No evidence COVID-19 vaccine behind Katy Perry’s eye closing in concert

Singer-songwriter Katy Perry was performing in Las Vegas when video captured one of her eyes dropping closed and staying there until she placed a finger to her face and it opened back up again. The artist hasn’t commented on the incident, but the video, viewed tens of thousands of times, has fueled speculation about the moment that so far lacks evidence. 

Some have hypothesized Perry’s shut eyelid was caused by glue for false eyelashes or heavy theatrical makeup. Others have blamed the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Eye of the Pfizer," one Instagram post said, riffing on a lyric from Perry’s song "Roar." 

"This girl is on Pfizer," another said, apparently referencing an Alicia Keys song. 

These posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

We reached out to Perry’s agent about the posts but didn’t immediately hear back. 

However, there’s no evidence to support the claims that her eye closed during a performance because of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Perry has talked in the past about what she calls her "wonk eye." In a video posted on YouTube in 2011, she showed eyedrops she said she uses to keep her eye from squinting shut more than her other eye.  

Perry has advocated for people to get COVID-19 vaccines. For Halloween 2021, she dressed up as a vaccine while her fiancé, actor Orlando Bloom, went as a doctor. He posted a picture of the pair on Instagram with the caption, "I vaxed a girl and I liked it." 

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UNICEF also named Perry and Bloom Goodwill Ambassadors in its effort to urge countries like the United States to donate doses of COVID-19 vaccines to poorer countries.  

We don’t know what caused Perry’s eye to shut. But to claim that it was a COVID-19 vaccine follows a familiar playbook of claiming any health problem or change in a person’s physical appearance is a result of the vaccine.

Similar claims emerged after singer Justin Bieber and his wife, Hailey Bieber, shared details about medical conditions on social media. Justin Bieber was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome, a rare illness that caused full paralysis on one side of his face, and Hailey Bieber was hospitalized after a blood clot traveled to her brain. But experts we spoke with at the time said that there’s no evidence vaccines caused either condition. 

Medical experts say the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective at preventing serious or fatal cases of the disease. The risk of serious side effects is small. With no evidence showing that the COVID-19 vaccine is connected to Perry’s eye incident, we rate this claim False.