Coronavirus: Idris Elba slams conspiracy theory that stars have been paid to say they have illness

British actor said ‘there’s no benefit’ to lying about having illness, calling theory ‘stupidness’

Idris Elba has condemned a conspiracy theory that celebrities are being paid to say they have coronavirus.

The British actor, who was the one of the earliest stars to reveal they’d tested positive for the illness, made the comments in an Instagram Live video.

“This idea that someone like myself is gonna be paid to say I’ve got coronavirus? That’s absolute bulls***,” Elba said. “Such stupidness. 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 [Elba’s wife] Sabrina sitting here saying we’ve got it if we ain’t got it. I don’t even understand the logic of that.”

While Elba did not name the source of the conspiracy theory, rapper Cardi B previously made reference to the theory in her own Instagram Live days prior.

“Let’s say if I have the coronavirus right now,” the rapper said. “How am I supposed to know I got it? Because sometimes I be like, ‘If y’all have a cough, you have it.’

“But then I be seeing these basketball players say like, ‘Yeah, I have the coronavirus, but I don’t got no symptoms.’ So how the f*** am I supposed to know when I’m supposed to get tested for it?”

She continued, “I’m starting to feel like y’all n****s is paying n****s to say that they got it, and if you are paying n****s to say that they got it, pay me, too!”

Also in his Instagram Live, Elba slammed the backlash to stars being tested for coronavirus. While many famous faces have tested positive for the illness, or learned they do not have Covid-19 via testing, many ordinary people in the UK and US have so far been unable to get tested themselves.

“I think the debate about rich and poor and who’s getting it and who’s not, I think, is not a healthy debate,” Elba said. “It’s like, I got a test but I also got Covid. Does that make me preferential? I don’t understand that.”

He continued: “This isn’t a movie. 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.”

Elba is one of many stars, including Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson and Olga Kurylenko, who have tested positive for coronavirus.

He suggested, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, that the pandemic is Earth’s response to being “damaged”.