Trinidad health minister is furious he had to waste time fact-checking Nicki Minaj's swollen testicles tweet

Trinidad's health minister isn't happy that officials had to waste "so much time" fact-checking a tweet from rapper Nicki Minaj about swollen testicles.

Terrence Deyalsingh, the health minister of Trinidad and Tobago, on Wednesday dismissed Minaj's claim that COVID-19 vaccines can cause impotence, The Hill reports. On Twitter, the rapper insisted earlier this week that "my cousin in Trinidad" has a friend who "became impotent" and whose "testicles became swollen" after he got vaccinated.

"There is absolutely no reported such side effect or adverse event of testicular swelling in Trinidad, or, I dare say … anywhere else in the world," Deyalsingh said.

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Deyalsingh also appeared quite annoyed that he actually had to clarify this, explaining that "one of the reasons we could not respond" to the tweet earlier was that "we had to check and make sure" there was no truth to the claim.

"Unfortunately, we wasted so much time yesterday running down this false claim," he said, adding that the amount of time wasted on the effort was "sad."

Minaj shared her baseless claim after revealing to fans that she's not vaccinated and won't be getting her shot until she's "done enough research." Health officials previously jumped in to explain that there's no evidence of the COVID-19 vaccines causing impotence, with Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden's chief medical adviser, noting to CNN on Tuesday that there isn't even "any mechanistic reason to imagine that it would happen."