Elon Musk shares results of his COVID-19 tests, says 'something extremely bogus is going on'

Elon Musk said he is awaiting results from PCR tests for the novel coronavirus from separate labs, which will take 24 hours.

Moneycontrol News

November 13, 2020 / 15:06 IST

Tesla Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk on November 13 shared results of his COVID-19 tests, and said "something extremely bogus is going on".

In a tweet, Musk said he tested positive on two rapid antigen tests, but tested negative on two other tests.

In a later tweet, Musk said he had symptoms of a typical cold, and "nothing unusual so far".

The Tesla CEO said he is awaiting results from PCR tests for the novel coronavirus from separate labs, which will take 24 hours.

Some research has suggested that rapid antigen tests are less sensitive than RT-PCR tests while detecting the coronavirus.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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