Elon Musk's Anti-Lockdown Tweets Follow Weeks Of His Unsubstantiated Claims

This isn’t the first time the SpaceX CEO has downplayed the risk of the coronavirus.

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Elon Musk sent a series of tweets denouncing lockdown measures in the U.S. that were implemented to curb the spread of coronavirus. Since the virus began spreading in the U.S., infecting more than 1 million people, the billionaire has promoted conspiracies, touted unsubstantiated claims, and downplayed its risk.

On Tuesday night, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO sent a tweet saying "FREE AMERICA NOW," and another saying, "Give people their freedom back!" in support of a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that used data to analyze whether statewide shutdowns around the country effectively reduced death tolls. While most U.S. states have been under stay-at-home orders since March, more than a dozen states have started or announced plans to reopen, against public health experts’ advice and wider public opinion.

In another tweet, Musk praised Texas’ plan to reopen some nonessential businesses as early as Friday.

On Wednesday, Musk also replied "true" to a user with 250,000 followers whose bio includes "Trumpublican" who tweeted, "The scariest thing about this pandemic is not the virus itself, it’s seeing American so easily bow down & give up their blood bought freedom to corrupt politicians who promise them safety."

This isn’t the first time Musk has promoted incorrect information or conspiracies regarding the virus and downplayed its risk. 

On March 19th, he tweeted that the U.S. would have "probably close to zero" new cases by the end of April, and incorrectly claimed that “kids are essentially immune” from the virus. Musk has also promoted use of the drug chloroquine for COVID-19, which along with hydroxychloroquine, has only anecdotal supporting evidence. The Food & Drug Administration last week warned against using either drug to treat COVID-19 outside of hospitals or clinical trials.

Musk also said at the end of March that he would use his companies’ factories to manufacture hundreds of ventilators to send to New York and California hospitals. But after the California governor's Office of Emergency Services told CNN that hospitals never received the ventilators that Musk claimed he sent, the CEO tweeted that he was surprised "CNN still exists" and then tagged Gov. Gavin Newsom to "fix the misunderstanding." When questioned about the claim at a press conference, Newsom responded, “I was not personally aware of that list.

CNN contacted 10 of the hospitals on Musk’s list about whether they’d received his ventilators. Of the four that responded, all said they’d received bilevel positive airway pressure (biPAP) or continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines, which can aid breathing and be used for sleep apnea. None had received ventilators.