The Nicki Minaj Network

The Nicki Minaj vaccine drama continues.

Days after the Rap diva took to social media to indicate she would not take the COVID-19 vaccine until she did ‘more research’ (as well as to share anecdotal references to someone who allegedly suffered swollen testicles as a result of taking it), Minaj has been in the center of ongoing debate about the sphere of her influence.

With responses wielded from the likes of Joy Reid, Meghan McCain, the Center for Disease Control, global public health officials, and more (as we reported here), what started as a tweet session with her fans has turned into an all-out fiasco with the ‘Anaconda’ rapstress being painted as ‘anti-vax’ (despite her never expressly saying such).

The latest chapter of the drama comes after she took to Twitter to indicate she would take her vaccine-related questions straight to the White House after she was reportedly invited to do so.  The problem?  The White House hit back saying no invitation was ever extended.

Taking to Twitter Wednesday (September 15), Minaj told her beloved fans – affectionately called #Barbz – this:

 

After the tweet made its round, officials from the White House took to press to deny it.

“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 expressed to NBC News.

Once Nick got word of the denial, she zoomed to Instagram to hit back.

“Do y’all think I would go on the internet and lie about being invited to the fucking White House? Like what? Do you guys see what is happening right now?” she asked.

According to the 38-year-old, her team got a call from the White House inviting her to meet with the nation’s top epidemiologist, Dr. Anthony Fauci (who previously responded to her ‘swollen testicle claims’ as we reported here), and others.  She says the drama didn’t start until she requested to do a virtual meet instead of traveling.

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On Thursday (September 17), Press Secretary Jen Psaki addressed the drama during a press briefing and ultimately confirmed Nicki was right.

“We don’t see this as a point of tension or disagreement. I want you all to know that we engage all the time with people who have big public platforms or profiles,” Psaki said in the video seen above. “We offered a call with Nicki Minaj and one of our doctors to answer questions she had about the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. This is pretty standard and something we do all the time. We’re not even at the point of discussing the mechanism or the formats or anything along those lines. It was simply an offer to have a conversation and an early-stage call.”

Later in the conference, Psaki said:

“In our outreach to celebrities, it follows a pretty standard process: Officials who are working on these issues engage in regular conversations, offer to answer questions — offer to do that privately sometimes, sometimes it’s done publicly.”

[main photo source: Getty Images/AP Photos/Twitter]