For many people, the tweets stealing Nicki Minaj’s scene about why she chose not to attend the Met Gala night were Monday in comedy. Minaj told several people on social media that she had chosen not to attend the haute couture event due to her requirement to vaccinate attendees against Covid-19. After explaining his hesitation, puzzling, instant viral tweet some testicles swollen and a marriage annulled, some ignored the most troubling parts of Minaj’s argument in favor of laughter.
While it’s tempting to focus only on the absurd potential meme of Minaj’s tweets, Minaj’s approach to the vaccine is deeply troubling, both because it reflects a strain of mistrust on experts in public policy, health and science, as because it presents a precautionary mindset with respect to vaccines. as a sort of reasonable “middle way” in the struggle between science and anti-vax ideology.
To date, approximately three-quarters of American adults are vaccinated at least partially against Covid-19, but many of the others remain reluctant. As vaccinations become mandatory in many workplaces and schools and people are reluctant to begin debating their anxieties, Minaj’s individualistic approach and caution in getting vaccinated may seem related and even reasonable. . But this remains a highly dangerous approach rooted in misinformation and a worrying distrust of science.
We might think of it as the mainstreaming of “vaccine precaution” and it is certainly as dangerous as the direct denial of vaccine science.
Did Minaj’s cousin’s friend’s friend really cancel his wedding because he was vaccinated?
On Monday afternoon, Minaj responded to a tweet from a fan lamenting his lack of recent public appearances from pointing out he did not want to risk his child’s health during the pandemic. A few interactions later, including one in which she Drake claimed he told her he had contracted Covid-19 despite having received the vaccine he tweeted, “They want you to get vaccinated by the Met. If I get vaccinated I won’t [be] for the Met. It will be once I feel like I have researched enough. I’m working on it now. “
They want you to get vaccinated for the Met. if I get vaccinated it won’t be for the Met. It will be once I feel like I have researched enough. I’m working on it now. In the meantime, my loves, rest assured. Use the mask with two strings that hold you to your head and face. Not so loose ♥ ️
– Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 13, 2021
Because it is combined with the invocation of wearing a mask (advice given by experts who have approved vaccines), Minaj’s unknown approach to the vaccine is a bit confusing. However, it is nothing compared to what she followed. Apparently, much of his reluctance to be vaccinated was based in part on the fate of his Trinitarian cousin’s friend’s nuptials:
My cousin in Trinidad will not get the vaccine because his friend got it and became helpless. His testicles swelled. Her friend was a few weeks away from getting married, now the girl has canceled the wedding. Just pray for it and make sure you are comfortable with your decision, without being intimidated
– Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 13, 2021
Just to explain this, the known side effects of the Covid-19 vaccine do not include swelling of the testicles (although unfounded concerns about the vaccine and female fertility have circulated). Without further context on the illness of Minaj’s cousin’s friend, it is impossible to know more, but it seems very unlikely that his situation has anything to do with Covid-19.
Naturally, this kind of reasoning on the left was ridiculed on social media and Minaj quickly reached the headlines for trafficking coronavirus conspiracies. Still, while people lined up to do STD references i I met Gala memes, many of Minaj’s fans responded favorably, especially to his statement on “doing the research.”
“I read all the research for MONTHS before choosing to get it,” one reader said answered, referring to the vaccine. “Everyone has the right to read information given by the FDA and doctors before firing, right?”
This belief is the basis of Minaj’s argument and seems to be the one held by many other people with similar levels of mistrust in vaccine science.
Minaj’s insistence on doing his own “research” reflects Covid-19’s collective anxiety
The problem with “doing your own research” is that, as Minaj’s tweets reveal, many people – who have not been researching viruses and vaccines for years – do not have the scientific knowledge to evaluate the effectiveness of the vaccine without help. of experts. Much of the effort to curb Covid-related misinformation has been to try to get people to understand that vaccination “research” is not something that many people can sit back and do on their own. Trying to do so can lead the researcher to bags of misinformation that make a citizen more misinformed, not better informed, about the real health risks of vaccines.
In fact, this type of thinking can be a direct way to start interacting and possibly believing in a wide range of conspiracy theories, mainly because there is so much misinformation and misinformation about very complex topics, including Covid-19.
It doesn’t help that some of this misinformation comes from trusted public institutions, including, during the Trump administration, directly from the president of the United States.
What Minaj’s views represent, then, is not just that his lack of individual knowledge gives rise to concern about the vaccine. Their fear has been reinforced by years of anti-vaccine campaigns, as well as by the lethargy of the general public about actual vaccination.
Minaj’s backlash against pro-vaccine rhetoric is not exclusive to her. Black communities have endured centuries of relentless exploitation, lies, and sometimes used in unethical medical experiments without their knowledge or consent. They have been subjected to blatantly racist medical practices, although they continually carry some of the worst effects of health epidemics, including Covid-19.
With the systemic factors that led to a hugely unequal Covid-19 death toll among blacks last year and false claims about the continued spread of Covid-19 vaccines, there is substantial mistrust in the Covid-19 science among some black Americans. If Nicki Minaj is part of this group, can you really blame her?
Well, yes and no, because Minaj’s tweets certainly have a powerful influence on the way his 22 million Twitter followers approach the topic of vaccination. If Minaj’s faith in science and health officials has been undermined and subsequently encourages followers to rely on their intuition about that of health experts, it promotes a distrust of science in general that could have severely detrimental repercussions.
However, what Minaj seems to be arguing is not the absolute rejection of the vaccine. She even he went on to say“I’m sure I will [be] I’ve also been vaccinated, because I have to go on tour. ”However, his individualistic precautionary approach to getting vaccinated can still hurt.
Minaj ambivalence is part of a broader issue in talks over Covid-19 vaccines
Minaj immediately began trying to soften his harshest claims about the vaccine. She he asked his followers what vaccine they would recommend and commented that getting the vaccine without side effects is “the norm“He also said that.”def recommends[s]”People in jobs or countries that require vaccination should do so and admitted that she would probably take it herself. She too reiterated that his main reason for jumping into the Met Gala was to protect his 1-year-old son.
She then pointed out to a couple of tweets of his own to argue that he had never expressed opposition to the vaccine. Minaj’s support seems clearly aimed at preventing job losses in circumstances where the vaccine is mandatory. The subtext seems to be a reluctant acceptance that workers cannot always choose not to get vaccinated, instead of Minaj enthusiastically supporting vaccination.
Minaj’s general attitude seems to be a kind of cautious precaution and a “DIY” approach to science. This could reflect a new “wave” of vaccine rhetoric adopted by many people who do not strictly identify as anti-vax, but who are still reluctant to get their shot.
Surveys have shown that most unvaccinated adults say they are unlikely to change their minds and get the vaccine. Others who haven’t gotten the shot may be “in between” – people who aren’t anti-vagrant, but who still have some sort of waiting pattern.
These residues may mark a substantial difference in the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines. The larger the vaccinated population, the more vaccines can reduce the transmission of the disease. Fully vaccinated people can resume their lives with some normalcy and their confidence and health can probably help influence even those who have firmly decided on the vaccine.
Instead, Minaj’s “half-way” approach could become a new way to express mistrust in science, while meeting the need for vaccination.
The problem with this is that the effectiveness of vaccines has never been and should not be a topic of public debate. With the exception of the original scientific study that initiated the modern anti-vax movement, which he used False and fraudulent investigations to create fear, vaccines have always been part of scientifically established medical practice. They are safe, effective and necessary to combat the spread of countless viral diseases.
The “do your research and decide what suits you” approach that celebrities like Minaj seem to support is a naive view. It undermines centuries of epidemiology and important work to combat disease, suggesting that vaccine safety is reduced to the way it personally feel about vaccines. But the question of whether vaccines are safe is not up for debate. The answer is simple: yes.
Minaj’s reluctance to say yes is unfortunate, but it’s important to note that she is far from the only celebrity who cares about the vaccine’s effectiveness, who spreads misinformation, or who has rejected the vaccine. Minaj’s tweets are particularly significant, though, because they weren’t totally anti-vacuum and because they came at a time when all eyes were on her due to her absence at the Met Gala. So many, many people saw Minaj presenting personal ambivalence as an alternative to promoting and trusting science and being responsible for getting vaccinated.
Maybe we’ll make jokes about “My Cousin in Trinity” for a long time. The unfortunate influence of Minaj’s vaccine resistance could last even longer.