Nicki Minaj, in an X post back in 2021, said that the COVID-19 vaccine was giving people swollen testicles and was making people impotent. In the post, she said that her cousin in Trinidad would not be getting the vaccine because a friend of said cousin had taken the vaccine just weeks away from his wedding and the wedding had been called off after his testicles swelled:
“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’s claim was countered and refuted by multiple sources. The director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci stated to the CNN that the vaccines do not cause any kind of reproductive issues in the recipients.
Subsequently, the Trinidad and Tobago health minister Dr. Terrence Deyalsingh refuted the claim publicly, stating that the claim had been investigated to the press and not found to be true at the time:
“One of the reasons that we could not respond yesterday in real time to Miss Minaj is that we had to check the and make sure that what she was claiming was either true or false. We did, and Unfortunately, we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim. It is as far as we know at this point in time there has been no such reported either side effect or adverse event.”
In his statement to the press, the health minister went on to say that the sad part of the event was that it wasted the health officials’ time in tracking down the veracity of the claim made by the singer, as they took all such claims seriously. The minister then reiterated that there had been no reported case of testicular swelling from COVID-19 vaccine in Trinidad and Tobago or anywhere else in the world.
There was also criticism of the singer from Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer of the UK, as well as the Philadelphia Health Department. She also exhanged a series of heated tweets with Piers Morgan, after Morgan accused her of spreading lies that would lead to loss of life, as per Billboard.
Nicki Minaj addressed the backlash over controversial tweet
Now, while speaking to TIME, the singer addressed the backlash that she faced over her controversial tweet, stating:
“I guess they had examined everyone’s testicles in Trinidad and came back to tell me that I was lying.”
As per the publication, Nicki Minaj gained an ally in the form of Charlie Kirk following the aftermath of her tweet. Before her new interview with TIME, the singer had talked about her tweets in an exclusive interview with Vogue back in 2023.
In that exclusive interview, Nicki Minaj had stated that she liked to make her own judgement on matters and not go with the crowd:
“I like to make my own assessment of everything without help from everyone.”
Nicki Minaj also said in the interview that people get mad at her anytime she speaks about politics and that she would not be told on which political party she should campaign for on social media.
Edited by Soumyajyoti Mukherjee