Coronavirus fear is mind killer: Elon Musk

"Fear is the mind-killer," Musk tweeted.

Amid the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus which has killed nearly 5,000 people in the world, Musk appears to be dancing to his own tune, underplaying the danger from the threat time and again.

"Please tell your 32 million followers to listen to social distancing recommendations," reacted one Musk follower.

Another tweeted: "Hospitals are going to need help, they will be overwhelmed soon. Instead of this horse shit, help spread that message and mobilise resources for our healthcare workers who will desperately need them in coming days."

In a memo to SpaceX employees last week, Musk said that they were far less likely to die from COVID-19 than car crashes.

Musk added in the email that he does not think COVID-19 is "within the top 100 health risks in the United States".

In the US, over 1,600 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus have been reported, while more than 40 people have died due to the disease caused by the virus.

According to a report in The New York Times that cited an estimate by health officials, if the spread of the novel coronavirus is not contained soon, between 160 million and 214 million Americans may become infected in the worst case scenario.

This is not the first time Musk has underplayed the danger from COVID-19.

In a tweet last week, he said that "the coronavirus panic is dumb."

"Virality of CoV-19 is overstated due to conflating diagnosis date with contraction date & over-extrapolating exponential growth, which is never what happens in reality. Keep extrapolating & virus will exceed mass of known universe," the tech billionaire reasoned.

"Fatality rate also greatly overstated. Because there are so few test kits, those who die with respiratory symptoms are tested for C19, but those with minor symptoms are usually not. Prevalence of coronaviruses & other colds in general population is very high," Musk said.