First of all, and I may be showing my age here, but who the heck is Nicki Minaj? And what credentials does she have to give any kind of medical advice?
I do know who she is, although I couldn’t name anything she has ever recorded, and she has jumped into the Covid spotlight after she announced on social media that her cousin in Trinidad developed swollen testicles and became infertile after getting the Covid vaccine.
This ridiculous story has been debunked but the damage is done. It is much harder to backtrack on lies and deception posted in the press than telling the truth in the first place.
This completely ridiculous claim falls into the same group of ridiculous things people believe like that the vaccine injects a tracking device, changes your DNA, destroys your uterus, makes you magnetic, impairs fertility or any other ridiculous claim.
People love to hear good, or even equivocal news about their beliefs or bad habits. A tobacco executive was well known to have sent a memo around to his executive staff the “our product is doubt” implying that if they can shed even a little bit of doubt about the terrible health effects of smoking, that people will believe it and continue to puff away. The same is seen in our horrible manufactured food industry and we see it in health care, not only with Covid, but also when it comes to things like the carnivore or ketogenic diets, both clearly unhealthy in the long term, drug treatment, like acid reducers which again, provide short term relief but long term disastrous damage.
Part of the problem is that knowledge evolves. And sometimes recommendations are made, even by legitimate sources like Dr. Fauci and the CDC which end up changing, and this confuses people. But that is life.
The sad fact is that social media personalities like Minaj, Justin Bieber and podcasters like Joe Rogan, have millions of rabid fans who hang on every post they make and take it as gospel.
All we as physicians can do is look at the overall picture, keep up with the most recent information and make the best recommendations we can. At this point, it is clear that vaccination is the best way to combat this pandemic. Vaccines are safe. Well over 4 billion doses have been given worldwide and we have a massive amount of data supporting their safety and debunking any of the ridiculous claims made out there. They are not perfect, but nothing is. The same goes for masks. Not perfect, but very helpful. The better the mask, the better the protection.
Stay safe and be well.
AC