Photo: Getty Images
The saga of Nicki Minaj’s COVID-19 vaccine claims continues.
The “Moment 4 Life” rapper has responded after White House officials said she was never invited following her online forum on the vaccine which included an unsubstantiated claim about the vaccine causing her cousin’s friend’s testicles to swell.
“The White House has invited me & I think it’s a step in the right direction,” Nicki tweeted before the White House’s statement came out.
If you haven’t been keeping up, Nicki revealed she wouldn’t get the vaccine to attend the Met Gala on Monday (September 13), and also didn’t want to leave her baby boy’s side. The rapper followed that up with the story about the swollen genitals –– which Trinidadian officials said they “wasted so much time” trying to track down, and didn’t find a reported case.
Now, the rapper is claiming she was invited to the White House for a discussion about the vaccine, but the folks at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue said that was never the case.
“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,” a White House official said, according to NBC News.
Nicki responded on Instagram, going on a 14-minute rant, targeting people who’ve called her out about her comments on the vaccine, and about her invite to the White House.
“Do y’all think I would go on the internet and lie about being invited to the f**king White House? Like what? Do you guys see what is happening right now?” she said in the clip.
Nicki claimed that her team got invited to speak with Dr. Anthony Fauci and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and that instead of traveling to the White House, she said she proposed doing an Instagram Live or other virtual platform for the discussion.
“They said that they’re open to me choosing a platform to do a Live, but they never have taken that off the table for me to come to the White House,” she said in the video.
Later in the video, Nicki continues, “And then just imagine someone saying, ‘Oh, no, we offered Nicki Minaj the same phone call we offer everybody else.’ What? You think they would offer that to Mookie in the projects. No. ‘Everybody else.’ And I see why a lot of celebrities themselves bubbled up. You understand? We're living in a place without free healthcare. So anybody in this country has the right to question anything about their health. Because if your health mattered that f––king much there'd be free f––king healthcare bozos," she said.
COVID-19 vaccines in the US remain free of charge to individuals seeking them.
To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine, and the coronavirus, please click here.
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