Elon Musk says we're going to have 'more vaccines than we can possibly use'
- Elon Musk said in an interview with the CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, that there will be so many COVID-19 vaccines "we will not know what to do with them."
- Musk has a mild case of coronavirus in November and missed a Space X launch.
- He's also come under fire for tweeting claims about the coronavirus that are disputed by experts.
In an interview published Saturday, Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner asked Elon Musk about his outlook for summer 2021.
"We're going to have so many vaccines, we will not know what to do with them. More vaccines than we can possibly use" Musk told Döpfner.
So far, three different vaccines have shown promising results. In November, Pfizer was the first to announce that its vaccine successfully prevented COVID-19 in clinical trials, and the company has filed for emergency FDA authorization, which could be granted as early as December 10. Moderna and AstraZeneca are also following this process.
On December 10, a meeting of the FDA advisory committee will be streamed, and the committee will make a recommendation regarding the vaccine. It could be authorized as early as that day, with the first doses distributed 24 to 48 hours later.
In November, Musk tweeted that he likely had a "moderate case of covid," with cold symptoms, and he had to miss his company SpaceX's big November 15 launch. Before his COVID-19 diagnosis, Musk spent months tweeting skeptically about the virus. "The coronavirus panic is dumb," he tweeted on March 6. He predicted that the US would see "close to zero new cases" by April, and has asserted that the virus isn't deadly and children are "essentially immune."
During the interview, Döpfner asked Musk if any of his views on the coronavirus had changed since having it himself. "No, honestly," he answered.
Earlier this year, Musk told journalist Kara Swisher that he and his family would not get the vaccine once one was available. On the podcast, he said that he felt he was "not at risk for COVID, nor are my kids." Musk has instead advocated for a "natural" path to herd immunity, rather than lockdowns. More recently in the Döpfner interview, Musk said that because "vaccine technology got turbocharged," it could lead to potential cures for cancer.