It all started when Cardi B offered up a heated take on the coronavirus pandemic, theorizing that celebrities have been muddying the waters vis-a-vis proper testing protocol. Especially those who got tested despite feeling relatively healthy, only to discover they've been carriers on the low. After spitballing that some stars might even be paid to make coronavirus announcements, Idris Elba sounded off in defiant retaliation. Despite neglecting to name names, it was clear who his ire was directed to.
Today, Cardi took to IG to offer a rebuttal. "Sometimes I get on my Live and I be talking my crazy shit entertaining my fans, and people take what I say and run with it," she declares, before clarifying her position. Essentially, she feels as if the public are receiving mixed messages from President Trump and the celebrities who have tested positive for COVID-19, which thus creates further confusion about the proper course of action. "If a celebrity is saying 'I don't have no symptoms I'm feeling good, healthy, but I went and got tested and I'm positive for the coronavirus. That causes confusion!"
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"People be like, 'I don't know, I don't have no symptoms but I went out this and that day, shit I might have it,'" she continues. "I'm scared because I'm around my kid, I'm around my grandparent. What do I do?" She explains that people who work regular jobs, the middle class, and the poor are simply not getting treated like the ones up here, celebrities. "They're not getting their coronavirus results the next day, that's one."
She then pivots to some of the inherent flaws within the testing symptom, explaining that not everyone has the luxury of self-quarantining in complete isolation -- especially if they test positive. "A lot of people live in small-ass apartments with multiple people," she continues, detailing how easy it would spread to spouses and children in certain scenarios. "On top of that, a lot of celebrities have the luxury to pay thirty-four thousand dollars or whatever the fuck it cost to get tested and treated. A lot of these people don't have that money! Some people don't even have enough money to fucking afford health care!"
"I feel like all this shit, for coronavirus treatments and testing, all that shit, the government should take that and charge that shit to the game," she concludes. "This could have been prevented months ago when they found out the shit it was doing in China. They shouldn't be charging Medicaid, health insurance, none of that shit. This is ya'll fault it got in the muthafucking country." Ever defiant, Cardi sums up her breakdown with a succinct yet evocative caption: I said what I said.