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Coronavirus sceptic Elon Musk delivers over 1,000 ventilators to California hospital as cases rise alarmingly

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO had previously called the panic over the virus as dumb
PUBLISHED MAR 24, 2020
Getty Images
Getty Images

Once coronavirus skeptic Elon Musk has now delivered over 1,000 ventilators to a California hospital as infected cases rise at an alrming rate in the US. He also posted on Twitter that he could use his Tesla factory to produce more ventilators to help with the treatment of patients with COVID-19 and said he had a discussion with Medtronic about state-of-the-art ventilators.

“We’re working on ventilators, even though I think there will not be a shortage by the time we can make enough to matter,” replied the 48-year-old to a tweet, suggesting that he could engage his Tesla Gigafactory to produce more ventilators.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO has previously said that the ‘coronavirus panic is dumb’. Musk also claimed that people are more likely to die in a car crash than die because of coronavirus, and stated that COVID-19 is not "within the top 100 health risks in the United States,” from the evidence that he had come across so far.

For obvious reasons, his statements were not taken lightly and several people slammed him online. “I mean, you're a billionaire, so the odds of you catching it are very slim — you can just send us peasants out to run errands for you,” one person tweeted backlashing the billionaire entrepreneur.

“This was false, irresponsible & outright dangerous, especially with your platform. Please delete this tweet, apologize & instead put out truthful helpful information. Thanks,” wrote another.

However, with this new development, Musk has garnered a lot of praise as California Governor Gavin Newsom, who also announced the arrival of the donated ventilators, called his work a 'heroic effort'.

“I told you a few days ago that [Musk] was likely to have 1,000 ventilators this week. They arrived in Los Angeles and Elon Musk is already working with the hospital association and others to get those ventilators out in real-time. It's a heroic effort,” Newsom said during a press conference.

He also added that six California companies have offered to help during the pandemic by making medical gowns. The governor said that he had a word with 25 other companies that want to start making 3D printing masks for healthcare workers.

According to the WHO, COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. It further says that most infected people will develop mild to moderate symptoms and recover without requiring special treatment. However, people who are already dealing with medical conditions and those aged over 60 have a higher risk of developing severe disease, which could result in death.

The new coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and the disease caused by it, COVID-19, was soon declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020, by WHO as it spreads in several countries around the world. The USA has now the third highest confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the world with over a hundred deaths and more than 40,000 positive cases.

RELATED TOPICS CALIFORNIA NEWS LOS ANGELES (LA) NEWS ELON MUSK
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