On the podcast, Musk argued that instead of sweeping stay-at-home orders to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, “anyone who is at risk should be quarantined until the storm passes.”
When Swisher confronted Musk with the possibility that people would still die in the process, he replied bluntly: “Everybody dies.”
“The question is what, on balance, serves the greater good,” Musk continued, adding that the lockdowns did not accomplish that and the pandemic is a “no-win situation.”
If one of his workers told him that coming to work would put their family at risk, Musk said he would simply tell them to “stay home.”
He declined to elaborate on whether he would feel obliged to pay them. When Swisher pressed, Musk grew defensive, threatening to end the interview. “Let’s just move on…Kara, I do not want to get into a debate about Covid, this situation … If you want to end the podcast now, we can do it.”
“Elon’s positioning is to maintain a high level of outrageous comments,” Gates said. “He’s not much involved in vaccines. He makes a great electric car. And his rockets work well. So he’s allowed to say these things. I hope that he doesn’t confuse areas he’s not involved in too much.”
Musk responded on the podcast in his typically blunt manner: “It’s like, hey, knucklehead, we actually make the vaccine machines for CureVac, that company you’re invested in.”
It’s not the first time Musk has criticized the Microsoft co-founder.
