Lots of examples. And I’m not just talking about his general opinions on government response, but actual misinterpretations and misstatements of data that were straight-up wrong.
It was also a clear breaking point between Elon and local and state government in California over how local restrictions were going to affect Tesla’s factory in Fremont.
2. Kids essentially immune but elderly with existing conditions vulnerable, so family gatherings with close contact are risky. (https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1240758710646878208) ... seems correct?
3. He said "the coronavirus panic is dumb". (perhaps downplaying it too much, but in 2024 I think most people would say that the societal response such as not being allowed to go to a beach or park was absurd)
4. He wanted to keep factories open and for people to be allowed outside their homes. (similar to 3)
5. He posted: "Yes, reopen with care & appropriate protection, but don’t put everyone under de facto house arrest" (https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1255386895145672705) ... which also seems reasonable.
Did I miss anything or were his posts relatively uncontroversial with the benefit of hindsight? Personally, I was more concerned about covid than he was at the time, but I would say that his approach to it was more reasonable.
> That they will probably get to 0 cases. (he was wrong, but this prediction was made fairly early on when the data looked like this:
This was an incorrect interpretation of data that did not account for reporting lag in case numbers, which were actually increasing. It was a bad statement, a bad interpretation of data, and poor judgement to post it.
"Kids are essentially immune" and "Kids seem to be less affected" are two different statements. There are thousands of child deaths associated with COVID-19.
In March of 2020 we had very little characterization of this virus and its effects. Whether predictions were mostly right or mostly wrong, I think a prominent public figure making definitive statements about probably trending to zero or kids being "immune" was irresponsible. If nothing else, to me it makes him look dumb considering how much he downplayed the impact of the virus itself, how much he vilified the 'panic', and how many millions of deaths followed those statements.
> He wanted to keep factories open and for people to be allowed outside their homes.
Most people (in the US at least) were not trapped in their homes, that is an exaggeration. He wanted his factory to be kept open. I'm not sure whether he was right or wrong on that, but given that his opinions were based on at least some bad interpretations of data from above I don't think it was well considered. Basically all of his statements on COVID seem to correlate with a personal motivation to keep his factory and business running, rather than a consideration of actual public health impacts.
Anyway, my point above was not really to legislate what he was and was not correct about. My point was to highlight that his public "turn" into making strong political statements and clashing with government administration was not a new thing that started recently during the Biden administration. Right or wrong he very much clashed with the government response to COVID in 2020 and there's a fairly direct line you can draw between that clash and many of his current statements and positions.
