The White House has offered to answer Nicki Minaj’s questions about the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines.
If she accepts, a doctor from the Biden administration will get in touch with the rapper on a call to provide a primer on how the approved Covid vaccines work, officials said.
The White House said in a statement that it has offered this kind of outreach in the past, as it is part of a public relations push to counter misinformation and mistrust surrounding the United States’ vaccine drive.
The “Super Bass” singer, however, appeared to have misconstrued the offer for a call as an invite to the White House.
On Wednesday, she tweeted: “The White House has invited me & I think it’s a step in the right direction.”
Adding that she’ll be dressed in all pink “like Legally Blonde”, Minaj promised to ask questions on behalf of those “who have been made fun of for simply being human”.
White House officials quickly clarified that only a phone call was on the table.
Minaj on Monday tweeted an unverified story about her cousin’s friend in Trinidad who “became impotent” after taking the Covid vaccine.
Impotence is not listed as a potential side-effect by the NHS or the US’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention websites, and there is no evidence to suggest that the vaccine causes fertility problems.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson and Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, responded to the singer during Tuesday’s (14 September) Covid press conference. Whitty said Minaj should be “ashamed” for perpetuating untruths about the vaccines among her social media followers.
The singer has nearly 180 million followers on Twitter and Instagram combined.
Trinidadian health officials on Wednesday also said there was no truth to the rapper’s claims. “As we stand now, there is absolutely no reported side effect or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad… and none that we know of anywhere in the world,” the country’s health minister Terrence Deyalsingh said on Wednesday.
