For weeks, people have complained about the inequality of coronavirus testing, leaving those with symptoms to be turned away from getting tested.
Star athletes, actors, musicians and celebrities have been able to secure coronavirus tests without having any symptoms while people have been turned down due to a shortage of testing kits.
Cardi B has now joined the conversation surrounding the availability of tests, calling out the blatant inequity in the system. The conversation led to a back and forth between the rapper and Idris Elba. Elba got tested and received a positive diagnosis for the coronavirus last week despite not having any symptoms.
“Let me tell you something. The general public…they’re not getting treated like celebrities. They’re not getting their f**king coronavirus results the next day. They're telling people to go home and self-quarantine. Where do they think they're sending people home to? Not everyone has the luxury of going to their f**king bedroom and to go in a big a*s house and just stay away from people," the "Bodak Yellow" rapper said.
"A lot of people live in small ass apartments with multiple people. A lot of celebrities, y'all have the luxury to pay $30-$40,000 or whatever the f**k it costs to get tested and get treated. A lot of these people don't f**king have that money," Cardi B added.
FACTS pic.twitter.com/7GPoyh3xsb
— DeMarko (@freakymarko) March 21, 2020
She went on to mention how she's convinced some people are being paid to say they've tested positive.
“They quarantined people, they were spraying s**t in the streets. They were knocking on each door, taking people’s temperature. They were like doing strict quarantine on them. [The government is] not really saying what it is. Tell me what it is and what it ain’t. I’m starting to feel like y’all n***as is paying n***as to say that they got it. If y’all are … pay me too,” Cardi B continued.
Elba apparently got the message and responded during his own Instagram Live session, saying people should stop looking at the rich and famous as stars and as people.
The actor said it's a travesty but justified getting tested, saying his employer got him a test because he works around a lot of people.
“I think the debate about rich and poor and who’s getting it and who’s not, I think, it's not a healthy debate. I think that the negativity around test-shaming is counterproductive. I don’t see what people get out of that, and also this idea that someone like myself is gonna be paid to say I’ve got [the illness]. That’s absolute bullsh*t. Such stupidness,” he said on Instagram Live.
“People wanna 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 or we ain’t got it. I don’t even understand the logic of that,” he added.
In the video, he reiterated he was like everyone else and deserved to get tested regardless of his success or fame.
“I’m not an actor right now. I’m just a human being, and I just happen to be in the public eye. So I want people to understand that this is very real. I don’t feel like I’m privileged because I got a test, because I actually contracted it,” he said.
On Tuesday, Cardi seemingly responded to Elba, sharing a four-minute video on her Instagram page with the caption, "I said what I said."
She told her fans that it was obviously confusing for many people, especially in the United States, to be told there were not enough tests for everyone while asymptomatic stars like Kevin Durant and Elba were able to get tested with no problems.
“If number 45 is getting on a podium saying, ‘Hey, listen, if you do not have any symptoms…which is coughing, fever, whatsoever, etc., etc., do not get tested. Because we don’t have enough [tests] to test everybody.' But if a celebrity is saying, ‘Hey, listen, I don’t have no symptoms. I’m feeling good, I feel healthy, I don’t feel like nothing, but I went and got tested and I’m positive'…That causes confusion,” Cardi said in response to Elba's comments.
The rapper went on to criticize Trump for how he has handled the pandemic.
"I feel like the government should just charge that s**t to the game and not charge people for it because at the end of the day, this s**t could have been prevented when they found out about this s**t a couple of months ago. This is y'all fault that it got in this motherf***ing country."
