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Elon Musk is acting like a ‘Space Karen’, says scientist in hilarious Twitter tirade

The billionaire inventor made some silly, entitled statements -- and the internet took note.

by Tibi Puiu
November 17, 2020
in News, Tech
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On Friday, Elon Musk tweeted he tested twice positive and twice negative for COVID-19 after taking four different rapid tests. “Something extremely bogus is going,” he started his tweet, which caused a lot of people who actually know how these tests work to shake their heads. This wasn’t the first time the SpaceX chief executive has made coronavirus-skeptic statements, and an academic was quick to point out why Musk was not only in the wrong, but also that he was essentially behaving like a ‘Space Karen’.

Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse. Rapid antigen test from BD.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 13, 2020

In a twitter reply, Emma Bell, a bioinformatics postdoc from Canada, lectured Musk on what rapid antigen tests are supposed to work like, explaining that his results aren’t unusual. She also quickly quipped that Musk is basically the ‘space Karen’ of the internet. ‘Karen’ is a pejorative slang term for an angry, entitled, sometimes racist white suburban woman who likes to be the center of attention and often blows a misunderstanding out of proportion.

Rapid antigen tests trade sensitivity for speed. They return a result in <30 minutes, but can only detect COVID-19 when you're absolutely riddled with it. What's bogus is that Space Karen didn't read up on the test before complaining to his millions of followers. pic.twitter.com/a1Snfpm03h

— Emma Bell PhD (@emmabell42) November 14, 2020

Of course, the internet took over and had a blast. For instance, Karens are often depicted in memes by stock photos of white women with bob haircuts, which was hilariously photoshopped over Musk’s mug.

I will never not laugh at Space Karen https://t.co/InvR5sTRMy pic.twitter.com/92vQfIyzHi

— dan hett (@danhett) November 16, 2020

The academic who called Elon Musk ‘Space Karen’ won Monday for me.

— Zamandlovu Ndlovu (@Ms_ZamaNdlovu) November 16, 2020

I’m going back to bed as nothing I write today will better ‘Space Karen’. https://t.co/mbMYB4CKQ4

— Danielle Ward (@captainward) November 16, 2020

Rapid antigen tests look for fragments of coronavirus protein and typically give up a result in under half an hour. They’re also cheap, which makes them great tools for monitoring outbreaks in large groups of people. However, what convenience is traded for accuracy.

After he took his four antigen tests, Musk said he got the much more reliable P.C.R-based tests, which are considered the gold standard in infectious disease. But the billionaire still didn’t stop posting Karen like posts.

Am getting wildly different results from different labs, but most likely I have a moderate case of covid. My symptoms are that of a minor cold, which is no surprise, since a coronavirus is a type of cold.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 14, 2020

There are four coronaviruses that are known to cause the common cold. These are 229E, NL63, OC43, and HKU1, which usually cause mild to moderate upper-respiratory tract illnesses. But these are only four out of 200 or so different viruses that cause the common cold, most of which are rhinoviruses, a totally different class of patogen. The huge diversity of viruses is one of the reasons why we don’t have a universal vaccine yet for the common cold.

Musk’s reluctance to take this pandemic seriously isn’t surprising or new. In March, Musk tweeted to his 30-million followers that “My guess is that the panic will cause more harm than the virus.” Two months later he threatened to move his Tesla factory out of California when the company was ordered to shut it down due to the health crisis. 

Tags: coronavirusCOVID-19elon musk

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