Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, Musk received criticism for his actions and public remarks.
He propagated false information about the virus and made claims that COVID-19 death statistics were inflated, as well as promoting a widely debunked paper on the advantages of chloroquine.
Musk said, "The coronavirus panic is dumb," in March 2020.
Musk described COVID-19 as a "specific form of the common cold" in an email to Tesla employees and estimated that the proportion of confirmed cases in the US population would not exceed 0.1%.
Musk stated that there would "probably be close to zero new cases in [the United States] by end of April" on March 19, 2020.
Politico labeled this statement one of "the most audacious, confident, and spectacularly incorrect prognostications of 2020". Musk also claimed falsely that children "are essentially immune" to COVID-19.
Musk condemned COVID-19 lockdowns and initially refused to close the Tesla Fremont Factory in March 2020, defying the local shelter-in-place order.
In May 2020, he reopened the Tesla factory, defying the local stay-at-home order and warned workers that they would be unpaid, and their unemployment benefits might be jeopardized, if they did not report to work.
In March 2020, Musk promised that Tesla would make ventilators for COVID-19 patients if there were a shortage. After figures like New York City mayor Bill de Blasio responded to Musk's offer Musk offered to donate ventilators which Tesla would build or buy from a third party.
However, Musk ended up buying and donating BiPAP and CPAP machines, which are non-invasive ventilators, rather than the much more expensive and sought-after invasive mechanical ventilator machines.