MSNBC host Joy Reid started her Monday show by addressing the continuing efforts by anti-vaccine activists to scare people off from taking the COVID-19 vaccine.
After speaking to Charlie Sykes and Dr. Joseph Allen, associate professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, Reid asked hip-hop artist Nicki Minaj what she was thinking after a bizarre firestorm on Twitter. Minaj falsely claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine caused “swollen testicles.”
“They want you to get vaccinated for the Met,” she wrote. “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 and face.”
“My cousin in Trinidad won’t get the vaccine cuz his friend got it and became impotent,” she continued. “His testicles became swollen. His friend was weeks away from getting married, now the girl called off the wedding. So just pray on it and make sure you’re comfortable with your decision, not bullied.”
COVID has been known to cause impotence, but the vaccine has not.
Reid reached her limit. Like many vaccinated people, begging people to save themselves can be exhausting, and Reid explained she was over it.
“You are not going quit your job unless you want to be broke and poor and sit home with no money and do your research on TikTok and watch TikToks all day of other unvaccinated people,” said Reid. “It’s going to happen because people are going to have to face between being broke and being vaccinated. In the end, I’m done hand-holding people too. I’ve reached my limit. I’ve reached my limit. I’m not begging anyone else.”
“People like Nicki Minaj, you have a platform that’s 22 million followers. I have two million,” Reid continued. “You have 22 million followers on Twitter. For you to use your platform to encourage our community to not protect themselves and save their lives, my God, you could do better than that. It’s a blessing. It’s a blessing that you got that. That people listen to you 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 fan, as a hip-hop fan, as somebody who is your fan, I’m so sad that you did that. So sad that you did that, sister. Oh, my God. Lord.”