Can COVID-19 vaccination lead to swollen testicles and impotence?
That’s what was claimed by popular American rapper Nicki Minaj, sparking an international furore.
The Trinidad-born Grammy-nominated rapper alleged on Twitter that her cousin refuses to get a vaccine because his friend became impotent after being vaccinated.
“His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding,” Minaj, who has 22.6 million followers on Twitter, posted on Monday.
Her comments led to a strong backlash, with senior officials linked with coronavirus in the US and UK British condemning the claims.
Trinidad and Tobago Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh also dismissed the claims as “false” and criticized Minaj for making such comments.
“One of the reasons why we could not respond in real-time to Miss Minaj is that 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.
Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, said there was a lot of misinformation on social media.
“I’m not blaming her (Minaj) for anything — but she should be thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis as except a one-off anecdote, and that’s not what science is all about,” Dr Fauci said.
