Elon Musk Says He Tested Positive For Covid-19

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who railed against public health efforts to curb the spread of Covid-19 earlier this year, appears to have tested positive for it and is experiencing cold-like symptoms. 

Musk said via Twitter that he had four rapid antigen tests on Thursday. “Two came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse.” To confirm the diagnosis he said he’s also getting more thorough “PCR” tests from separate labs and would have those results in about a day.

His symptoms are that of “a typical cold. Nothing unusual so far.” 

“Mild sniffles & cough & slight fever past few days. Right now, no symptoms, although I did take NyQuil,” he tweeted.

Musk early this year posted tweets that appeared to downplay the severity of the coronavirus and ranted about “fascist” efforts by public officials in the San Francisco Bay Area to restrict production at his Tesla

TSLA
plant in Fremont, California, during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in April. Workers at the plant were allowed to return to assembly shifts in May. 

At the same time, even as Covid-19 cases stayed high, his wealth soared this year as the spike in Tesla’s share price and the company’s quarterly results helped him qualify for massive stock payouts worth billions of dollars. His current net worth is about $91 billion as of Friday. 

Tesla shares fell 1.5% to $405.50 in early trading Friday.

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