The claims from Nicki Minaj were even mentioned in a press briefing made by the country’s ministry of health
Trinidad and Tobago has said Nicki Minaj’s claim that her cousin’s friend’s testicles became swollen after getting the Covid-19 vaccine is false.
On Monday (September 13), Minaj said she was skipping the prestigious Met Gala because attendees were required to get vaccinated against Covid-19, tweeting that her cousin’s friend in Trinidad “got [a vaccine] and became impotent” and his “testicles became swollen.”
My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 13, 2021
Trinidad and Tobago’s Ministry of Health then spent the following day reviewing the rapper’s claims. In a press briefing streamed on Wednesday (September 15), Health Minister Dr. Terrence Deyalsingh said that there had been “no such reported either side-effect or adverse event.”
He added: “One of the reasons we could not respond yesterday in real-time to Ms. Minaj is that we have to check and make sure that what she was claiming was either true or false, and unfortunately we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim.
“As we stand now, there is absolutely no reported such side-effect or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad or, I daresay … anywhere else in the world.”
Deyalsingh added that Minaj’s tweet “certainly did not help” vaccination efforts in the small Caribbean nation, where only 32% of the population have been fully vaccinated.
“People like her are social influencers, and they do carry some sway,” he suggested.
These sentiments were echoed by Dr Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert for the US government, who said on Tuesday that Minaj “should be thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis except a one-off anecdote.”
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