We all know Hans Christian Andersen’s story The Emperor’s New Clothes, about the Emperor who parades stark naked in front of his subjects but no one dares mention it. But what about the story of Özlem Türeci, the much-celebrated Turkish-German co-creator of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, whose face has featured in the New York Times, on the BBC and innumerable other international media and who clearly suffers from partial facial paralysis, a widely-reported side-effect of the drug, but no one dares mention it?
The facial paralysis or Bell’s Palsy is, for instance, flagrantly obvious in this clip from an interview which Türeci and her husband, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin, gave to the BBC in October 2022. Türeci is the company’s Chief Medical Officer.
The paralysis is equally obvious in the above still from the interview, which accompanies a BBC article on the couple’s cancer research.
Indeed, it is more or less obvious in all video and still images of Türeci. See, for instance, the somewhat iconic New York Times photo below:
Or this Sabanci University lecture:
So, why does nobody talk about it?
Reports of partial facial paralysis following inoculation with the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine are so widespread that the adverse reaction has become a veritable meme. Justin Bieber famously announced that he was suffering from the disorder in June 2022. A case report of Bell’s Palsy following inoculation with the vaccine can be consulted here. And the FDA’s December 2020 briefing document on the drug contains the following curious passage (p. 6), acknowledging four cases of Bell’s Palsy in the clinical trial, all of them in the vaccine group.
So, was Türeci a victim of her own drug? Well, the answer to that question is definitively no. For earlier images of Türeci show that she was already suffering from facial paralysis several years before the development and rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, albeit to a lesser extent. See, for instance, the below photo from the 2017 article here or the 2016 video clip here.
Could she, however, have somehow developed the disorder in connection with her laboratory work on mRNA drugs? Well, we do not know. But the below photo of Sahin and Türeci in the 1990s shows that as a young woman Türeci had no trace of facial paralysis. The photo comes from a celebratory exposition on the development of the so-called vaccine hosted by the German Museum of Technology.
One thing is sure: If Albert Bourla was suffering from partial facial paralysis, everybody would be talking about it and social media would be lit up. But Bourla is merely the CEO of a company which markets the drug. Türeci is the co-creator of the drug and the CMO and co-founder of the company which actually owns it.
Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on X.
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Well, at least she probably took it – which is more than can be said for many pundits. As a retired Audiologist who did diagnostic tests for it, I will duck behind my desk and point out that Bell’s Palsy wasn’t all that uncommon years before C19 jabs (which isn’t to say that other jabs might not have caused it).
It’s as well to be certain of our facts before we jump in with a ‘gotcha’, however vindicated it makes us feel. (And they would only say ‘oh but compared to covid this is a small price to pay….’)
It was and is not that uncommon. I think the question is has it increased and is the increase associated with the damn’ bug or the vaccines or something else?
Edited to add: Singling out an individual connected to the development of a vaccine seems specious.
You may well be right.
But there is another possibility, so far unmentioned. Was she sufficiently hubristic to include a smidgeon of herself in her ”special experimental gene therapy”, not realising her own affliction?
Surely not!
But I have read of a chef who was prosecuted because he enjoyed contributing some of his own special cream.sauce when preparing certain clients’ dinner.
Sorry to spoil your breakfast.
Where draconian measures are forced on people, scientists cheering the way with little evidence that they are necessary or effective? Where their fellow scientists with alternate views are censored or cancelled?
Where the belief that men can become women goes largely unchallenged by the scientific community (unless I missed that uproar)?
Where gain-of-function provides cheap and fun research opportunities with little concern of the risks?
A bit more humility might benefit all of us.
““scientists tend to show humility””
Once. Not any more.
Usually resolves after a few weeks I believe (like TY’s ‘Saturday Night Palsy’). Certainly did in a case known to me (long before the C19 terror). Don’t know if that applies to ‘vaccine’ induced cases.
It’s just another example of “psychological manipulation”, or a marketing tactic, aimed at their products. Here’s a short movie on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlWGlN4ISWY “Covert psychological manipulation” by John Campbell.
Drug dealer rule No. 1
Never get high on your own supply
Perhaps he believed the media fear porn and partook of the snake oil only to land a freebie