On his Monday appearance on “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” comedic actor Ken Jeong debunked Nicki Minaj’s testicle-swelling vaccine myth tweet and shone a light on the Delta COVID-19 variant.
Medically inaccurate: In the episode, show host Corden asked Jeong, 52, a hypothetical question on whether the COVID-19 vaccines could cause testicular swelling in patients, a nod to the American rapper’s viral tweet from last week. Jeong was a medical doctor before becoming an actor, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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- Citing his wife, who is also a medical doctor, Jeong said, “I think between the two of us, and I’ve talked to my wife about this, we can confidently say that any of the COVID vaccines — MRNA, adenoviral DNA vector — any of those vaccines do not lead to a swelling of testicles, called elephantiasis, in any cousin, nephew [or] relative.” He added, “It does not cause any ball-swelling whatsoever.”
- The “Masked Singer” host also joked, “Don’t get medical advice from Nicki Minaj. I do get a little cardiology advice from Cardi B because she’s a licensed cardiologist.”
On the Delta variant: Speaking about the pandemic, Jeong said the medical community could have done a better job at sharing information about COVID-19 and the Delta variant, which is now the predominant strain in the U.S. and the world, NPR reported.
- “I think that there’s so much misinformation out there and not just by extremists,” he said. “There is just so much confusion. I just think we could’ve done a better job messaging just like, ‘This came unexpected. We were unprepared for this because prior to May and June we didn’t know the delta variant would be the predominant strain globally.’”
- Jeong then explained that what makes the Delta variant so contagious is that the amount of virus in the patient’s nasopharynx is “a thousand times the concentration of the original COVID strain.”
- The licensed physician compared the vaccines to an umbrella that protects people from the rain, or in this case, COVID-19. “But with this Delta variant, you have a double umbrella, and there’s a monsoon, there’s a hurricane coming down. You are going to get wet. You are going to get affected,” he explained.
- “If that is the case, that this Delta surge does pass in a few months, then there can be some form of population immunity where we can all have some semblance of normality at least in the spring of 2022,” Jeong added.
The award: Corden also noted later on in the interview that Jeong was recently inducted in to the Asian Hall of Fame, to which the actor said he was “so honored and speechless.”
- The organization named Jeong as an inductee in a news release on Sept. 16. He is joined by other prominent Asian community members, including American DJ producer Steve Aoki, First Filipino-American woman Chief Justice of California Tani Cantil-Sakauye, and many more.
- Jeong said their aim was to get the message out “to stop Asian hate. Stop with the weaponizing of ‘kung-flu’ and ‘China virus.’” He added, “Once this pandemic reaches a new meadow of end, then we as an Asian American culture can also have some peace as well.”
Featured Image via The Late Late Show with James Corden
