The week ended badly for unvaccinated rapper Nicki Minaj after a probe by health officials in Trinidad and Tobago found she had falsely claimed that the jab made a cousin’s friend impotent.
The rapper, with more than 22 million followers on Twitter drew criticism for her false claims about the jab.
On Wednesday health authorities said the story about a Covid-19 vaccine rendering her Trinidad-based cousin’s friend impotent was a “false claim.”
The brouhaha started on Monday after Minaj said she was skipping the Met Gala because organisers required attendees to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
She then tweeted that her cousin’s friend in Trinidad got the jab and became “impotent”. Minaj claimed that his “testicles became swollen.”
Forbes quoted Trinidad and Tobago Health Minister Dr. Terrence Deyalsingh as saying on Wednesday: “As we stand now, there is absolutely no reported such side-effect or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad or, I daresay … anywhere else in the world.”
Commenting on the matter on CNN television, America’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said the rapper “should be thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis except a one-off anecdote.”
As if the fuss Nicki Minaj caused was not enough, the rapper claimed she had been invited to the White House after her tweets.
But a White House spokesperson said all they did was invite Nicki Minaj to speak to doctors on the phone who could answer any questions she might have about vaccine safety.
Vaccine hesitancy has become a major stumbling block in tackling the virus that has killed more than 4,5 million people worldwide.
Los Angeles Times reports that dozens of protesters gathered on Saturday for an anti-vaccine rally in front of L.A. City Hall.
In South Africa, News24 is reporting that Western Cape police have opened a case after about 600 anti-vaxxers took to the street in Sea Point on Saturday in an illegal protest against vaccinations.
