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[00:00.000 --> 00:01.760]  I'm Dave Champion.
[00:01.760 --> 00:06.340]  There's been a fair amount of media coverage concerning the Pfizer vaccine in reference
[00:06.340 --> 00:09.320]  to the side effect of Bell's palsy.
[00:09.320 --> 00:10.840]  So today I want to do three things.
[00:10.840 --> 00:13.840]  I want to talk about what Bell's palsy actually is.
[00:13.840 --> 00:18.200]  I want to share with you my personal experience with it and I want to share my thoughts with
[00:18.200 --> 00:23.560]  you concerning the vaccine in general.
[00:23.560 --> 00:32.560]  If the Pfizer COVID vaccine is causing Bell's palsy, which it seems to be in a number of
[00:32.560 --> 00:38.200]  people who take the injection, what exactly is Bell's palsy?
[00:38.200 --> 00:43.240]  Bell's palsy is an affliction of the seventh nerve that feeds the face.
[00:43.240 --> 00:45.160]  I'm going to show you a graph in a second.
[00:45.160 --> 00:50.400]  And what happens is when that nerve is adversely impacted, and by the way, medicine science
[00:50.400 --> 00:55.040]  does not know to this very day what causes Bell's palsy.
[00:55.040 --> 01:00.040]  But as you can see, this is the nerve structure of the face that is affected.
[01:00.040 --> 01:03.840]  And you'll notice right here is where the nerve comes out into the face from in front
[01:03.840 --> 01:08.920]  of the ear, and it spreads out going to above the eyebrows to all the way down into the
[01:08.920 --> 01:10.600]  upper part of the neck.
[01:10.600 --> 01:14.680]  So what happens when that nerve shuts off?
[01:14.680 --> 01:20.160]  Yeah, paralysis of one half of the face, which is lovely.
[01:20.160 --> 01:24.640]  And I can tell you from personal experience, one of the things that irritates me when I
[01:24.640 --> 01:30.000]  see people on social media, I guess they're trying to defend the Pfizer vaccine by saying
[01:30.000 --> 01:34.280]  that Bell's palsy, by the way, the full name of it is Bell's palsy of the seventh nerve.
[01:34.280 --> 01:39.800]  They're saying that Bell's palsy is temporary and irrelevant.
[01:39.800 --> 01:40.800]  You get it.
[01:40.800 --> 01:41.800]  It's there for a little while.
[01:41.800 --> 01:43.080]  It goes away and you're all good.
[01:43.080 --> 01:45.200]  And that is not remotely factual.
[01:45.200 --> 01:48.720]  So by the way, if you're one of the people who are saying that, shut the fuck up.
[01:48.720 --> 01:52.200]  Because as somebody who's had to deal with it for the better part of my life, you don't
[01:52.200 --> 01:54.380]  know what the fuck you're talking about.
[01:54.380 --> 01:58.680]  So what does the onset of Bell's palsy actually look like or feel like?
[01:58.680 --> 02:01.840]  In my case, there was absolutely no sensation at all.
[02:01.840 --> 02:03.320]  I didn't know I had it.
[02:03.320 --> 02:08.600]  The first time I got it, I was 18 years old and I rolled out of bed and I went to take
[02:08.600 --> 02:09.600]  a shower.
[02:09.600 --> 02:13.160]  This is in the days before the federal government regulated the volume of water that could come
[02:13.160 --> 02:14.160]  out.
[02:14.160 --> 02:15.600]  So there was a lot of water coming out.
[02:15.600 --> 02:19.920]  So I turned on the shower, waited for it to get warm, stepped into the shower and looked
[02:19.920 --> 02:28.240]  up directly into the water, just inundating my face and inundating my mouth and my throat
[02:28.240 --> 02:33.120]  and my eye because it was my eye was locked in the open position.
[02:33.120 --> 02:36.920]  I think a lot of people imagine when you have a nerve problem that affects the eyelid that
[02:36.920 --> 02:39.080]  the eye closes, it's just the opposite.
[02:39.080 --> 02:44.400]  The eye locks open and I had no control over the left side of my mouth.
[02:44.400 --> 02:48.320]  And so water was gushing into my mouth and going down my throat.
[02:48.320 --> 02:51.880]  Basically I suppose, although we didn't know the term back then, I felt like I was getting
[02:51.880 --> 02:52.880]  water boarded.
[02:52.880 --> 02:53.880]  Right away.
[02:53.880 --> 02:54.880]  Oh, God.
[02:54.880 --> 02:55.880]  I pulled myself away from the shower.
[02:55.880 --> 02:56.880]  I'm like, the hell?
[02:56.880 --> 02:57.880]  Okay.
[02:57.880 --> 03:01.840]  So I go in the shower, I go put my face in the water again.
[03:01.840 --> 03:02.840]  Same thing again.
[03:02.840 --> 03:03.840]  Right.
[03:03.840 --> 03:04.840]  I'm like, what is going on?
[03:04.840 --> 03:08.760]  So I turned off the shower and I get out of the shower and I look in the mirror and half
[03:08.760 --> 03:10.720]  of my, there's no way to replicate it.
[03:10.720 --> 03:15.760]  Half of my face though is hanging there like a slab of beef.
[03:15.760 --> 03:18.760]  No motor function at all.
[03:18.760 --> 03:22.000]  That was how I realized that I had Bell's Palsy, although I didn't know it was Bell's
[03:22.000 --> 03:23.400]  Palsy at the time.
[03:23.400 --> 03:24.400]  I was mortified.
[03:24.400 --> 03:25.400]  Right.
[03:25.400 --> 03:29.120]  I'm like, oh my God, I'm 18 years old and half my face is paralyzed.
[03:29.120 --> 03:30.720]  Oh my God.
[03:30.720 --> 03:34.240]  I'm looking at the future of my life with a half paralyzed face.
[03:34.240 --> 03:36.120]  I had no idea what Bell's Palsy was.
[03:36.120 --> 03:39.320]  So I called up the doctor and I told him I had this emergency situation.
[03:39.320 --> 03:40.320]  Come on down.
[03:40.920 --> 03:44.120]  So I get in the car and I drive for the doctors and I get into the exam room and the doctor
[03:44.120 --> 03:48.720]  visits with me and he goes, okay, so you have Bell's Palsy and you should be okay in about
[03:48.720 --> 03:54.440]  six weeks, which is typically true.
[03:54.440 --> 03:57.680]  And it was true in my case on that go around.
[03:57.680 --> 04:06.160]  So at 18, it took about six weeks for full functionality to return to my face.
[04:06.160 --> 04:07.520]  That's how it is for the vast majority of people.
[04:07.720 --> 04:09.920]  I want to be very clear about that.
[04:09.920 --> 04:10.920]  Okay.
[04:10.920 --> 04:12.960]  Yeah.
[04:12.960 --> 04:15.440]  But I got it again 10 years later.
[04:15.440 --> 04:18.240]  Before I get on to what happened when I was 28, I wanted to tell you a quick story about
[04:18.240 --> 04:20.340]  what happened when I was 18.
[04:20.340 --> 04:25.000]  So okay, so one half of my face is just hanging there like a slab of meat, right?
[04:25.000 --> 04:28.660]  So I'm at a friend's house with a bunch of my hooligan friends and we're watching Saturday
[04:28.660 --> 04:29.660]  Night Live.
[04:29.660 --> 04:32.360]  This is way back in the day.
[04:32.360 --> 04:36.180]  And I think Belushi did something that cracked me up, right?
[04:36.180 --> 04:43.740]  So I'm laughing hysterically with one half of my face.
[04:43.740 --> 04:47.660]  So it's like I'm laughing and this is a slab.
[04:47.660 --> 04:52.100]  And suddenly one of my buddies looks over and he's like, oh my God, and he starts laughing
[04:52.100 --> 04:55.940]  hysterically and then everybody else looks over and they're looking at me and they're
[04:55.940 --> 05:02.060]  laughing five times as hard and how ridiculous my face looked as anything going on on Saturday
[05:02.060 --> 05:03.060]  Night Live.
[05:03.060 --> 05:07.100]  Because if you can imagine somebody, half their face is laughing hysterically and the
[05:07.100 --> 05:13.020]  other half is just hanging there with not a single emotion, just like dead meat.
[05:13.020 --> 05:15.260]  But in the end, that go around was just fine.
[05:15.260 --> 05:18.340]  A couple of weeks later, my face was restored to normalcy.
[05:18.340 --> 05:19.340]  All right.
[05:19.340 --> 05:22.220]  So I'm 28 and it strikes again.
[05:22.220 --> 05:24.460]  Now this time I know what it is, right?
[05:24.460 --> 05:25.460]  I look in the mirror.
[05:25.460 --> 05:29.700]  I'm like, are you kidding me again?
[05:29.700 --> 05:31.420]  So nevertheless, I go to the doctor.
[05:31.420 --> 05:34.740]  I'm thinking, okay, I know the first time around a decade ago, there was nothing they
[05:34.740 --> 05:35.740]  could do for it.
[05:35.740 --> 05:37.820]  So let's see if something's changed.
[05:37.820 --> 05:38.820]  So I go to the doctor.
[05:38.820 --> 05:40.100]  They're like, nope, nothing's changed.
[05:40.100 --> 05:41.500]  There's still nothing we can do about it.
[05:41.500 --> 05:42.860]  You just have to sit and wait.
[05:42.860 --> 05:49.180]  Okay, I've been through this drill before, no sweat, except this time it does not go
[05:49.180 --> 05:50.540]  away completely.
[05:50.540 --> 05:55.380]  Now it went away quite a bit, but my face has never quite been the same.
[05:55.380 --> 05:56.700]  Ha ha, no jokes.
[05:56.700 --> 06:03.900]  And I'm really tired and my right eye begins to droop as happens when we get tired.
[06:03.900 --> 06:04.900]  This eye does not.
[06:04.900 --> 06:11.000]  Also, you'll notice in some of the videos I do when I make like exaggerated facial expressions,
[06:11.000 --> 06:18.100]  you can see the difference in the degree to which my eye opens or doesn't open.
[06:18.100 --> 06:21.900]  And I see it in still photos all the time, you know, somebody I'll be at a party or something
[06:21.900 --> 06:24.600]  and somebody will snap a picture of me and then, you know, they'll, hey, dude, check
[06:24.600 --> 06:27.000]  out this picture of you and I'll like blow it up a little bit.
[06:27.000 --> 06:32.320]  I'm like, okay, that's messed up because I can literally see the difference in how the
[06:32.320 --> 06:34.480]  eyes are open.
[06:34.480 --> 06:38.620]  The other aspect that's never gone back to completely normal is this side of my lip day
[06:38.620 --> 06:39.620]  in and day out.
[06:39.620 --> 06:44.160]  I don't notice it, but when I do notice it is late at night and say, you know, two in
[06:44.160 --> 06:47.160]  the morning, I wake up, go take a leak, come back to bed.
[06:47.160 --> 06:51.680]  I keep a little water next to the bed and I'll take a sip of water.
[06:51.680 --> 06:56.560]  And for some reason in the wee hours of the morning when I've been asleep, the muscle
[06:56.560 --> 06:59.080]  strength is not there.
[06:59.080 --> 07:07.680]  And fairly often I'll get water streaming down here because my lip won't stay closed,
[07:07.680 --> 07:12.360]  which is one of the things when you have Bell's palsy, you know what a problem that is while
[07:12.360 --> 07:13.360]  you're in the midst of it.
[07:13.360 --> 07:18.760]  I mean, literally when you drink water while you're in the midst of Bell's palsy, you have
[07:18.760 --> 07:24.880]  to drink it like this so the water is retained in the part of your mouth that's not experiencing
[07:24.880 --> 07:26.320]  the Bell's palsy.
[07:26.320 --> 07:30.280]  Same thing if you're eating soup or anything like that, you have to come up, tilt your
[07:30.280 --> 07:34.800]  head and pour it into this section because if you leave it level, it'll just fall right
[07:34.800 --> 07:35.800]  out.
[07:35.800 --> 07:36.800]  There's no muscular control there.
[07:36.800 --> 07:37.800]  Okay.
[07:37.800 --> 07:39.480]  So I still have a little bit of that at night.
[07:39.480 --> 07:46.480]  So is Bell's palsy, even when it doesn't go away completely, is it horrifically life
[07:46.480 --> 07:47.480]  altering?
[07:47.480 --> 07:48.480]  No, it's not.
[07:49.480 --> 07:55.240]  But it's not cool and it's not desirable, which brings me to the Pfizer vaccine.
[07:55.240 --> 08:04.200]  Now I have no opinion about whether you or anybody else should take the vaccine.
[08:04.200 --> 08:06.400]  I have no need of it.
[08:06.400 --> 08:08.720]  That's all I need to say for myself.
[08:08.720 --> 08:10.600]  I know where my immune process is.
[08:10.600 --> 08:17.640]  So I have absolutely no need for the vaccine and zero intention of taking it.
[08:17.640 --> 08:21.160]  However, if you and I were sitting having lunch and you said, well, I think I'm going
[08:21.160 --> 08:22.160]  to get the vaccine.
[08:22.160 --> 08:23.160]  Hey, carry on.
[08:23.160 --> 08:26.400]  I don't judge anybody else if they want to get the vaccine.
[08:26.400 --> 08:29.440]  I'm not an anti-vaxxer per se.
[08:29.440 --> 08:32.200]  I have no need for it so I'm not going to do it.
[08:32.200 --> 08:35.240]  If you think it's a nifty idea, carry on.
[08:35.240 --> 08:39.440]  That said, now we talk about the vaccine in terms of Bell's palsy.
[08:39.440 --> 08:47.320]  When I look at the possibility of you getting Bell's palsy from the vaccine and that perhaps
[08:47.320 --> 08:51.880]  you like me, it will not go away completely.
[08:51.880 --> 08:55.200]  I guess if you're nine, it doesn't really matter.
[08:55.200 --> 08:59.300]  I've been living with this since I was 28 years old.
[08:59.300 --> 09:03.800]  So it's been there with me most of my life.
[09:03.800 --> 09:10.680]  So if you're in your 20s or 30s or maybe even in your 40s and you don't want Bell's palsy
[09:10.680 --> 09:14.240]  and you are concerned that if you get it, you might have the same experience that I
[09:14.240 --> 09:15.240]  do.
[09:15.240 --> 09:21.160]  In reference to the Pfizer vaccine, this is my opinion and nothing but that.
[09:21.160 --> 09:26.640]  If you feel you need to get it, get it.
[09:26.640 --> 09:28.840]  The vaccine, not Bell's palsy.
[09:28.840 --> 09:37.880]  However, if you have no real need for the vaccine and we know there is this possibility
[09:37.880 --> 09:43.800]  that you could get Bell's palsy and then we know there is a possibility that it might
[09:43.800 --> 09:46.080]  not completely go away.
[09:46.080 --> 09:50.120]  Science knows it doesn't always completely go away and I'm a prime example of that reality.
[09:50.120 --> 09:52.800]  It does not always completely go away.
[09:52.800 --> 09:55.000]  So my thing would be if you want the vaccine, take it.
[09:55.000 --> 09:56.960]  If you need the vaccine, take it.
[09:56.960 --> 10:00.000]  If you're in a high risk group and you want to take it, take it.
[10:00.000 --> 10:07.520]  If you really have no particular reason to take it and the Bell's palsy thing doesn't
[10:07.520 --> 10:10.240]  sound appealing, well then perhaps don't take the vaccine.