“The coronavirus panic is dumb.”  Elon Musk, March 6, 2020

           This statement was made by the man who today is believed to be the richest man in the world. Elon is reportedly worth more than four-hundred billion dollars. That’s a lot.

          A person must be pretty smart to amass that kind of fortune. He’s only fifty-three years old. He may reach a fortune of a trillion dollars by the time he’s sixty. And to think, he started out in life just another middle-class kid in South Africa.

Of course, he made his fortune in the land of opportunity: America. No wonder droves of people are trying to get in. A guy like Elon must be somebody other kids ought to pay attention to. Follow in his footsteps.

          His statement back in the early days of the pandemic, however, proves that kids should not believe everything Elon says just because he became a successful businessman.

          But maybe his “coronavirus” statement was not entirely untrue. Isn’t it better to keep a cool head in a crisis than to panic?

Probably.

But back then I had the impression that staying cool was not Elon’s point. My impression then was that he meant to tell us that it was dumb to take the measures government imposed to limit the impact of the coronavirus on public health. Measures like wearing a mask in public, having employees work from home if possible, and developing a vaccine.

Yup.

Elon equated dumb with taking science-based steps to guard the public against disease and death. Elon advocated that doing nothing at all was the best medicine.

          I say, “Elon, what you said in 2020? That was dumb.” Worldwide ten million people died from Covid 19 in just a couple of years. Over one million in the United States. A lot of people agreed with you then, and now a lot of them are dead.

          I wish you would admit it. I wish you would come out and say that you got it wrong that time. Do it on the record. Saying something like that today would help me to believe that, in addition to being a successful entrepreneur, you are a decent human being and a man of character. Someone I should listen to.

          Your businesses—X, Tesla, and SpaceX—all rely on science. You don’t just guess at how to put a rocket into orbit. That’s why they call it Rocket Science. You don’t guess at how to write code for a social platform.  That’s why they call it Computer Science. You don’t guess at how to design and engineer an electric self-driving car. That’s why they call it…well, I don’t know, but they don’t call it voodoo.

          So, shouldn’t we have paid attention to what the scientists and medical professionals said about responding to the coronavirus? Wasn’t it dumb to suggest injecting bleach into our veins would be a good cure? Can’t you admit today that you voiced a mistake back then?

I won’t hold my breath waiting for your contrition.

          Yesterday, you were up there on that indoor stage with a few of your fellow billionaires to witness first hand the swearing in of the first man to become the President of the United States of America who is also a convicted felon. You bore witness to a milestone in American history.

          Your attendance was your way of saying that voting for Donald Trump in 2024 was smart. Contributing a quarter of a billion dollars to his campaign was another way of saying the same thing.

You might be right this time. It will be great if this time you’re right.

          I admit I don’t think you’re right. I think you could not be more wrong.

You see, I remember the first Trump administration when there were even a few sensible people in his cabinet.

It wasn’t so great.

This time he’s appointing only know-nothings to run the government. People who will always do what they’re told no matter how insane, unfriendly, or illegal the order…for America or the world. The chances that life gets better, that problems get solved, and that the world finds a way forward toward peace and harmony seem pretty slim.

          I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.