Elon Musk raises alarm after his surprising results from 4 COVID tests

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called shenanigans after taking four rapid antigen tests for COVID-19, of which two came up positive and two negative.

“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,” Musk tweeted.

He then said he was getting RT-PCR tests from separate labs, with results to come in about 24 hours.

Rapid antigen tests have been known to have accuracy issues. For patients who have a low viral load, they may not consistently yield a positive result. While the tests used in the US have a higher sensitivity than those in India, there is still a risk of false positives. The FDA had noted that it was aware of the problem of false positives and issued an advisory to healthcare workers for making proper diagnoses.

Musk, however, went on to question the accuracy of the US’s record coronavirus figures. One user tweeted asking him whether this was why the US had been seeing such a major spike of late, to which Musk replied, “If it’s happening to me, it’s happening to others. I’m getting PCR tests from separate labs. Results will take about 24 hours.”

Musk added that he was experiencing symptoms of a major cold with “nothing unusual so far”. He appeared to agree with one user suggesting that there could be consistent revenues from administering rapid antigen tests.

As with anything Musk says or does, his tweet sparked a round of memes about his test results.