Sometimes people say things the general public won’t let them live down. Nicki Minaj made waves online in September when she fired off an unconfirmed claim about the COVID-19 vaccine allegedly turning a cousin’s friend impotent.
The Public Health Department of Philadelphia clearly hasn’t forgotten about the wild story, which they used to jab at Nicki Minaj on Thursday (February 17).
A day earlier, Nicki tweeted, “Nothing like watching someone speak confidently about something they know nothing about.”
Philly’s Public Health Department then tried to make Minaj look bad by having the tweet backfire when they quoted her message with the famous story about her cousin in Trinidad’s friend’s testicles and an eyes emoji.
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“My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it and became impotent,” she wrote in September. “His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called out the wedding. So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with your decision, not bullied.”
Nicki Minaj's 'Swollen Testicles' Vaccine Claim Draws Fury From Trinidadian, U.S. + U.K. Governments
Nicki’s tweet quickly went viral and was the trending topic of conversation for the week, which was met with mixed reactions. U.S. public health expert Dr. Anthony Fauci even addressed the Queens native’s claims during an interview with CNN where he downplayed any sort of connection between the COVID-19 vaccines and impotence.
“The only way we know to counter mis and disinformation is to provide a lot of correct information and to essentially debunk these kinds of claims, which may be innocent on her part,” Fauci explained. “I’m not blaming her for anything. But she should be thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis except a one-off anecdote. And that’s not what science is all about.”
Nicki Minaj responded to the tweet on Friday evening (February 18) by calling out Philly’s Health Department for using her for engagement.
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“Philadelphia’s public health account is posting Nicki Minaj tweets for engagement,” she wrote. “They are attempting to shame ppl for advising others to PRAY, be COMFORTABLE & NOT BE BULLIED. I’ve never seen a vaccine trigger this amount of shaming & fear tactics have you?”
On the music side, the Young Money rapper returned with a pair of Lil Baby-assisted singles in February with “Do We Have A Problem?” and “Bussin.”
