Elon Musk attacks CNN over his ventilator fiasco. Why won’t Gov. Gavin Newsom clarify?
Tesla founder Elon Musk took to Twitter early Thursday morning to attack CNN for repeating a Sacramento Bee Editorial Board report that he never delivered the ventilators he promised to California.
“@GavinNewsom, please fix this misunderstanding,” tweeted Musk to his 33 million followers. He also jabbed at CNN with insults, behaving a lot like another famous tweeter who likes to attack the free press. In addition, Musk tweeted a link to a photo that appears to show hospital staffers in South Los Angeles thanking him for a gift of “medical devices.” But there’s no proof that those devices are the “ventilators” in question.
To recap: Last month, Gov. Newsom announced Musk’s alleged plans to donate over 1,000 ventilators to California. At the time, California was desperately searching for such devices. “Invasive” ventilators are often necessary to save the lives of the most critical COVID-19 patients. On March 23, Gov. Newsom announced that the ventilators had arrived in Los Angeles, a detail faithfully reported by the news media.
But – three weeks later – the governor’s office said that wasn’t true. A Newsom spokesman said Musk hadn’t actually delivered any ventilators as far as anyone in the governor’s office knew. The spokesman stressed that the state had never included Musk’s donation in California’s official ventilator tally. Instead, he said, Musk was supposed to deliver the ventilators directly to hospitals.
Of course, Newsom didn’t say any of that when he announced Musk’s supposed ventilator gift. Instead, he made it sound like he got on the horn with Musk and hooked up over 1,255 free ventilators. At the time, Newsom called Musk’s actions “heroic.”
Opinion
Two days after The Bee Editorial Board reported on Musk’s ventilator fiasco – and one day after the Associated Press also reported it – Musk is protested on Twitter and demanded a positive response from the governor. But if Musk really wanted to clear the air, why didn’t his press office respond to questions from The Bee or the AP? The best time to clear up a “misunderstanding” is before it gets published, but Musk’s office made zero effort.
Musk’s office also did not respond to reporters from the venerable Financial Times newspaper in London. On April 2, the FT reported that Musk had apparently purchased and shipped the wrong type of medical device to hospitals in New York. Musk, the FT said, had actually purchased Bilevel Positive Airway Pressure (BPAP) machines, which he plastered with Tesla stickers and shipped to New York. The paper identified the devices as a discontinued BPAP model known as the ResMed S9 Elite. Even worse, according to the FT: “The American Society of Anesthesiologists on Feb. 23 issued guidance warning that CPAP and BPAP machines ‘may increase the risk of infectious transmission.’”
A real ventilator can cost up to $50,000, according to the FT. The machines Musk supplied cost around $800. On April 7, the FT wrote that Musk now appears to have delivered at least one “invasive” ventilator to New York.
In the blurry photo Musk shared of South LA hospital staffers thanking him for the “medical devices,” the ResMed logo seems apparent on the Tesla-stamped boxes. Are these the same BPAP machines he sent to New York, and which are not the actual “ventilators” needed to help critical COVID-19 patients? A press release from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital in LA indicates that the devices are more like BPAP machines, not ventilators.
If so, it would appear that the only “misunderstanding” here is that Elon Musk doesn’t know the difference between a real ventilator and a BPAP machine – and that Gov. Newsom thought Musk’s promise meant more than it did.
During his daily press conference on Thursday, Newsom was asked about Musk’s tweet demanding clarity. The governor performed a cowardly dodge, refusing to say whether the state had received “ventilators.” Instead, he thanked Musk for providing “resources” – after days of telling reporters the state had not received any. So, were they real ventilators or BPAP machines?
Neither Tesla nor Gov. Newsom’s office responded to requests for clarification.
Editor’s note: This editorial has been updated to reflect Gov. Newsom’s comments at his daily press conference.
