mester carefully explain the syndrome but fail to mention Bieber’s chicken pox/vaccine status, COVID-19 vaccination, and COVID-19 illness.[i] To be fair, Dr. Mester probably had none of these clinical facts surrounding Bieber’s case—but they are clearly relevant and first on the minds of his audience. Why this glaring omission? Bieber likely received the chicken pox vaccine as a child meaning he should not have acquired the varicella zoster virus in the form of chicken pox. Woo et al point out the only other smoking gun in a young person today is the COVID-19 vaccine triggering Ramsay Hunt.[ii]
In Bieber’s case, now like many others, both vaccination and then superimposed infection could have cumulatively caused destabilization of the varicella zoster latency and allowed expression in critical facial ganglia. Bieber is not alone on his journey, Renoud et al, has reported 844 cases of “facial paralysis” in the World Health Organization database likely representing a mixture of Bell’s Palsy, Ramsay Hunt, and stroke as the etiologies.[iii] The cases of Ramsay Hunt I have seen in my practice among older individuals have resulted in permanent facial paralysis. However, published observations suggest that if treated early and intensively with antiviral agents and corticosteroids within the first three days, ~80% of patients should have complete resolution—but it could take up to 6 years.[iv] Bieber obviously did not make a quick recovery. The world deserves some honesty from all of those in the public eye on their COVID-19 vaccine status when coming out in the press with a personal injury syndrome. Additionally, vaccinated fans want to know if this could happen to them, and it is the duty of doctors serving as media commentators to be forthright and not oblivious to COVID-19 vaccination as the cause of the problem when it is documented in the medical literature. Time for honesty and “justice” to the facts.
[ii] Woo CJ, Chou OHI, Cheung BMY. Ramsay Hunt syndrome following COVID-19 vaccination. Postgrad Med J. 2022 Oct;98(1164):738-739. doi: 10.1136/postgradmedj-2021-141022. Epub 2022 Jan 5. PMID: 34987077.
[iii] Renoud L, Khouri C, Revol B, Lepelley M, Perez J, Roustit M, et al. Association of facial paralysis with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines: a disproportionality analysis using the World Health Organization Pharmacovigilance Database. JAMA Intern Med. 2021, http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.2219.
[iv] Kanerva M, Jones S, Pitkaranta A. Ramsay Hunt syndrome: characteristics and patient self-assessed long-term facial palsy outcome. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2020 Apr;277(4):1235-1245. doi: 10.1007/s00405-020-05817-y. Epub 2020 Jan 25. PMID: 31982948; PMCID: PMC7072041.
His young wife also had an unusual for her age health issue - some type of stroke. I heard her speaking about it in a video but she never linked it to vaccine.
Did you see Katy Perry's eye during a performance...looks very similar.