Social media users shared an article that claims Justin Bieber said his facial paralysis was due to the Covid-19 vaccine. This is false; there is no evidence that Bieber made such a public comment, and the article comes from a website that has previously published false claims under the guise of "satire."

"Justin Bieber: 'The vaccine ruined my life,'" says the headline of a June 11, 2022 article from a website called the Vancouver Times.

The article was shared hundreds of times on Facebook, according to the social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle. It has also been widely shared on Twitter.

The article was shared days after the 28-year-old Canadian pop singer-songwriter announced he was pausing his Justice World Tour because of a partial facial paralysis due to Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a condition that occurs when a shingles infection affects the facial nerve near one ear. In addition to facial paralysis, it can cause hearing loss.

The first paragraph of the Vancouver Times article reads: "Justin Bieber now admits that he regrets taking the Covid-19 vaccine, saying that it left him with permanent paralysis in his face. Bieber made the confession to a close friend, who later leaked the information to the Daily Mail. Bieber reportedly plans on suing Pfizer for causing his paralysis, despite the fact the company is shielded from liability."

As evidence, the article links to a Daily Mail story reporting on Bieber's announcement via Instagram. But neither the article nor archived...

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