Nicki Minaj will not attend the Met Gala this year due to the event’s COVID-19 vaccine restrictions. Minaj, whose actual name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, assured fans that she is actively researching the vaccination and would not make a decision until she has more information.

It’s impossible to predict who will attend the Met Gala until the day of the event, but Nicki Minaj has announced that she will not be attending due to the event’s safety procedures.

The rapper told fans only hours before the major event that she wouldn’t be at the Met because she didn’t want to “risk” her son’s health.

The Met Gala, also known as the Costume Institute Benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is one of the most high-profile social events of the year.

“They want you to get vaccinated for the Met,” Minaj, 38, tweeted Monday. “If I get vaccinated, it won’t (be) 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. Not that loose one.”

In line with New York’s requirement demanding evidence of vaccination for indoor activities during the pandemic, the Metropolitan Museum of Art requires all visitors aged 12 and older to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The Met Gala this year is no exception.

Minaj also said that she tested positive for COVID while preparing to attend the MTV Video Music Awards in 2021, and that she dreaded being away from her 12-month-old kid.

“Do u know what it is not to be able to kiss or hold your tiny baby for over a week? A baby who is only used to his mama?,” Minaj tweeted, before claiming that Drake contracted COVID despite having the vaccine.

Despite the fact that there is no clear proof that the vaccination causes erectile dysfunction, Minaj went on to say that her cousin’s friend “became impotent” after taking the vaccine, despite the fact that there is no hard evidence that it does.

Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN’s Jake Tapper the next day that Minaj’s fears about COVID-19 vaccinations and reproductive issues are baseless.

“There’s no evidence that it happens, nor is there any mechanistic reason to imagine that it would happen,” Fauci said. “She should be thinking twice about propagating information that really has no basis, except as a one-off anecdote, and that’s not what science is about.”

After last year’s MET Gala was canceled due to the coronavirus epidemic, there is a lot of excitement for this year’s event. This year’s event was also postponed, which is why it will take place in September rather than May.

Anna Wintour, the editor of American Vogue, has been in charge of the guest list since 1995, and Minaj was among those who were invited.

Minaj will be absent from the Met Gala for the first time in four years.

The singer welcomed a kid in September 2020 with husband Kenneth Petty. Minaj also said that she had “an infant with no nannies during COVID… Not risking his health to be seen.”

Her attitude on the subject was mostly received with criticism, with Hasan Piker, comedian Jen Kirkman, and Philip Lewis of the Huffington Post all criticizing her tweets. Despite this, Minaj attempted to deflect criticism by retweeting Lewis’ message and asking if he was “mad [she is] her own person.”

Others tweeted:

The world awaits your wonderful contribution to the scientific community !!!!
— Hasanabi (@hasanthehun) September 13, 2021

Reporting this tweet for spreading misinformation about health.
— JEN KIRKMAN in BROOKLYN DEC 1-4 at UNION HALL (@JenKirkman) September 13, 2021

The event costs $30,000 (£23,000) for tickets and $275,000 (£211,000) for tables.

Although over half of all Americans have been completely vaccinated against COVID-19, vaccination hesitancy continues as the Delta variant spreads across the country.

According to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, over 90% of COVID-19 hospitalized patients are unvaccinated, and there are ten times as many unvaccinated persons in the hospital for COVID-19 as there are vaccinated ones.