Dr Fauci weighs in on Nicki Minaj’s Covid-19 vaccine ‘swollen testicles’ claim
- Global rap superstar revealed to her 22.6 million Twitter followers she had not yet been vaccinated
- She alleged that her cousin refuses to get a vaccine because his friend become impotent after being vaccinated
The United States’ authority on infectious diseases is the latest medical expert to call out “misinformation” found in the hip hop star’s public remarks about the shots.
On Monday, Minaj – whose given name is Onika Tanya Maraj – came under fire after announcing she wouldn’t attend the 2021 Met Gala because of its vaccine mandate and, in the same tweet, revealing that she isn’t vaccinated.
During her social media oversharing, the Trinidadian-born lyricist also made claims about a cousin of hers refusing to get the vaccine after “his friend” got the shot and suffered an alleged reproductive side-effect, referring to “swollen testicles” and “impotence”.
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A chorus of people – including respected medical experts, senior US and British coronavirus officials and political commentators – have since called out Minaj, saying she is spreading unfounded claims and hearsay to her fan base (which consists of 22.6 million Twitter followers).
Fauci, who has been at the forefront of the pandemic battle since it hit the US last year, emphatically refuted the claims made by the rapper.
“There’s no evidence that it happens, nor is there any mechanistic reason to imagine that it would happen,” he firmly declared during an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN’s The Lead.
The 80-year epidemiologist also stressed the dangers of spreading inaccurate info on a large social media platform, saying Minaj can wrongfully convince people to not get the vaccine by sharing mistruths that spark alarm.
“There is a lot of misinformation, mostly on social media. The only way we know to counter mis- and disinformation is to provide a lot of correct information,” the doctor said. “These claims may be innocent on her part. I’m not blaming her for anything. But she should be thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis except a one-off anecdote. That’s not what science is all about.”
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Despite promoting what many perceived as vaccine scepticism, the 38-year-old new mother did not explicitly discourage her followers from getting inoculated and said she may eventually, because she has to go on tour.
