After making waves earlier this week by posting a dubious, inaccurate claim about the COVID-19 vaccine to social media, rapper Nicki Minaj said Wednesday that she was invited to the White House — but an official later clarified that the “Super Bass” singer was offered a call to address her questions about the vaccine.
Minaj made headlines when she posted on Twitter to her more than 22 million followers that she was skipping the Met Gala — the star-studded, fashion-forward fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York — because of its vaccine requirement, citing her need to do more research on the shot.
Minaj wrote on Twitter that “if I get vaccinated it won’t for the Met … It’ll be once I feel I’ve done enough research. I’m working on that now.”
In a subsequent post, she shared an unverified story about a cousin’s friend in Trinidad, claiming that the unidentified individual “became impotent” and “his testicles became swollen” after receiving the shot.
"His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding," she wrote, a claim that medical experts and fact checkers have debunked as false.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explicitly states on its website that “there is currently no evidence that any vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems in women or men.”
On Wednesday, Trinidad and Tobago Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh debunked the claim as “false” and blasted it as a waste of time.
“One of the reasons why we could not respond yesterday 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,” Deyalsingh said. “Unfortunately, we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim.”
“There has been no such reported either side effect or adverse event,” he said. “And what was sad about this is that it wasted our time yesterday, trying to track down, because we take all these claims seriously, whether it’s on social media or mainstream media.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, dismissed the claim as misinformation during an interview on CNN on Tuesday.
“There’s no evidence that it happens, nor is there any mechanistic reason to imagine that it would happen,” Dr. Fauci said, adding: “I'm not blaming her 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.”
Minaj posted to Twitter Wednesday that “the White House has invited me & I think it’s a step in the right direction,” adding, “yes, I’m going.”
Minaj said that she would “be dressed in all pink like Legally Blonde so they know I mean business,” adding: “I’ll ask questions on behalf of the ppl who have been made fun of for simply being human.”
But the White House clarified that they offered to connect the “Starships” singer with one of the Biden administration’s doctors to address her questions about the COVID-19 vaccine.
“As we have with others, we offered a call with Nicki Minaj and one of our doctors to answer questions she has about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine,” the White House said in a statement.
Minaj said in an Instagram video on Wednesday night that she was, indeed, invited to the White House, but the White House has not confirmed that.
The White House said that they’ve offered such calls with others concerned about the vaccine, part of an aggressive public relations campaign to beat back rampant disinformation about the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness.
Throughout the year, the White House has struggled to counteract resistance to getting a shot, particularly among younger and more Republican demographics. The administration has pointed in particular to false or misleading information about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines as a driver of that hesitance. It has referenced a study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit that studies extremism, that linked a dozen accounts to spreading the majority of vaccine disinformation on Facebook.
The administration has sought out new ways to refute disinformation and reach young vaccine skeptics, earlier this year inviting teen pop star Olivia Rodrigo to the White House to show her support for the shot.
According to data from the CDC, as of Wednesday, more than 54% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated, with 76% of adults in the U.S. having received at least one dose of the vaccine. The pace of vaccinations has increased in recent weeks amid a surge in cases driven by the highly contagious delta variant, but the Biden Administration is taking major steps to increase vaccinations.
Biden met Wednesday with a number of prominent business leaders, including the heads of the Walt Disney Company, Microsoft and Columbia Sportswear to discuss his recent vaccination mandate for federal workers and large businesses
"Last week I made a six-point plan to defeat the pandemic based on science,” the president said. “And vaccination is key to getting the pandemic under control and keeping the economy strong.
“Vaccinations mean fewer infections, hospitalizations and deaths, and in turn it means a stronger economy,” Biden told the gathered leaders. “I think everybody should join me today and I look forward to working together to beating this pandemic to keep our economy growing.”
"It's about beating a virus, and it's about saving lives,” he added. “That's what this is all about.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.