The health minister of Trinidad and Tobago said Wednesday that officials “wasted so much time” on Tuesday investigating a “false claim” by rap superstar Nicki Minaj.
Minaj came under fire on Monday for tweeting: “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.”
She was quickly called out by experts for spreading misinformation and was widely mocked by on social media.
Asked about the tweet, Trinidad and Tobago minister of health Terrence Deyalsingh said: “One of the reasons we could not respond in real time to Ms. Minaj is because 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.”
Deyalsingh said there have been no reported cases of impotence or swollen testicles as a side effect of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“It wasted our time yesterday,” he said. “Trying to track down. Because we take all these claims seriously — whether it’s on social media or mainstream media. As we stand now, there is absolutely no report of testicular swelling in Trinidad — and none that we know of anywhere else in the world.”
On Tuesday, U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN shot down Minaj’s claim that one of the side effects of the vaccines is impotence. “There’s no evidence that it happens, nor is there any mechanistic reason to imagine that it would happen,” he said.
“I'm not blaming her for anything but she should be thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis.”
Minaj appears to be taking the attention in stride. She retweeted a clip of Jimmy Kimmel joking about her cousin's friend and wrote: "He’s willing to talk for the right price. I’m his manager. Call me, Jimmy."
On Wednesday, she retweeted a Late Show with Stephen Colbert parody of her 2010 hit "Super Bass" titled "Super Balls."
I never cited that as a reason I didn’t get vaccinated. The lie is so funny/entertaining tho. I’d say smthng mean to this lady but I rlly like Stephen Colbert. #SuperBalls https://t.co/DyvAXq40Mc
— Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 15, 2021