Black Panther star Letitia Wright was slammed by her Marvel co-star Don Cheadle on Thursday night after she posted a YouTube video that questioned the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The British actress posted the link to the On The Table video ‘COVID-19 VACCINE, SHOULD WE TAKE IT?’ along with a prayer hand emoji late on Thursday night.
Her post immediately sparked a fierce backlash with many asking fellow Marvel actor Don Cheadle to call 27-year-old Wright out for posting the misleading video.
In response, the actor called the video shared by Wright ‘hot garbage’ and what was said in it ‘F****d up.’
After facing a growing backlash, Wright said it was not her intention to make anyone upset and that she wasn’t saying ‘don’t take’ the vaccine, but added ‘I’m just concerned about what’s in it that’s all. Isn’t that fair to question or ask?’
Black Panther star Letitia Wright was mercilessly crucified on Twitter on Thursday night after she posted a fact-free YouTube video that questioned the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Wright shared a video from YouTube discussion channel ‘On The Table’ in which the presenter said ‘I don’t understand vaccines medically’ before rolling into a fact-free monologue full of personal anecdotes and his personal feelings on vaccines in general
After being drawn into the argument on Twitter, Wright’s Marvel Cinematic Universe co-start Don Cheadle (pictured right) criticised the contents of the video shared by Wright, calling it ‘hot garbage’ and ‘F****d up’
On The Table is a YouTube discussion channel presented by Tomi Arayomi.
In the video in question, the presenter shared his opinion on vaccines, their effectiveness, the supposed ‘dangers’ of taking them and the origins of the ingredients in the Covid-19 vaccine.
The description of the video says: ‘Tonight I’m talking about Luciferase, the ingredient allegedly being added to the COVID vaccine to detect those who have not taken it. Luciferase, named by its founder after Lucifer??? Now this is only partially true on a fact check, but we explore this and more’
Luciferase is an enzyme designed to be used in vaccines in developing countries to detect who has already been vaccinated.
It is bioluminescent and visible only under a certain wavelenght on light, hence the name. Lucifer is also Greek for light-bringer.
Luciferase isn’t used in vaccines deployed in the US, Europe and countries with developed health care systems.
‘I don’t understand vaccines medically, but I’ve always been a little bit of a skeptic of them,’ Tomi Arayomi says on the podcast. He then rolled into a monologue full of personal anecdotes and his personal feelings on vaccines in general.
Arayomi describes himself as ‘a well recognised Prophet and the Managing Director of Prophetic Voice TV. An online mission that seeks to restore the ability to hear the voice of God to every person on every sphere of influence.’
He heads an organisation called ‘RIGnation’ that says it is ‘is a global movement focused on training prophets to be people and people to be prophets.’
‘Our aim is to raise 7,000 Apostles and Prophets from across the world who are ready to transform the world!’
After sharing the video, Wright quickly became involved in arguments with other Twitter users admonishing her for sharing the video, in their view irresponsibly.
Wright, who has over 360,000 followers on Twitter, defended her sharing of the video by saying she believed it is important to ‘ask questions’ about the vaccine.
‘I think it’s valid and fair to simply ask what’s in it,’ she replied to one user who was calling her out on the platform.
Further doubling-down on her position following more criticism, she said ‘if you don’t conform to popular opinions. but ask questions and think for yourself….you get cancelled.’
As the argument grew on Thursday and into Friday, Wright’s Marvel Cinematic Universe co-star Don Cheadle waded into the debate.
Cheadle is known to be outspoken on politics and other issues, and when Twitter users began tagging him in Wright’s post, he began to engage with users as well.
After watching sections of the YouTube video, Cheadle Tweeted: ‘Jesus… just scrolled through. hot garbage. every time i stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and f****d up.
‘I would never defend anybody posting this. but i still won’t throw her away over it. the rest i’ll take off twitter. had no idea.’
Wright, who in addition to Black Panther and the Marvel movies has starred in Death on the Nile, Black Mirror and who is currently starring in Steve McQueen’s acclaimed Small Axe, faced wider backlash on Twitter as well.
Actor and musician Alex Sawyer replied to her tweet sharing the video, saying ‘This is a frustratingly irresponsible use of a platform.’
‘How so?,’ Wright replied. ‘Did you listen to it fully or jump to conclusions on how I use my platform?’
After facing criticism on Twitter, Wright said that it was not her intention to make anyone upset, but said she was concerned about what’s in the Covid-19 vaccine. ‘Isn’t that a fair question to ask?’
After being drawn into the Twitter row, Wright’s Marvel co-star Don Cheadle called the video ‘hot garbage’ and what was said in it ‘F****d up’
Canadian filmmaker and YouTuber Evan Hadfield poked fun at Wright’s tweet, saying ‘I for one am proud of you, it takes guts to go on the internet and blast to millions that you intend to kill people because you think doctors know less about medicine than my one weird aunt.’
Another user shared a picture that said ‘I did my own research’ with the footnote: ‘Watched someone else’s s**tty YouTube video.’
Other users pointed to host Tomi Arayomi’s previous comments on the channel that have been perceived to be transphobic, with Wright’s fans questioning why she would share a video with someone who has expressed such views in the past.