Why Black Panther's Letitia Wright's COVID-19 Video Is Causing Controversy
Black Panther star Letitia Wright found herself in some hot water this week after she shared a video that questioned the validity of COVID-19 vaccines. The actress posted an hour-long video to her Twitter account on December 3 of a self-proclaimed prophet, according to Buzzfeed, who challenged the safety of a COVID-19 vaccine, causing an uproar on social media.
According to Page Six, the lengthy video, entitled, "Covid-19 Vaccine: Should We Take It?" began with "presenter" Tomi Arayomi saying that he doesn't "understand vaccines medically" and that he's always been "a bit of a skeptic" about them. "We can just get [the vaccine] out there and hope it doesn't make extra limbs grow, hope to God you don't develop children that have 11 fingers and 12 toes ...," he continued. "We have seen vaccines do damage before." Wright posted the video to her Twitter account along with the prayer hands emoji, signaling her approval/confirmation of the video's message.
Letitia Wright faces backlash for her comments
After sharing the video, Wright received a bevy of online backlash, with numerous users on social media slamming the actress for perpetuating misinformation that strays from public/scientific opinion.
"Letitia Wright I hate it had to be you sis WHY," asked one user. "You posted something suggesting that the vaccines were injecting Lucifer, that's a wee bit more than just questioning if it's safe," shared another. "You couldn't read an article from an actual doctor? Or a scientist? Or even a news outlet? You trust some random YouTube video? Where is the critical thinking in that?" questioned a third user.
In addition to users on social media being outraged by the post, actor Don Cheadle even chimed in with his own thoughts on the matter, calling the sharing of the video "hot garbage." "[J]esus... just scrolled through. hot garbage," he tweeted. "every time i stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and f***** up. i would never defend anybody posting this."
Even with his harsh criticism of the share, Cheadle still told fans to not "throw her away" but simply take the video off Twitter.
Letitia (sort of) apologized for sharing the anti-COVID-19 vaccine video
Although Wright has since deleted the video from her account, she did respond to people for their backlash, bashing them for being so harsh. "[I]f you don't conform to popular opinions. but ask questions and think for yourself....you get cancelled [laugh emoji]," she tweeted Thursday.
One follower then called out Wright for how she framed the idea of "popular opinions," saying "'popular opinions' you mean scientific evidence?" to which Wright replied, "so, you'll take something you haven't 100% looked into? [prayer-hands emoji]"
The flames were fanned further as users continued to respond with their criticisms, with one person shooting back, "1. You haven't been cancelled 2. You didn't ask questions, you posted antivax propaganda 3. You didn't think for yourself, you posted antivax propaganda[.]"
Early Friday, Wright explained why she shared the video and what message she was trying to share. "my intention was not to hurt anyone, my ONLY intention of posting the video was it raised my concerns with what the vaccine contains and what we are putting in our bodies," she wrote. "Nothing else."