Nicki Minaj's COVID vaccine tweet on impotency disputed by Chicago doctors

CHICAGO -- One of the country's biggest entertainers has entered the COVID-19 vaccine debate.

Rapper Nicki Minaj raised eyebrows after a tweet to her 22 million followers linking the vaccine to fertility problems in men. She tweeted her cousin in Trinidad won't get the vaccine because it caused his friend to become impotent.

Minaj also said the man's testicles became swollen.

She's now facing backlash from the medical community.

"I saw the tweets. I admire Nicki Minaj as a musician. She got a brilliant musical mind but I was really disappointed to see the comments because they are not really evidence based," said Dr. Amanda Adeleye who specializes in reproductive medicine and infertility treatments at UChicago Medicine.

Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady responded to Minaj's tweet on Twitter and during her Facebook Live.

"I did respond on Twitter just to say that all three of the vaccines in the U.S. have been studied, no impact on fertility," Arwady said.

Many doctors are concerned that misinformation about the vaccine is impacting vaccination rates.

According to Chicago Department of Health, Black people have the lowest vaccination rate among all groups at 40 percent, compared to 49.1 percent for the Latinx community, 60.9 percent for Whites and 63.2 percent of Asians.

Dr. Carl Lambert, a family medicine physician, said he's still battling distrust of the vaccine among his patients.

"I still get patients who say hey I don't want to be experimented on or this was rushed," Lambert said.

Lambert encouraged people to get information about the vaccine from their health care providers, not entertainers.

"We have to be really careful that we spread the right information and truth so that people can make the right decisions and ultimately so there is no delay in care," Dr. Lambert said.