Elon Musk likely has COVID-19 as SpaceX launch delayed

Elon Musk, who has spent much of this year questioning the rationale for lockdowns and the severity of COVID-19 on Twitter, may be about to find out for himself what the disease is doing to a person.

Musk announced Thursday night, on his platform of choice, that he had been tested four times in one day for COVID-19 after not feeling very well for a few days, and being his typical self, it was all presented like “something extremely wrong is going on” because he had two negative and two positive results. He then discussed his wish to learn more about the testing industry – and many medical experts and others applauded that these rapid antigenic tests are not particularly accurate and that he has to wait for the results of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test in the lab, which takes longer and is more accurate. questioned the false positive rate for PCR tests – seeming to predict his own skepticism if and when the PCR test result becomes positive again.

Musk claims to have only mild symptoms similar to a cold.

The testing schedule appears to be tied to a SpaceX launch where Musk was likely hoping to meet the four astronauts involved, as he did with Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley before the successful launch in May, as reported by The New York Times. .

As The Associated Press reports, the launch was postponed to Sunday not because of Musk’s testing issues, but because of high winds and other weather conditions forecast for Saturday.

If Musk tests positive, he will have to isolate himself and may only be able to communicate with astronauts virtually, according to NASA. A NASA spokesperson said all astronauts had been isolated for weeks and Musk had no close contact with the team.

Given Musk’s millions of followers and his constant presence on Twitter, he was quickly criticized for contributing to a skepticism speech about the dangers of the coronavirus in general – and criticized for bragging about having four rapid tests in 24 hours while much of the country is still missing. access to easy testing. Musk’s influence on Twitter only serves to reinforce conservative, libertarian and Trumpian skepticism on social media about whether the current nationwide spike in cases is real and whether lockdowns and restrictions are needed.

In April, Musk quickly defied lockdown orders in Alameda County that prevented his reopening of the Tesla factory in Fremont, wondering at the time whether the coronavirus mortality data warranted a lockdown. Within two weeks, Musk announced the reopening of the plant and a month later there was at least one small outbreak of COVID-19 among workers at the plant.

Top photo: Musk visits the site of a new Tesla Gigafactory near Gruenheide, Germany in September 2020 (Photo by Maja Hitij / Getty Images)