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swollen testicles
Dr. Fauci Bluntly Fact-Checks Nicki Minaj's Bizarre 'Swollen Balls' Vaccine Claim
Hip hop icon Nicki Minaj has made some of the biggest hits of the 2010s, but her latest viral moment has come from an eyebrow-raising claim she made about the Covid-19 vaccine. Minaj tweeted the vaccine gave her cousin's friend in Trinidad swollen testicles and made him infertile and canceled his engagement.
It was a perfect storm of "my cousin's friend's mother's neighbor knows somebody..." stories.
The claim made so many waves the phrase "swollen balls" has been trending on Twitter ever since Minaj made the claim Monday night.
And Dr. Anthony Fauci is among those who are having none of it.
So much so he actually went on CNN to address the claim which—spoiler alert—is wildly untrue.
Hear Dr. Fauci's two cents below.
"The answer to that, Jake, is a resounding no" -- asked about Nicki Minaj's tweet regarding her cousin's friend's balls, Dr. Fauci says there's no evidence the Covid vaccines cause reproductive issuespic.twitter.com/2wuqy14fDi— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1631651383
If Dr. Fauci's tone is any indication, he's about as exasperated with all this anti-vaccine rumor-mongering as the rest of us.
Asked by Jake Tapper whether the vaccine will indeed make your balls swell, Fauci tersely replied:
"The answer to that, Jake, is a resounding no. There's no evidence that it happens, nor is there any mechanistic reason to imagine that it would happen. So the answer to your question is no."
Minaj made the claim on Twitter during a series of tweets Monday night sparked by the Met Gala's requirement all attendees be vaccinated.
Minaj, who is normally a fixture of the event's red carpet, first admitted she has not been vaccinated because she hasn't "done enough research."
They want you to get vaccinated for the Met. if I get vaccinated it won\u2019t for the Met. It\u2019ll be once I feel I\u2019ve done enough research. I\u2019m working on that now. In the meantime my loves, be safe. Wear the mask with 2 strings that grips your head & face. Not that loose one— Nicki Minaj (@Nicki Minaj) 1631568090
After that tweet went viral and generated tons of pushback, Minaj doubled down with the dubious story about her cousin's friend's testicles.
My cousin in Trinidad won\u2019t 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\u2019re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied— Nicki Minaj (@Nicki Minaj) 1631569446
That tweet, of course, went even more viral, and generated no shortage of angry responses from people upset someone with such a large following would sow doubt in the minds of her followers.
Fauci addressed this too in his comments to Jake Tapper.
"These claims may be innocent on her part — 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. That's not what science is all about."
Translation?
All due respect to Minaj, but her cousin's friend's balls aren't really relevant to the already answered question of the safety and efficacy of one of the most technologically advanced vaccines of all time.
To her credit, Minaj did go on in subsequent tweets to recommend people follow vaccine mandates and said she would most likely end up getting vaccinated herself. But the absurdity of the whole "cousin's friend's balls" thing was pretty hard to overshadow.
And on Twitter, people couldn't help but lament the absurdity of this entire situation.
The Director of the NIAID going on national television to discuss Nicki Minaj\u2019s cousin\u2019s friend\u2019s alleged testicular issues is about as 2021 as you can get.— Ron Filipkowski (@Ron Filipkowski) 1631651888
We all know that Nicki's cousin's friend just slept around and got gonorrhea, but hey, giving the benefit of the doubt is a good laugh at least.— \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Jacob M. Abbott \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6 (@\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 Jacob M. Abbott \ud83c\udde8\ud83c\udde6) 1631719246
How....... How...... HOW is this a thing. How?!\n\n.......how could anyone take a story about a pop singer\u2019s cousin\u2019s friend\u2019s testicles as a medical talking point....?!— \u13b7oR\u13a0\u13acN\u13a2 \ud83c\udfbb (@\u13b7oR\u13a0\u13acN\u13a2 \ud83c\udfbb) 1631652129
The fact this even needed to be "debunked" is sad.— e_michael \ud83d\udd35\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddff (@e_michael \ud83d\udd35\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddff) 1631719339
I just. Wut. Seriously, we're listening to Nicki Minaj's cousin's friend's balls for medical advice? Does anybody know the code to reboot this timeline?— Black Belt Bebe (@Black Belt Bebe) 1631651763
omg i cannot believe THIS is where we are— kathleen \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\udc08\u200d\u2b1b (@kathleen \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83d\udc08\u200d\u2b1b) 1631651445
Are we actually discussing the state of Nicki Minaj's friends cousins brothers sisters... balls?pic.twitter.com/Er953VldBR— Norrin Radd - Intergalactic Man of Mystery! (@Norrin Radd - Intergalactic Man of Mystery!) 1631651799
So, we live in a time where a doctor and infectious disease specialist responds to a rapper who claims the vaccine gave her cousin swollen testicles?\n \nOn an unrelated note. When will the asteroid crash into the planet?!— reginald beck (@reginald beck) 1631664684
Still split on whether to listen to Dr. Fauci or to Nicki Minaj\u2019s cousin\u2019s friend\u2019s voluptuous nutsack— Frank Lesser (@Frank Lesser) 1631575531
Minaj has yet to respond to Fauci's comments.
But she has beefed with Meghan McCain, Piers Morgan, MSNBC's Joy Reid and the British Prime Minister over their responses to her tweets, so it may just be a matter of time unil Nicki-Minaj's-Cousin's-Friend's-Balls-gate takes a new turn.