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- Rapper Nicki Minaj said she did not attend the Met Gala because she's not ready to get vaccinated.
- MSNBC Host Joy Ann Reid critiqued the rapper's tweets, saying it could discourage the Black community from getting vaccinated.
- The rapper has responded with a series of tweets.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
MSNBC Host Joy-Ann Reid critiqued Nicki Minaj's tweets about being unvaccinated on Monday's episode of "The Reid Out," and the rapper has responded with a series of tweets.
Nicki Minaj shared on Twitter on Monday afternoon that she would not be attending the Met Gala, because she was not vaccinated against COVID-19.
"They want you to get vaccinated for the Met. 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 the meantime my loves, be safe. Wear the mask with 2 strings that grips your head & face," Minaj wrote.
The tweet has since gotten more than 37,000 retweets and 69,500 likes.
Reid, who acknowledged that she is both a fan of Nicki Minaj and of hip hop, said on the show she's disappointed the rapper used her platform of 22 million followers "to encourage our community to not protect themselves and save their lives."
"You've got that platform. It's a blessing. It's a blessing that you got that, that people listen to you," Reid said. "And they listen to you more than they listen to me. For you to use your platform to put people in the position of dying from a disease they don't have to die from, oh my god, as a fan, as a hip-hop fan, as somebody who's your fan, I'm so sad that you did that."
The rapper acknowledged that people who are required to be vaccinated to work and who need to provide for themselves or their families should get the vaccine. The rapper also said she plans to get receive the shot eventually, as she'd like to return to touring.
Minaj responded to Reid's comments with another tweet. "This is what happens when you're so thirsty to down another black woman (by the request of the white man), that you didn't bother to read all my tweets. 'My God SISTER do better' imagine getting ur dumb ass on tv a min after a tweet to spread a false narrative about a black woman," Minaj wrote.
-Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 14, 2021
Minaj followed up moments later by again tweeting, "The two white men sittin there nodding their heads cuz this uncle tomiana doing the work chile. How sad."
-Nicki Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) September 14, 2021
The rapper tweeted that her reservations about the vaccine come from Drake saying he caught COVID-19 after receiving the vaccine and her cousin who said their friend had "become impotent" and had swollen genitalia after receiving the vaccine.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that "breakthrough infections," like Drake's, are expected because the COVID-19 vaccine, like most other vaccines, is not 100% effective. However, the agency notes that fully vaccinated people typically develop less severe symptoms than unvaccinated people with the virus, preventing them from being hospitalized or dying.
In response to Minaj's tweets about her cousin, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, said that there's no evidence that any of the COVID-19 vaccines have ties to reproductive issues.
"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," Fauci said.
According to the CDC, unvaccinated people are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized if they contract the virus.
The CDC website states that "All COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized for use in the United States helped protect people against COVID-19, including severe illness, in clinical trial settings." The CDC also says that this holds true in "real world" scenarios as well.
Nicki Minaj and her representatives did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.