Cardi B Just Tore Rich Celebrities Like Idris Elba To Shreds Over Their Coronavirus Ignorance
"People who get regular pay checks...They not getting treated like celebrities. They're not getting their coronavirus results."
Idris Elba, he of The Wire and Luther fame, has spent the coronavirus epidemic proving he is singularly entitled — and now Cardi B is calling him out.
Elba was one of the first celebrities to announce that he had tested positive for the fast-spreading illness. In the video where he shared his diagnosis, he also let his fans know that he was showing no symptoms.
That was presumably designed to make his supporters feel more at ease. But it also proved how different the experience of testing is depending on how much money you have.
Citizens all around the world are being denied testing even when presenting at the doctor’s office with symptoms. There’s a shortage of the swabs required to perform the test in most countries, meaning that a lot of people are in the dark about whether they’re actually ill with the disease.
Criteria for testing is extremely strict — and money seems to be the only way around it. After all, Idris Elba had no such issue getting tested, despite the fact that he had no symptoms whatsoever to show for it.
Which is where Cardi B comes in.
See, in a recent live video, the rapper cast some doubt on the slew of asymptomatic celebrities announcing their diagnosis, saying that the videos of them talking about their illness seemed like “flat tummy tea” adverts.
Some interpreted that as a suggestion that celebrities are getting paid to say they tested positive for coronavirus. Most notably, that’s the interpretation that Elba took, saying in an Instagram live video that it’s ridiculous to assume celebrities are somehow being instructed to lie about a diagnosis.
Oops! Idris Elba Clap Back To Cardi B saying That Celebrity’s Get Paid To Say they have the coronavirus. #idriselba #iamcardib #clapback #thoughts #queen_music08 pic.twitter.com/3beKS7drn5
— Queen_music08 (@QMusic08) March 24, 2020
But Elba also took his comments one step further.
“I think the debate about rich and poor and who’s getting it and who’s not, I think, is not a healthy debate,” the actor said. “It’s like, I got a test but I also got COVID. Does that make me preferential? I don’t understand that.”
Clearly, the man is unaware of how good he has it, or generally how class works. So Cardi B stepped in to tell him.
Cardi B calls out celebrities & the government:
“If [Trump] is saying ‘if you don’t have any symptoms of the Coronavirus do not get tested because we don’t have enough tests’ but a celebrity is saying ‘I don’t have symptoms but I got tested & I’m positive’ that causes confusion” pic.twitter.com/VgKFqIBH8h
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) March 25, 2020
“If [Trump] is saying, ‘If you don’t have any symptoms of the Coronavirus do not get tested because we don’t have enough tests’ but a celebrity is saying, ‘I don’t have symptoms but I got tested and I’m positive’, that causes confusion,” Cardi said.
“People who get regular pay checks…They not getting treated like celebrities. They’re not getting their coronavirus results.”
Then, the rapper moved on to discuss the practice of doctors sending patients home to self-isolate.
“Where do they think they are sending people home to?” she asked. “Not everybody has the luxury to go in their bedroom, and go in their big ass house and just stay away from people. People live in small ass apartments.”
Cardi is right. Elba is wrong. That simple.