Tesla CEO Elon Musk Says He ‘Supposedly’ Has COVID Again – CNET [CNET]

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Monday said he has apparently contracted COVID-19, but has “almost no symptoms.” This is the second time Musk has reported a bout of the disease: In in November 2020, he said he had tested positive.

“COVID-19 is the virus of Theseus. How many gene changes before it’s not COVID-19 anymore?” Musk tweeted, likening the coronavirus mutations to the Ship of Theseus, a thought experiment examining whether an object that’s had all of its components replaced remains fundamentally the same object.

The COVID-19 virus has mutated multiple times since it originated in 2019, but vaccines such as those from Pfizer and Moderna have proven highly effective at preventing transmission and reducing the effects of the disease, including hospitalization and death. Still, it remains dangerous for immunocompromised and other high-risk people. Most recently, scientists have noted the spread of the BA.2 variant, a more transmissible version of the omicron variant that doesn’t seem to cause more severe symptoms.  

Musk’s Monday tweet didn’t specify whether he had done a COVID test, but suggested he might be experiencing some mild and unspecified COVID-19 symptoms. As of December, the top five symptoms reported by COVID symptom tracking app Zoe included runny nose, headache, fatigue, sneezing and sore throat.