“Space Karen” confirmed he had COVID-19 Tuesday while receiving an award (at a mostly mask-less in-person event) for a lifetime of accomplishments.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, was in Berlin as the recipient for this year’s Axel Springer Award from the German publisher. After a heavy-handed introduction that praised Musk as “a visionary” and a “man who never gives up,” Musk took to the stage to talk about his Martian aspirations, expectations for full autonomy available in Tesla cars in one year, and how his love for techno music might have factored into selecting the Berlin area for Tesla’s next car factory.
At the award ceremony he also confirmed that he had contracted COVID-19. Last month he had tweeted that he had tested both positive and negative for the respiratory disease. He called the testing process “extremely bogus.”
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2020
On Tuesday when a ceremony speaker noted that Musk doesn’t plan to get a forthcoming COVID-19 vaccine, Musk shouted from his seat in the audience that he’d already had it. In defending his decision to avoid inoculation, he squashed speculation that his symptoms he tweeted about back in November were just the common cold. Musk indeed had COVID-19.
By avoiding getting vaccinated because he already had coronavirus, Musk is taking a strong, critical stance while there are many unknowns about the coronavirus and immunity. Immunity in COVID-19 survivors is under-researched, and there are tons of questions about how long immunity even lasts. It’s not a sure thing that someone like Musk should skip out on a vaccine. For now, the CDC isn’t commenting on whether someone who recovered from COVID-19 should get a vaccine or not because of all the unknowns and limited research.
From defying local restrictions to keep his car factory running back in May to becoming a “Space Karen” while tweeting about COVID-19 and antibody testing, Musk has been stirring up pandemic misinformation. He mostly uses Twitter to spew his thoughts on the disease, how it’s spread, and testing.
Now that he’s had the disease, it doesn’t seem like he’s taking care with his COVID-19 comments any more than he did before.