As of May 11, Elon Musk has gained the right to reopen Tesla with minimum operation. On March 16, Alameda County ordered a countywide lockdown, requiring people to stay at home and closing all non-essential businesses, Tesla being one of them.  Tesla continued operations at its factory in Fremont until March 23^rd when it was forced to stop by Alameda County Health officials.   Since then, Musk has been very vocal against the lockdown, frequently tweeting messages such as “Give people the freedom back!” and “The coronavirus panic is dumb”.Musk also tweeted controversial information regarding the coronavirus itself, including promotion of the malaria medication chloroquine for treating COVID-19(Also promoted by President Trump), which has been proven to be ineffective.

However, after the county extended the lockdown through the end of May, forcing Tesla to call off their plans to reopen on May 4^th, the tesla executive escalated the intensity of his tweets,  going on rants claiming the lockdown is “de facto house  arrest”, and demanding to “give people back their FREEDOM”. Musk  also sued Alameda county to attempt to gain the right to reopen Tesla’s factory in Fremont, and on May 11^th tweeted that the factory would be reopening against the county’s rules. The county did not take any action against Musk, and stated that they were discussing plans for reopening. Musk also  threatened to move his Fremont factory to a different state in order to continue operating. Finally, on May 12^th Alameda county issued a statement that said “..we have agreed that Tesla can begin to augment their Minimum Business Operations this week in preparation for possible reopening as soon as next week.” Despite Musk’s controversial tweets, Tesla’s shares are still doing very well: the shares went up 250% over the past year, and is expected to grow even more due to the growing demands for electric cars and the new Model Y that they are offering.

Questions:
Should Alameda County and other counties consider the economy over the well being of their residents, or should it ever be justified?
Why might Elon Musk be so adamant about reopening Tesla Factories?


Sources:
https://twitter.com/elonmusk
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/11/cars/elon-musk-tesla-factory-tweet/index.html
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2020/05/13/elon-musk-wins-battle-with-alameda-county-tesla-factory-allowed-to-reopen/#16d8a8843d11
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/12/elon-musk-tesla-reopening-lockdown-timeline