Letitia Wright causes Twitter controversy with questions about COVID vaccine
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On Thursday night, she shared to her official Twitter account a YouTube video by the channel On The Table that questions the efficacy of vaccines, and whether people should be allowed to take the new COVID-19 vaccines (developed by Pfizer and Moderna). “I don't understand vaccines medically, but I've always been a little bit of a skeptic of them,” the presenter Tomi Arayomi says in the video. He goes on to call the ingredients in vaccines dangerous, including the COVID-19 vaccine. His video contained little to no scientific or medical backing, but was full of personal anecdotes and feelings, not to mention transphobia. We have chosen not to link to his video here.
Wright tweeted this video with a prayer-hand emoji on Thursday night, which resulted in a huge backlash from Twitter users, many calling her out for spreading dangerous ideas.
While her initial tweet has since been deleted, she continued to respond the users well into the night, including tweeting out a statement that insinuates cancel culture is the reason she deleted her original tweet (rather than the bad ideas contained within it, but we digress…).
if you don’t conform to popular opinions. but ask questions and think for yourself....you get cancelled ?
— Letitia Wright (@letitiawright) December 4, 2020
Even actor Don Cheadle got roped into the conversation as he also stars with her in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When users tagged him in their conversations with Wright, he initially tweeted that he would bring it up to her himself in real life, rather than online, but then he later tweeted that the YouTube video and the ideas contained within it were “hot garbage.”
jesus... just scrolled through. hot garbage. every time i stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and fkkkd 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. https://t.co/7uDlP1xwDL
— Don "bruh, you lost" Cheadle (@DonCheadle) December 4, 2020
“Jesus... just scrolled through. hot garbage,” he said in the early hours of Friday morning. “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.”We’re guessing that from midnight on Friday morning to mid-day, Don might have actually had a behind-closed-doors chat with Wright, because she tweeted an apology (of sorts) that insisted she was just trying to ask questions.
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.
Nothing else.— Letitia Wright (@letitiawright) December 4, 2020
However that mea culpa hasn’t stopped her from continuing her arguments and replies to Twitter users who disagree with her, as she continues to rail against cancel culture, without understanding that her freedom of speech doesn’t grant her freedom from consequences.
??♀️ make an example out of me for asking if something is right for my body before taking it.interesting world we live in ?
— Letitia Wright (@letitiawright) December 4, 2020
She has also tweeted several times that she is voicing her beliefs on behalf of God.
No I work for God
— Letitia Wright (@letitiawright) December 4, 2020
heaven accepted me first ??
— Letitia Wright (@letitiawright) December 4, 2020
the name lucifer is an interesting choice ? * opens bible*
— Letitia Wright (@letitiawright) December 4, 2020
Wright currently stars in director Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology series, and is set to reprise her role as Shuri in the sequel to 2018 hit Black Panther. In the wake of co-star Chadwick Boseman’s untimely death earlier this year, she penned a thoughtful and heartfelt tribute to him in the form of poetry, calling him “her brother.”
