Billionaire businessman and "X" (formerly known as Twitter) owner Elon Musk is speaking out about government vaccine mandates and companies that forced employees to take the COVID-19 vaccine or be fired. Musk, who oversees approximately 140,000 employees at Telsa, SpaceX and X, is staunchly against the practice.
Writing on his social media platform, where he has 158 million followers, Musk detailed the lengths he would go to avoid forcing his employees to undergo a medical procedure they do not want.
"My concern was more the outrageous demand that people *must* take the vaccine and multiple boosters to do anything at all. That was messed up," Musk wrote on X. "Until the Supreme Court invalidated Biden's exec order, SpaceX and many other companies would have been forced to fire anyone who refused to get vaccinated! We would not have done so. I would rather go to prison than fire good people who didn't want to be jabbed."
He continued by explaining his own status and complications from the COVID-19 vaccine while touting vaccines for other, more serious diseases.
"As for myself, I got original Covid before the vaccine was out (mild cold symptoms) and had to get three vaccines for travel. The third shot almost sent me to hospital," Musk said. "It's not like I don't believe in vaccines – I do. However, the cure cannot be potentially worse than the disease. And public debate over efficacy should not be shut down. There is also great potential for curing many diseases using synthetic mRNA, so let's not throw the baby out with the bath water."
My concern was more the outrageous demand that people *must* take the vaccine and multiple boosters to do anything at all. That was messed up.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 26, 2023
Until the Supreme Court invalidated Biden’s exec order, SpaceX and many other companies would have been forced to fire anyone who…
In September 2021, President Joe Biden announced an executive order forcing private companies across the country, through OSHA enforcement, to fire unvaccinated employees. The mandate was eventually struck down by the Supreme Court.
"On November 12, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a motion to stay OSHA's COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing Emergency Temporary Standard, published on November 5, 2021 (86 Fed. Reg. 61402) ("ETS"). The court ordered that OSHA 'take no steps to implement or enforce' the ETS 'until further court order,'" the OSHA website stated when the mandate was repealed. "While OSHA remains confident in its authority to protect workers in emergencies, OSHA has suspended activities related to the implementation and enforcement of the ETS pending future developments in the litigation."