Nicki Minaj is seen arriving at the Met Gala 2019 Celebration Camp: Notes on Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 6, 2019 in New York City.
Gilbert Carrasquillo | GC Images | Getty Images
Nicki Minaj faced public backlash on Tuesday after tweeting the day before a friend of her cousin developed swollen testicles and impotence after being vaccinated against Covid-19.
On Monday, in a series of tweets, the ten Grammy-nominated rap artist told fans he would only be immunized once he did enough research and advised them to wear masks and receive photos if asked to work. . Minaj skipped this year’s Met Gala, which implemented a vaccination warrant, saying she was generally avoiding public events because she has a new baby at home.
Minaj said he was filming a video and preparing for the Video Music Awards, which aired on Sunday, when he captured Covid earlier this year and had to make a quarantine out of his infant son for a week.
Most people, however, seized on his comments about his cousin’s friend, which many people criticized for spreading false information.
MSNBC national correspondent Joy Ann Reid criticized Minaj: “You have 22 million followers on Twitter. Because you use your platform to encourage our community not to protect themselves and save lives, by Sister God, you can do better than that. ”
Minaj attacked Reid on Twitter, sharing the news clip and using a racial insult to insult Reid, who is also black.
Doctors were quick to point out that all that Minaj’s relative’s friend was suffering from were no known side effects from receiving the shots.
“We’re all human and we tend to associate things,” Dr. Arturo Casadevall, president of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told CNBC. He noted that swollen testicles and impotence are not side effects of the vaccine. “So many times unrelated things are associated and to that person that association is very strong. But that’s why we have science.”
Casadevall said the symptoms experienced by Minaj’s cousin’s friend were “almost certainly” unrelated to the vaccines, and that the timing was just a coincidence.
Minaj skipped the Met gala in New York City Monday night, forcing guests to be vaccinated. She responded to a fan who noticed that Minaj had not made any public appearances for more than a year, saying she was avoiding traveling to protect her young son’s health.
In a later tweet, Minaj said she was “sure” she would finally be vaccinated to go on tour. Attempts to reach Minaj’s representatives failed.
Vaccination hesitation is common across the country, according to a recent CNBC / Change Research survey, which is a major obstacle to herd immunity, experts say. on the side effects of the vaccine, while another 34% said their suspicion of the federal government made them reluctant to get vaccinated.
Discredited misinformation through conversations with the hesitant vaccine is essential to building public confidence, Casadevall said.
“These vaccines are extremely safe,” Casadevall said, noting that the risks of vaccine side effects are significantly lower than the health risks posed by the virus. “Covid, on the other hand, is deadly, unpredictable.”
And for anyone like Minaj looking for more research on available vaccines before scheduling an appointment to get vaccinated, Casadevall suggested turning to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration to get them. orientation.
“I don’t think researching on the Internet or reading Twitter posts or anything like that is research,” Casadevall said. “Research means you have a systematic way of looking at the problem.”