Elon Musk underplays coronavirus threat, tells employees that car crashes are more dangerous – The Verge

Elon Musk sent a memo to SpaceX staff on Friday underplaying the dangers of COVID-19, the illness induced by the unconventional coronavirus, which is now regarded as an outbreak, per a epic from BuzzFeed News.

Musk’s electronic mail, sent earlier at the moment time, beneficial staff of the home transport company that they have been a ways extra seemingly to die from a automobile crash than COVID-19, the disease induced by the unconventional coronavirus. He moreover stated that, per the proof he had viewed about COVID-19, he doesn’t judge it’s “within the head 100 effectively being dangers in the United States.” The email follows a tweet Musk sent last week saying “the coronavirus awe is unimaginative.” SpaceX did no longer straight answer to a ask for affirm.

Musk’s views on the unconventional coronavirus pandemic are contradicted by the US Facilities for Illness Withhold watch over and Prevention (CDC) and the World Neatly being Organization (WHO), the latter of which declared the coronavirus an outbreak earlier this week. As BuzzFeed notes, automobile crashes are moreover no longer a viral infection that can unfold exponentially, and effectively being experts quoted in the epic reveal Musk’s comments are each disingenuous and risky.

Neatly being officers estimate that, in a worst-case scenario, between 160 million and 214 million American citizens might perchance well perchance merely became contaminated with COVID-19 if the disease is no longer adequately contained in the approaching weeks and months, The Original York Cases reviews. Of these contaminated, as many as 1.7 million might perchance well perchance merely die.

Moreover, hundreds of hundreds of of us might perchance well perchance merely require hospitalization to take care of COVID-19, a scenario that might perchance well perchance merely weigh down the nation’s effectively being care and clinical treatment programs. Appropriate now, the CDC says there are 1,629 confirmed instances of the unconventional coronavirus and 41 deaths in the US. But due to an absence of checking out, the quantity of instances in the US is seemingly to be a ways elevated.

Musk’s statements relating to COVID-19 arrive at a time when the auto industry, fancy many other sectors of the US economic system, has begun restricting operations to abet minimize the unfold of the virus. Ford, General Motors, and Fiat Chrysler have all started instructing non-manufacturing unit staff in the US to produce cash working from home, and automakers are brooding about the chance of manufacturing unit shutdowns in due direction because the virus continues to unfold and Chinese offer chain disruptions extra complicate automobile production.

Tesla, Musk’s other company, did no longer answer to a ask for affirm relating to its a ways off work policies per the pandemic. But per a leaked memo obtained by Replace Insider, Tesla did train staff to self-quarantine in the event that they lately returned from journey to Italy, China, South Korea, Iran, Malaysia, Singapore, or Thailand.