Elon Musk’s dangerous denialism
Having tried his hand at cave rescue, medical equipment and baby naming with questionable results, Tesla chief executive Elon Musk seems eager to return to the more workaday business of making cars. The only trouble is the global coronavirus pandemic for which all manner of nonessential workplaces — like, say, manufacturers of boutique electric automobiles — have obligingly suspended operations throughout the Bay Area and beyond.
But Musk isn’t the sort to be bound by such conventional notions as occupational safety, public health and the rule of law. After defying local officials early on, suing Alameda County and threatening to leave the state over the distancing measures that every responsible business is observing, Musk announced Monday that the company’s Fremont plant was restarting production in defiance of state and local orders. He did so with President Trump’s predictable support and despite the fact that county officials were working with him on a plan to reopen. “If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me,” he tweeted melodramatically.
But what Musk wants the world to see as brave iconoclasm is just ignorant solipsism. This is, after all, the same man who declared coronavirus concerns “dumb,” predicted “close to zero new cases” in the United States by the end of April and splashily promised to produce some of the ventilators needed for the sickest patients but by many accounts never quite delivered. He has also been credibly accused of safety lapses and union busting. So it’s not surprising that the billionaire would needlessly endanger the health of his employees, their families and the community for a few extra bucks.
Albeit painful for those lacking Musk’s means, the Bay Area’s nationleading shelterinplace orders appear to have spared the region an outbreak on the scale of New York’s or Italy’s. But while the spread of the contagion here has stabilized, it has yet to decline consistently; the number of new cases was rising statewide and in Alameda County as of last week, according to The Chronicle’s tracker. A closely watched University of Washington model recently increased projected deaths in the state over the next three months from 4,600 to more than 6,000.
Nor has the state come close to the testing and tracing capability needed to contain new infections when normal activities resume. Daily testing has increased in recent weeks but remains about half what the state deems necessary, while Alameda County is much further behind its target.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned a Senate committee Tuesday of the “really serious” health and economic consequences of returning to business as usual prematurely, noting that “there is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you might not be able to control ... leading to some suffering and death that could be avoided,” which “could even set you back on the road to trying to get economic recovery.”
Most Americans have the sense to follow the experts’ advice for the sake of our collective longterm health and prosperity despite often painful shortterm costs. Musk represents those who can’t be bothered with any concerns beyond their own.