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Elon Musk Attacks ‘Bogus’ COVID-19 Testing After Receiving Mixed Results, Downplaying Risks

Elon Musk said something “seriously bogus” was happening after he took four COVID-19 tests in a single day recently but got two positive and two negative results. The SpaceX CEO said he used the rapid response tests, the same nurse, and the same machine, yet got different results.

The CDC warns against taking multiple rapid antigen tests in a day as it increases the likelihood of false positives. Musk said he also took a more reliable PCR test, but those results won’t be back for 24 hours.

Musk theorized the rise in cases in the United States could be linked to faulty tests.

Musk tweeted Friday he had “symptoms of a typical cold. Nothing unusual so far.”

The United States has had more than 242,000 deaths from COVID-19, The New York Times reports. More than 10.6 million people in the country have been infected. That’s an increase of more than 72 percent over the past two weeks.

More than 1.2 million people across the world have died.

Elon Musk Continues to Downplay COVID-19

Much of Elon Musk’s identity as a public intellectual has been undone by his stance on COVID-19. The billionaire entrepreneur has downplayed COVID-19’s lethality and spread in the past, and he’s called government-imposed public health restrictions “dumb,” anti-American and “fascist.”

“People are going to be very angry about this, and are very angry. If someone wants to stay in their house they should be able to. But to say they have to stay in their house and they cannot leave. This is fascist. It’s not democratic,” he told analysts during an earnings report call in April, according to The Telegraph.

He also backed using hydroxychloroquine to treat the virus even after research said it was likely ineffective. The Vanderbilt University Medical Center said the drug is dangerous and ineffective to use in COVID-19 treatments.

He hypothesized the virus would be gone by the end of April in the United States.

He recently told the New York Times “Sway” podcast that he wouldn’t get a vaccine should one become available.

“I’m not a risk for Covid, nor are my kids,” he told reporter Kara Swisher. Now, it seems the tech genius may be positive with the highly contagious virus.