What’s Going On With Nicki Minaj’s Vaccine Controversy?

It was the tweet seen round the world: On Monday, while a significant cross section of the entertainment industry was busy getting ready for the 2021 Met gala, rapper Nicki Minaj took to Twitter to explain why she wouldn’t be attending the event. (Spoiler: It was seemingly vaccine related.) From there, Minaj’s tweets took on a life of their own—and we’re here to break it all down for you.

What did Nicki Minaj actually say?

On Monday evening, Minaj seemed to criticize the Met gala’s vaccine requirement, citing a recent experience with COVID-19 that prevented her from caring for her young child and explaining that she will get the vaccine “once I feel I’ve done enough research.”

Then what happened?

Things got a little, well...meme-able once Minaj tweeted an anecdote about vaccine resistance within her own family, explaining that her cousin in Trinidad didn’t want to get the vaccine because “his friend got it & became impotent. His testicles became swollen.”

How is Drake involved?

While discussing her experience with COVID-19, Minaj tweeted that Drake told her about his breakthrough case of the virus after being vaccinated. (It should be noted, however, that breakthrough cases in vaccinated people are still very unlikely to result in severe symptomatic disease.)

Did Minaj say she would never get vaccinated?

Not necessarily, as she tweeted that she would likely get the vaccine once it came time for her to go on tour—and asked followers which vaccine she should get.

Where did the backlash come from?

Despite her apparent openness to eventually getting the vaccine, many felt that a celebrity of Minaj’s status fanning the flames of vaccine hesitancy at all (much less with data that seemed, well, tenuous at best) amounted to recklessness in the face of a pandemic that has killed more than 600,000 people in the U.S. alone.

How did social media react to Minaj’s series of vaccine musings?

Why, with memes and jokes, of course! Check out a sampling of the best ones below: