Trinidad and Tobago Health Minister, Terrence Deyalsingh has criticized a “false” claim by American rapper, Nicki Minaj, that a person on the Caribbean Island suffered swollen testicles after receiving a Covid-19 vaccine.
Nicki Minaj sparked an international furor when she alleged on Twitter that her cousin in Trinidad has refused to get a vaccine because his friend became impotent after being vaccinated.
Nicki’s tweet read: “His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding”.
Following Nicki’s tweet, several people pointed out that the side effects Nicki described could be that of the sexually transmitted disease, chlamydia, and the state of her cousin’s friend’s testicles has since been retweeted nearly 90,000 times.
That notwithstanding, the comments triggered an international backlash, with senior US and British coronavirus officials condemning the claims.
Reacting to Nicki’s claims, Trinidad and Tobago Health Minister, Terrence Deyalsingh said: “One of the reasons why we could not respond immediately to Miss Minaj is that, we had to check and make sure that what she was claiming was either true or false. Unfortunately, we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim”.
That notwithstanding, when asked about Minaj’s tweets, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is the top US Infectious Disease Expert, said there was a lot of misinformation on social media.
“I’m not blaming her for anything, but she should be thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis as except a one-off anecdote, and that’s not what science is all about”.
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Meanwhile, things really escalated when Nicki and the ‘swollen genitals’ were mentioned to England’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty.
Professor Whitty emphasized that Nicki “should be ashamed of herself” when he was asked about people spreading misinformation online and whether coronavirus might have caused her cousin’s friend’s testicles to swell.
“There are a number of myths that fly around. Some of which are just clearly ridiculous and some of which are clearly designed just to scare. That happens to be one of them. That is untrue.”
As if that was that wasn’t enough. Sajid Javid, the UK Health Secretary, also speaking on the issue said
“When it comes to something as lifesaving as vaccines, in this country there are 112,000 fewer deaths we estimate because of our vaccine program, they should be really careful about what they say and not spread untruths.
“People that are in the public eye whether they are a celebrity or a politician or whoever they are should be very careful with their language and certainly shouldn’t be spreading untruths”.
Well, following several backlash and criticisms, Nicki Minaj in another tweet disclosed that she had not been able to complete enough research of her own on the Covid-19 vaccines to get one in time for the Met Gala, a star-studded fundraiser for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Later, Minaj added that she will get vaccinated to be able to tour.
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