Elon Musk thinks 'coronavirus panic is dumb', Twitterati blasts billionaire for 'irresponsible' tweet
The coronavirus outbreak is worrying a lot of people across the world, but Elon Musk certainly isn't one of them. He's made his feelings about the panic regarding the quickly spreading virus quite clear with a Twitter post declaring, "The coronavirus panic is dumb."
The tweet has over a million likes and over 220 thousand retweets. There are a lot of people who are in agreement with Musk's statements, believing that the worry about the virus has gotten out of hand, especially when considering the higher fatality rates of other well-known epidemics.
A lot of his engagement, however, is from Twitter users who believe that Musk is speaking from a position of privilege, as his billionaire status puts him at relatively low risk of the virus causing him serious harm.
"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," replied one user. "Yes, we can all hop on our private jets and isolate ourselves on private islands. Don’t talk down to us simpletons ok!!" wrote another.
There are some, like one user, who believes that Elon Musk's tweet is actively dangerous given how far and wide his influence is, writing, "This was false, irresponsible & outright dangerous; especially with your platform. Please delete this tweet, apologize & instead put out truthful helpful information. Thanks."
According to the reports, Tesla's stock has fallen more than 20% since the news of the coronavirus broke, which has had a major impact on the stock market as a whole.
Musk has, in the past, generated controversy with his policy that his workers are not given sick days, so they can instead focus on "the mission". Given his stance on the coronavirus, it's likely that his 48,000+ employees will not be expecting sick leave to keep the virus isolated.