Musk Might Have COVID-19 Virus He Dismissed & Said He Wouldn’t Catch
- Billionaire once predicted deadly coronavirus would largely disappear by April
- Musk called government efforts to contain spread of COVID-19 “fascist”
- He twice defied orders from health officials on closing his Tesla auto plant
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
Elon Musk, who just six weeks dismissed the possibility that he would be infected with COVID-19, might in fact have caught the deadly virus. On Thursday, the SpaceX CEO tweeted:
Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse. Rapid antigen test from BD,” Musk tweeted on Thursday.
Musk, who said he is experiencing symptoms of a mild cold, said he has been tested twice more using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. The samples are being analyzed at two separate labs, with results expected on Friday.
SpaceX is due to launch a crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft on Saturday evening. If Musk tests positive for COVID-19, he would likely not be in the SpaceX control room in Hawthorne, Calif. for the launch. People diagnosed with the virus are asked to quarantine themselves.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the rapid antigen test that Musk took four times for emergency use. It has been known to have issues with reliability.
One issue with the tests involve when they are taken. Responding to Musk, Dr. Eugene Gu tweeted:
It matters what order you received those results. If you had the first two tests come back negative earlier in the day and then the last two tests come back positive later in the day, then it could mean you passed the threshold for detecting the coronavirus as they replicated.
In late September, Musk dismissed concerns about the deadly virus that has killed more than 240,000 Americans.
“I’m not at risk for COVID, nor are my kids,” Musk said during an appearance on The New York Times “Sway” podcast.
Earlier this year, the billionaire called panic over the virus “dumb” and predicted that new cases would probably be close to zero in April if current trends continued. They didn’t, and the pandemic only grew worse.
In March, Musk defied an order from Alameda County to shut down his Telsa auto plant in California to slow the spread of the virus. He kept the plant open for a week after other businesses closed in compliance with the county’s order.
Alameda issued the stay-at-home order in concert with five other San Francisco Bay area counties as cases of virus surged. California officials later issued a similar order for the entire state.
Musk railed against the shutdown, calling it “fascist”, unconstitutional and “not democratic.” In April, NPR reported:
“I would call it forcibly imprisoning people in their homes against all their constitutional rights — that’s my opinion,” Musk said in a call with investors on Wednesday.
The famously mercurial CEO said the shelter-in-place orders from authorities — designed to reduce the spread of the coronavirus — are “breaking people’s freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why people came to America or built this country.” He followed that with a phrase featuring an expletive.
Officials allowed Tesla to reopen in May. However, Musk defied an Alameda County order to keep the Tesla plant until health officials could approve the company’s plan to protect workers. He reopened the facility order, daring county officials to have him arrested at the plant.
Musk also sued Alameda County. Tesla later dropped the lawsuit.
In early July, a group called Workers United Against Covid-19 that included two Tesla employees claimed the company’s efforts to protect its employees against COVID-19 were inadequate. The group called upon Alameda County officials to investigate conditions at the auto plant.
Courthouse News Service reported:
“This is a dire health and safety emergency because the state is not taking care of workers at Tesla,” said group member Steve Zeltzer.
Carlos Gabriel said he knows of 30 people who have contracted the novel coronavirus at the Fremont plant, but said because Tesla performs its own contact tracing, the determination that all 30 people caught the disease outside of the confines of the factory doesn’t hold water.
“There is a definite trust issue there,” Gabriel said….
Gabriel said this was all part of a campaign to put profits over the safety of his workers.
In mid-July, the industry website Electrek obtained internal Tesla documents that showed 130 workers had tested positive for the virus and that 1,550 other employees had been affected by the virus. Electrek reported:
“Affected” doesn’t necessarily mean that the employees tested positive for the virus, but Tesla appears to classify “affected” workers who have been exposed to other workers who were confirmed to have the virus.
Based on Tesla’s own data, the majority of employees tracked for exposure have been not been tested, or it is unknown whether they have been tested….
The data seems to indicate that most “affected” employees have been identified as such for having “direct contact outside of work,” though most cases are still “unspecified.”
In another slide, Tesla’s data confirms that the number of “exposure” among employees at Fremont factory has been spiking in the last two weeks.
In response to the report, Tesla sent an email to employees denying there was an outbreak at the plant. The Associated Press reported:
In an email to workers Wednesday night, the company said that since January it has had fewer than 10 cases of the virus that causes COVID-19 that were transmitted in the workplace.
But the email from Laurie Shelby, Tesla’s vice president of environmental, safety and health, also confirmed reports that Tesla is looking into more than 130 positive tests among employees, including those who contracted the virus outside of Tesla facilities. She said less than 0.25% of employees worldwide have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, which equals just over 137 workers….
Shelby wrote that the story referred to data ‘that was in the process of being validated’ and included employees worldwide who may have been infected but never entered a Tesla site, or were infected at home while Tesla’s operations were shut down earlier in the year. A Tesla spokesman would not comment on the report or the email, which was obtained by The Associated Press.
‘Nearly all ” more than 99.99% ” of these occurrences were not cases of virus transmitted at work,’ Shelby wrote in the email. ‘Most of the positive cases resulted from an individual living with or traveling with someone with COVID-19 and have returned to work after recovering from home.’
Shelby wrote that Tesla doesn’t have any employees in serious condition anywhere in the world because of COVID-19.
Since the first U.S. case of coronavirus was reported in January, Musk has grown vastly wealthier as Tesla has continued to generate quarterly profits and the company’s stock soared.
On Oct. 26, Forbes reported Musk will receive another $2.9 billion in compensation from Telsa in addition to $571 million he received earlier this year.
Tesla has yet to slow down despite the raging pandemic and economic crisis, reporting its fifth straight quarterly profit last week. Thanks to the strong results, CEO Elon Musk is now eligible to receive the fourth tranche of his massive $55 billion compensation package.
Musk is already the fifth richest person in the world, worth $91.9 billion, Forbes estimates. His net worth has nearly quadrupled since mid-March, when he ranked No. 31 on our World’s Billionaires list, with a net worth of $24.6 billion. Musk owns 21% of Tesla but has pledged more than half his stake as collateral for personal loans; Forbes applies a discount to his pledged shares to account for the loans. His stake in reusable rocket company SpaceX represents less than a quarter of his fortune.
Musk has previously unlocked three tranches. Tesla has paid richly for these paydays, spending $571 million on stock compensation for the nine months ending September 30, more than double the same period last year.
Musk takes a relatively small annual salary from Tesla. Most of his compensation comes in the form of stock tranches that require the company to meet preset performance goals.
26 responses to “Musk Might Have COVID-19 Virus He Dismissed & Said He Wouldn’t Catch”
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typical
They keep emphasizing that Tesla employees were contracting the virus outside of the plant, but if they are then going to work, it makes no difference. It also makes no sense since if their are carriers at the plant, the risk rises for all of the other employees those people come in contact with.
I’m not sure how emergency quarantine orders would be “undemocratic”. Epidemics are not subject to a vote and it makes no sense to ask people to vote on the proper response that have no knowledge about what’s appropriate.
is Elon still seeing Grimes and his baby? Or, was that just something for the summer?
Sure it makes a difference, if there’s very little workplace transmission (assuming they monitor this over time), it means their covid protection measurements are working, and the accusations like “Gabriel said this was all part of a campaign to put profits over the safety of his workers.” have no merit.
I can see the logic behind this, but just to play devil’s advocate: If it makes no sense to ask people to vote on epidemics response which they have no knowledge about, why does it make sense to ask them to vote on anything else? Most people has no knowledge of economy, governance, diplomacy, climate change, or anything that is on the political agenda.
Not everyone believes what Tesla claims about all those cases being contracted outside the plant. It wouldn’t be the first time Tesla fibbed about something.
Wow, what an interesting narrative you are pushing there Doug. Musk is also leaving California and refocusing his industrial efforts outside of the State. Funny how you left those bits out.
I have to say, it has been very interesting watching the usual suspects turn against Musk, with Musk transforming from Hero to Zero in their eyes.
California is a dumpster fire of crazed single-party-rule politics. Musk is getting out and not looking back. Welcome to Free America, Elon!
Left them out? I don’t have to put every little thing in the story. Have you seen the numbers for Texas? The state is a COVID dumpster fire.
You’re only proving my case for your partisanship.
https://www.statista.com/st…
Go ahead and editorialize if you desire. But don’t dress it up as objective reporting.
That Texas is being hit extremely hard by Covid is a fact. Here ya go: https://www.houstonchronicl…
Do a google search before you accuse me of lying.
Maybe you aren’t cut out this job, if you can’t tell the difference between straight reporting and your editorializing.
The simple fact is you ran a hit piece on Musk. Own up to it.
You can’t handle any criticism of Musk. None of his cult-like followers can. Sorry. Face up to the truth. All you guys do is attack anyone who suggests that there might be anything wrong in what he does or how he acts.
Elon predicted there would be virtually no new cases in April. Well, that didn’t happen. He called officials fascists. His judgment has been faulty on COVID-19 all along.
Your judgement of me is as inaccurate as your weird hostility towards Musk seems to have twisted your judgement of him.
I don’t worship Musk. Outside of his activities with SpaceX, I don’t even know much about him. If anything, I think Tesla cars are irrelevant to environmental issues and merely expensive toys for rich people to play with and for snooty types to preen with. I know even less about his solar power efforts.
As much as I appreciate the achievements of SpaceX, you won’t find me among those SpaceX fanbois who think SpaceX can do no wrong, and that NASA (and everyone else) can do no right. I don’t play those games. I want everyone to succeed in opening up space travel.
But for some reason Musk excites the imagination of tribal loyalists. And for me it’s been fascinating to watch how those tribalists’ reactions to Musk can be measured by how much they think that Musk is one of their own.
To watch some recent critics of Musk on the Left, almost literally copy the dumbest attacks those on the Right had used before on Musk, was deja vu. That’s when I knew that Musk was now considered to be on the other side!
A far as the Left was concerned, Musk went from Hero to Zero!
I’d been seeing this perception of Musk begin to shift. But the final flip was surprisingly rapid. The breaking point seems to be the controversy over the California Tesla factory during the COVID-19 crisis.
Which tells me a lot about you.
Left right? Liberal conservative? Therein lies your problem. The issue is right wrong.
Elon’s been doing a fine job tearing down his own reputation. His failure to take the pandemic serious. Defying public health orders. He has spread erroneous info. Called official fascists.
The pedo guy incident. Numerous reports of him treating employees like garbage.
Keep digging your hole. I predicted every one of those issues as intrinsic to your worldview, and you just volunteered them to me.
As for your haughty right vs wrong accusation? Interesting that you would frame it that way. I thought the whole point of objective reporting was truth vs false. And I’ve seen your level of truth seeking when it comes to me personally.
The most dishonest thing you are doing, is striking a pose as an objective reporter who is merely presenting the facts. Instead you are massaging a narrative, which favors your own political biases.
Perhaps you are just fooling yourself since you did it so ham handedly. You certainly are not fooling me, and I doubt I am very lonely either amongst your audience, in shared perception of what you are doing.
Go ahead and console yourself that it’s just the ‘Musk cultists’ that have a problem, for all that good that will do you. But even if that were true, don’t you think it would profit you if you reported in such a way that you could reach even the ‘cultists’? If you think that so much of your audience are ‘Musk cultists’, why would you want to alienate them instead of educating them?
Huge difference between just testing positive and being seriously ill. One of my employees tested positive and said he got a lot of work done around the house during two weeks off with pay. Found out this afternoon that my 18 year old granddaughter tested positive and it just means I don’t visit for thanksgiving while they quarantine. Unlike elderly people or those in poor health, working age people have very low risk of serious disability or death. Keeping the factory open is the responsible action.
Taking chances with the ill and elderly is irresponsible, and that is not what is going on here.
Another hit piece, Musk never said “He Wouldn’t Catch” covid, you’re just fabricating this.
He already said he “tested positive, then negative twice, then positive again”: https://twitter.com/elonmus…
And? So? He said he’s not at risk for COVID, how is that dismissed concerns about the virus? Also you’re quoting this out of context, this is an answer to the question whether he’ll take vaccine once a vaccine is available, it should be common knowledge that vaccine should be prioritized for at risk population, and he is mostly correct (pending his doctor’s assessment of course) that he’s not at risk, according to CDC’s vaccine distribution plan, vaccines should be prioritized for critical population including:
• People at increased risk for severe COVID-19 illnesso LTCF residents (i.e., residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities)
o People with underlying medical conditions that are risk factors for severe COVID-19 illness
o People 65 years of age and older
• People at increased risk of acquiring or transmitting COVID-19
o People from racial and ethnic minority groups
o People from tribal communities
o People who are incarcerated/detained in correctional facilities
o People experiencing homelessness/living in shelters
o People attending colleges/universities
o People who work in educational settings (e.g., early learning centers, schools, and
colleges/universities)
o People living and working in other congregate settings
Pretty clear he doesn’t belong to this group (unless he has an underlying medical conditions we don’t know about).
And the county did not experience increased covid infection due to this early opening, which proves he’s correct. County covid dashboard shows 7-Day % positive tests is on the decline during May, up until mid June.
And what does this have anything to do with anything? He can’t control the stock price, in fact he publicly stated, multiple times, that the stock price is too high.
He said neither he nor his kids were at risk for COVID in September. It’s right there in the story.
It is well known how low the health risk is of COVID-19 to younger people in good health, which is extremely low.
https://www.ftportfolios.co…
You seem to be bizarrely mixing up health risk with the risk of just catching COVID-19.
You think that all the Tesla workers live in Alameda County where the plant is located. Is that your belief? Are you incapable of thinking broader than that.
You can throw all the information you want out here. Musk said he wasn’t at risk from COVID. Nobody can say that.
Elon predicted there would be virtually no new cases in April. His judgment on this pandemic has been faulty all along. Can you at least acknowledge that?
This virus is the biggest scam ever, or course it’s real, but if your under 60 and have no health problems, live your life like any other year.
Much younger people have died. Survivors can be left with long term health problems. Health care workers have died treating the sick.
Yea, this is another dumb take of an article. Nothing in Musk’s critique suggested he thought he wasn’t going to get it.
He said he and his kids weren’t at risk. It’s there in the story.
They aren’t. He is not >65 and with comorbidities. Primary school aged kids are at higher risk of death from flu than COVID-19. Thankfully my kids are in school since the beginning of school year. It is nonsense to take grade schoolers out of class for this.
He said he wasn’t at risk. Being over 65 isn’t the only risk factor. How do you know he has no comorbidities? Have you seen his medical records? Have you seen him a medical exam?
Even if it doesn’t kill a person they can end up with long term medical problems. They can also spread it to others.
Musk did not take the virus seriously. That’s a big problem given number of people he employs and his rabid following who take his advice seriously.
Blah blah, there is no such thing as no risk with anything, so why argue a strawman? It is a distribution curve. Presumably if Musk had any number of conditions he’d be at elevated risk and therefore wouldn’t make those statements about himself. He is at relatively low risk (this is not controversial) and his kids are at astonishingly low risk (also not controversial). I know several young and healthy people who got it and bounce back to pretty normal in days to a week or two. Doug not everyone is going run around like a chicken with their head cut off when stuff has to get done.
Don’t blah blah me. So you don’t know what risk factors Musk has. And you’re relying on him being completely honest in his statements about his health and risk factors. Ok. I guess that passes for knowledge in the cult of Elon.