Everyone with a phone or computer has seen the mega-viral videos and photos of 28-year-old pop star Justin Bieber. “As you can see, this eye is not blinking,” he told his whopping 241 million Instagram followers last weekend. Bieber’s handsome face is drooping and lopsided; he “can’t smile,” his “nostril will not move,” and “there’s full paralysis” on the left side of his face.
The entertainer’s doctors diagnosed him with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, a “rare neurological disorder” marked by facial palsy that is “caused by the varicella zoster virus” (which causes chickenpox in children and shingles in adults), according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders.
Media outlets around the world rushed to assure Beliebers (the celebrity’s massive global fan base) that the somber singer’s condition could not possibly have anything to do at all with experimental COVID-19 jabs.