Nicki Minaj called out for ‘Covid nonsense’ with her ‘swollen testicles’ vaccine claim

Rapper says she will eventually get vaccinated in order to tour

Nicki Minaj attends the Met Gala Celebrating Camp at Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2019 in New York City (Getty Images)

Nicki Minaj received a huge blowback from her fans and commentators on Twitter after claiming a family friend was rendered impotent after receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.

The rapper revealed on Monday (13 September) that she would not be attending the Met Gala as it required attendees to show proof of vaccination.

“They want you to get vaccinated for the Met,” she tweeted.

“If I get vaccinated it won’t [be] for the Met. It’ll be once I feel I’ve done enough research. I’m working on that now. In the meantime my loves, be safe. Wear the mask with 2 strings that grips your head & face. Not that loose one.”

Sharing a personal story, Minaj claimed that her cousin’s friend’s testicles became “swollen” and he “became impotent” after getting vaccinated.

She made the claim even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not listed impotency or engorged genitals as a side effect of Covid vaccines.

In fact, the CDC has stated on its official website that “there is currently no evidence that any vaccines, including Covid-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems in women or men”.

The common side effects seen after getting a Covid-19 jab are muscle pain, fatigue, fever and chills.

Minaj’s bizarre tweet about impotency came as a shock to several people, including MSNBC host Joy Ann Reid, who blasted the 38-year-old rapper for spreading misinformation to her 22 million followers.

“For you to use your platform to put people in the position of dying from a disease they don’t have to die from, oh my god,” said Reid. “As a fan, as a hip hop fan, as somebody who is your fan, I am so sad that you did that. So sad that you did that, sister. Oh, my god.”

Charlie Sykes, one of the panelists, said Reid was “absolutely right about [Minaj’s] anti vax nonsense”.

Several of Minaj’s fans begged her to “please get educated on this topic” as individual cases should not be used to determine the efficacy of the vaccine.

One fan said: “Look at the research. Vaccines are HIGHLY effective. This is a FACT. This isn’t opinion.”

However, Minaj said that she will eventually get vaccinated as it is mandatory for travelling and touring.

“A lot of countries won’t let ppl [people] work w/o [without] the vaccine. I’d def recommend they get the vaccine. They have to feed their families. I’m sure I’ll b vaccinated as well cuz I have to go on tour, etc,” she tweeted.

Twitter has not yet labelled Minaj’s tweet about about the false side effect as “misleading information” about Covid-19 vaccines despite its recent initiative to prevent the spread of misinformation.

A Twitter spokesperson told The Verge that “the tweets you referenced are not in violation of the Twitter Rules”.