He’s among the leading COVID-19 skeptics and has repeatedly attacked the tests, but now Tesla CEO Elon Musk “most likely” has the virus.
“Am getting wildly different results from different labs, but most likely I have a moderate case of COVID,” he wrote Saturday on Twitter. “My symptoms are that of a minor cold, which is no surprise, since a coronavirus is a type of cold.”
He did not mention whether the results were from polymerase chain reaction tests, which are more accurate than rapid tests.
Musk said as recently as Sept. 30 that he’s not interested in any future vaccine, appearing on a New York Times podcast, “I’m not at risk for COVID, nor are my kids.”
Musk had some confusion on Thursday when he reported two positives as well as two negatives from the rapid antigen tests, manufactured by Becton, Dickson, and Company (BD). His most recent positive result, however, is from a more precise test, he said.
“A little up & down. Feels just like a regular cold, but more body achy & cloudy head than coughing/sneezing,” Musk wrote in reply to a user asking about symptoms.
The news will cost him his attendance at a big event Sunday evening. Four NASA astronauts will head into orbit aboard his SpaceX spacecraft. This will be the company’s first operational human spaceflight for NASA. Musk won’t be allowed at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., for the launch.
“NASA and our commercial partners have a health stabilization plan in place,” Steve Stich, a NASA program manager said Friday during a news conference. “If they’re compromised, that can jeopardize the mission.”
The astronauts are slated to spend six months in space, which would also make the mission the longest spaceflight ever to launch from the U.S.
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