Idris Elba has hit back at Cardi B, describing the controversial rapper’s claim that celebrities were being paid to say they had tested positive for the deadly coronavirus as “stupid.”
Elba and his wife Sabrina, including actors Tom Hanks and Olga Kurylenko, are some of the high-profile celebrities who have publicly declared they had contracted the deadly virus.
Cardi B in an Instagram Live Broadcast questioned claims by Elba and other high-profile stars, who publicly said they had been diagnosed with Covid-19, suggesting that they had been paid to make the public pronouncement.
“I’m starting to feel like y’all ni**as is paying ni**as to say that they got it. And if y’all are paying ni**as to say that they got it, pay me too. Bitch tryna get paid,” Cardi B said.
Angered by the rapper’s unfounded claims, Elba, 47, during a Livestream of his own described “the idea that someone like myself is going to be paid to say I’ve got coronavirus? That’s absolute bullshit.”
“Such stupidness. People want to spread that as if it’s news. That’s stupid. It’s the quickest way to get people sick because there’s no benefit to me and Sabrina sitting here saying we’ve got it if we ain’t got it. I don’t even understand the logic of that,” he added.
According to the Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom actor, the negativity around ‘test shaming’ is counterproductive.
Meanwhile, Cardi B isn’t budging from her earlier claim, stating in a new video that: “I said what I said.”
More than 21,000 people have died from COVID-19, while more than 472,000 infections have been confirmed in at least 170 countries and territories. Nearly 115,000 people have recovered.
Sixty-five thousand people from the worldwide infections are in the United States with at least 928.