Idris Elba’s Coronavirus Diagnosis Has Ranker Readers Thinking Dirty Thoughts

Idris and Sophie, sitting in a tree, C-O-V-I-D-19

Photo: Ranker

After Idris Elba announced that he tested positive for coronavirus earlier this week, he hinted that it likely resulted from contact he’d made with someone who is “also in the public eye.” Curious internet users took to their search engines to investigate who exactly might have been responsible for Elba’s contraction of the virus — and many of their searches led them to Ranker.

The day that the The Wire star made his announcement, organic visits to our list of “Idris Elba Loves and Hookups” increased fifteen-fold. It seems that Ranker readers inferred that whatever contact Elba, who is married, had with another famous individual couldn’t have been anything short of romantic.

Elba did his best to quash those rumors by suggesting he contracted it from Sophie Trudeau, the wife of Candian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — Elba and Trudeau both attended a London charity event together earlier in the month. Of course, some Twitter users still took this to mean that the two had hooked up, since the Prime Minister did not himself test positive for the virus. 

This morning I tested positive for Covid 19. I feel ok, I have no symptoms so far but have been isolated since I found out about my possible exposure to the virus. Stay home people and be pragmatic. I will keep you updated on how I’m doing 👊🏾👊🏾 No panic. pic.twitter.com/Lg7HVMZglZ

— Idris Elba (@idriselba) March 16, 2020

But as fun as the celebrity rumor mill can be, the fact is that this episode only proves how easy it is to transmit the coronavirus from person to person. Things don’t need to get hot and heavy between two people for the contagion to spread. Sadly, all that’s required for COVID-19 to spread is being in a closed space with an infected person.

The way people search for and vote on Ranker lists can tell us a lot about how people are learning about this pandemic. While it’s highly unlikely that Idris Elba and Sophie Trudeau are anything more than friends, we do hope this recent example discourages people from making physical contact with people who might be infected — romantic or otherwise!