Tesla Inc TSLA.O Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Thursday he took four coronavirus tests on the same day, with two showing positive results, while the other two were 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 said in a tweet, possibly referring to Becton Dickinson and Co's BDX.N rapid antigen test.
The Tesla CEO said he was also undergoing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests from separate labs whose results will take about 24 hours.
When asked by a Twitter user if he showed any symptoms, Musk said he had symptoms of a “typical cold”.
“Nothing unusual so far,” Musk added.
Becton Dickinson said in September it was investigating reports from U.S. nursing homes that its rapid coronavirus testing equipment was producing false-positive results.
Becton Dickinson did not respond to a request for comment late on Thursday.
Covid-19 vaccine
Pfizer on Monday said its experimental vaccine was more than 90 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19 based on initial data from a large study, a major victory in the fight against a pandemic that has killed over 1 million people, roiled the world’s economy and upended daily life.
Pfizer and German partner BioNTech SE are the first drugmakers to show successful data from a large-scale clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine. The companies said they have so far found no serious safety concerns and expect to seek US emergency use authorisation later this month.
If authorised, the number of vaccine doses will initially be limited. Many questions also remain including how long the vaccine will provide protection. However, the news provides hope that other vaccines in development against the novel coronavirus may also prove effective.
“Today is a great day for science and humanity,” Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement. “We are reaching this critical milestone in our vaccine development program at a time when the world needs it most with infection rates setting new records, hospitals nearing over-capacity and economies struggling to reopen.”
Pfizer expects to seek broad US emergency use authorisation of the vaccine for people aged 16 to 85. To do so, it will need to have collected two months of safety data on around half of the study’s roughly 44,000 participants, expected in late November.