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Topline
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk claimed Friday that “something extremely bogus is going on” after four rapid antigen Covid-19 tests he took came back with different results — two positive and two negative — resuming his questionably critical Twitter commentary on the pandemic that he has repeatedly downplayed the risks of, after previously decrying public health policies as “fascist.”
Elon Musk said he tested both positive and negative for Covid-19
AFP via Getty Images
Key Facts
Musk on Friday said he has the “symptoms of a typical cold,” and claimed to have taken rapid antibody tests four times in the same day, conducted by the same nurse on the same machine, with two coming back positive.
With a conspiratorial undertone reminiscent of his tweeting earlier in the pandemic, Musk said he believed something “bogus” was going on.
Musk, who has long been a skeptic of Covid-19 despite the pandemic infecting 53 million people worldwide, suggested that inaccurate tests could be responsible for the surge in cases seen in the U.S. and around the world, claiming, “If it’s happening to me, it’s happening to others.”
He said that he would now be getting polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, which are said to be more accurate and time-consuming tests conducted in a lab.
Musk expects the results of these in 24 hours.
Key Background
Musk has been an outspoken skeptic of the Covid-19 crisis from very early on in the pandemic and a source of dangerous misinformation. In March, he called the coronavirus “panic… dumb” and compared outbreaks to the common cold. Musk also attacked what he saw as draconian lockdown measures, describing the shuttering of one of his plants as “fascist” amid California’s stay-at-home order earlier this year, while he also shared studies arguing for all social distancing measures to be lifted, and peddled misinformation by promoting the chloroquine as a treatment (something that, even at the time, had been roundly discredited). While the apparent discrepancies seen with seemingly identical Covid-19 tests fit quite neatly into the skeptical mindset, tests are never perfect and are not billed as such, especially rapid in-the-field tests like the ones Musk claims to have used.
Further Reading
Elon Musk is dangerously wrong about the novel coronavirus (Verge)
Elon Musk’s Defiance in the Time of Coronavirus (WSJ)
There Is No Silver Bullet Coronavirus Test, But Here’s How Diagnostics Can Help (Forbes)