Elon Musk Has a Lot to Say About the Covid Vaccine — But Did He Get It?

Billionaire Elon Musk has voiced his opinions on COVID-19 and the vaccines, such as those manufactured by Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. Although some of his statements have been conflicting, he’s shown concern involving the topic.

Musk is notorious for voicing his opinions on Twitter, where he’ll tweet his opinions to more than 59 million followers. His online presence can be influential on others, though he admits he often doesn't give much thought to what he says. He even admitted that he’ll “sometimes say or post strange things, but that’s just how my body works.” Whether it’s been negative or positive criticism, Musk has consistently not shied away from the feedback.

Musk’s opinions relating back to Covid-19 can be dated back to March of 2020, where he tweeted that antimalarial drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine could possibly be worth considering to treat the coronavirus. A few days after that tweet, he estimated that there would be nearly zero new cases of the virus by the end of April of last year.

When the U.S. reached the end of last year’s April with far more than zero new cases, Musk would tweet “FREE AMERICA NOW” in response to the shutdown that was still occurring. Among other displeasures he had relating back to Covid-19, were that is was dumb, and kids are basically immune to it. Even though there’s been evidence to refute the tweets previously mentioned, he hasn’t deleted them.

Going against California’s lockdown rules in May of 2020, Elon Musk opened back up his Tesla factory, saying workers did not have to return to work if they did not feel comfortable doing so. However, there were multiple Tesla employees who said that they received termination notices according to the Washington Post. At the time, cases of the coronavirus were spiking in California, but Musk continued factory operations regardless.

January of 2021 is when it seems Musk changed his views o simply just wanted to support coronavirus research and vaccine development. In an interest to learn more about vaccine development, Musk’s charitable foundation, The Musk Foundation, donated $5 million to two Boston researchers, according to the Boston Business Journal. Dr. Dan Barouch and Dr. Galit Alter were both credited with creating a coronavirus vaccine and diagnostic tool. In February, Musk and his SpaceX company worked with doctors and academic researchers to monitor how antibodies can develop towards the coronavirus. SpaceX had more than 4,000 employees volunteer for research, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In an interview with the New York Times in September of 2020, Musk said that he and his family won’t get a vaccine. Since then, he has yet to publicly say whether he's done otherwise. In early April 2021 Musk expressed his support for Covid vaccines and vaccines in general, expressing that the “science is unequivocal,"but did not indicate whether he had received the shots.