Elon Musk Not to Get COVID-19 Vaccine When Available; Tesla CEO Says, 'I'm Not at Risk for COVID'

New York, September 29: Even as the world eagerly waits for a Covid-19 vaccine, tech billionaire Elon Musk has said that he would not take one when it becomes available. In an interview on the New York Times' podcast "Sway" published on Monday, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO slammed the widespread restrictions imposed across the country to deal with the pandemic.

When podcast host Kara Swisher asked "Will you get a vaccine? What will you do with your own family?" Musk said, "No, I'm not at risk for COVID. Nor are my kids." He said that it was a huge mistake to impose sweeping lockdowns. "I mean this is a hot button issue where rationality takes a back seat. In the grand scheme of things what we have is something with a very low mortality rate and high contagion," he said. Elon Musk Tweets 'Coronavirus panic is dumb', Gets Slammed by Netizens.

"Essentially the right thing to do would be to not have done a lockdown for the whole country but to have anyone who is at risk quarantine until the storm passes," he added. Talking about the public response to the pandemic, Musk said that his faith in humanity diminished due to the "irrationality of people in general."

Covid-19 has killed over one million people in the world so far, while the US is the worst hit country where over 200,000 people have died due to the pandemic. Musk has been critical of harsh restrictions on the movement of people from the very beginning.

He himself has been working as normal. His company SpaceX even achieved a major milestone when it sent NASA astronauts to the International Space Station and back amid the pandemic. Musk also defended the opening of a Tesla factory in California in defiance of the local lockdown rules.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 29, 2020 03:36 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).