On December 17, 2020, the first respondents in the state of Tennessee began receiving a vaccination for COVID-19.
In the days that followed, the Tennessee Department of Health shared testimonies from doctors, nurses, firefighters and other frontline workers about their experiences with the vaccine.
While this collection of testimonials from real health professionals in Tennessee was largely positive and encouraged citizens to get vaccinated when the time was right, it was an unverified video of a woman claiming to be a nurse who went viral on social media and generated controversy over the COVID Vaccine -19.
During the Christmas holiday of 2020, a video of a woman who claims to be a registered nurse in Nashville, Tennessee, called Khalilah Mitchell, started circulating on social media sites like 4chan, Twitter and Facebook. This video has also been posted several times on YouTube and other video hosting sites, such as Bitchute. Although we are not sure how many people in total have seen this video, an iteration posted on Twitter has been viewed almost 50,000 times. In comparison, testimonials posted by the Tennessee Department of Health generally received between 20 and 50 shares.
In the video, the woman claims to have developed Bell’s palsy, a form of temporary facial paralysis, a few days after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine:
We were unable to confirm many details about this viral video. It is not clear where it originated, where it was filmed or even who shows it. When we contacted the Tennessee Department of Health, a spokesman told us, “We have no record of anyone with that name in our health care licensing system.”
Seana Davis, disinformation specialist at Euronews, also reported that the Tennessee Department of Health had no record of Khalilah Mitchell as a registered nurse:
It should also be noted that there is no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine causes Bell’s palsy.
In early December 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a report on tests of the COVID-19 vaccine that were conducted in the days leading up to the approval of the new drug. This report found that four people (out of about 22,000) who participated in the vaccine test developed Bell’s palsy. But the report also noted that this frequency rate was below the expected background rate for Bell’s palsy in the general population. In other words, there is no evidence that this condition was caused vaccine.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) writes that the United States has a robust safety program to ensure that the COVID-19 vaccine is as safe as possible:
The United States currently has the safest vaccine supply in its history. The country’s long-standing vaccine security system ensures that vaccines are as safe as possible.
Vaccine safety is a vital part of the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As vaccines are developed and made available, public awareness of their safety, both at the beginning and during prolonged use, is an important part of a successful national vaccination effort.
The CDC’s Office of Immunization Security works to communicate timely and transparent information about vaccine safety to public health officials, health professionals and the public. The office conducts vaccine safety monitoring and clinical research to help keep vaccines safe.
Read more about the various safety measures that health authorities are taking to ensure that the COVID-19 vaccine is safe here.