Music

Nicki Minaj Claims The COVID Vaccine Gave Her “Cousin’s Friend” Swollen Balls And Sorry, What?

"The fact that any look from the Met Gala tonight is gonna be overshadowed by Nicki Minaj’s cousin’s swollen ball sack is so funny to me."

by Music Junkee  14 September 2021
Nicki Minaj swollen testicles Tweet

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Nicki Minaj might have (somewhat) retired from music, but she hasn’t retired from setting the internet ablaze, as the rapper proved this morning with a tweet about… her cousin’s friend’s testicles.

Yep, the ‘Anaconda’ popstar took to her Twitter account this morning to sow vaccine hesitancy, using an anecdotal story to urge her followers to “pray on” the decision whether or not to get the safest, most reliable protection against COVID-19.

“My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it and became impotent,” she wrote. “His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it and make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not bullied.”

The tweet is, of course, not based in fact. The claim that any vaccine currently on the market could cause male impotence has been thoroughly debunked. Indeed, while the vaccines don’t cause impotency, COVID-19 has been found to, meaning that men who are worried about their potential wives leaving them hanging at the altar have more reason to get jabbed, not less.

As to the whole “swollen testicles” thing, no PubMed article yet published has this listed as a side effect. Of course, modern medicine is always changing, in a constant process of updating itself with new findings, but at this stage, the risk of swelling gonads has not been established. That could always change when new research comes to light — but it seems, at this stage, deeply unlikely.

What we do know that the vaccines do, is give you a much greater protection from contracting the illness, or from ending up being hospitalised or dying if you do. So follow the doctors, rather than an anecdotal story about someone’s cousin’s friend.

In any case, the tweet is so wild — so deeply, unbelievably strange — that it’s quickly become a massive meme, with internet jokesters comparing it to today’s Met Gala news…

..And generally dunking on the phrase “swollen testicles.”

Nicki Minaj is yet to comment on the wave of controversy she has caused.