Black Panther star Letitia Wright has come under fire after she linked to a YouTube video that was highly skeptical of any potential COVID-19 vaccines.
Wright, who recently appeared in Steve McQueen's critically acclaimed series Small Axe, shared the video on Thursday in a since-deleted tweet with a prayer hands emoji. The video shows On the Table host Tomi Arayomi expressing his lack of faith in a vaccine, which could begin rolling out in the U.K. as early as next week. "I don't know if I trust this vaccine," he said in the 70-minute clip. "Hope to God it doesn't make extra limbs grow."
Shortly after facing criticism for tweeting a link to the video, which also featured transphobic views expressed by Arayomi, Wright seemingly defended herself and began replying to people interacting with her. "If you don't conform to popular opinions but ask questions and think for yourself... you get cancelled," she tweeted alongside a laughing-crying emoji.
On Friday, Wright appeared to backtrack on her comments somewhat and deleted the original tweet with the link to the video. "My intention was not to hurt anyone, my ONLY intention of posting the video was it raised my concerns with that the vaccine contains and what we are putting in our bodies," she tweeted. "Nothing else."
Responses to the tweet pointed out how the host of the show even admitted he knows next to nothing about the vaccine, basing his comments on nothing more than speculation. "I don't understand vaccines medically," Arayomi says in the video, presenting no medical evidence to back up any concerns he has.
![Director Steve McQueen and John Boyega as Leroy Logan on the set of Red, White and Blue.](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 203 115"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
When fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe actor Don Cheadle was asked by fans for his thoughts on the situation, he called the video she shared "hot garbage." He added, "Every time I stopped and listened, he and everything he said sounded crazy and fkkkd up. I would never defend anybody posting this." Cheadle also expressed his concern over the transphobic comments made in the video, and indicated he would rather speak to Letitia Wright in person rather than confront her on Twitter.
Check out Twitter responses to Wright below.