Fake news get faker amidst Wu Flu 2019

Tesla CEO Elon Musk seems to be dealing with false news stories in addition to the COVID-19 pandemic we’re in. Previously, a story by the Financial Times had claimed Tesla had delivered the wrong kind of ventilator for coronavirus patients, rendering them useless. Afterwards, these claims were deemed false by the New York State Governor Cuomo and New York hospitals.

Now, first reported by Sacramento Bee, CNN has reported that more than 1,000 ventilators sent by Tesla to California hospitals hadn’t been received by hospitals. Apparently, a spokesperson for the California governor’s Office of Emergency Services told CNN on Wednesday, “The Administration is communicating every day with hospitals across the state about their ventilator supply and to date we have not heard of any hospital system that has received a ventilator directly from Tesla or Musk.”

However, Musk was quick to follow up and debunk the fake news by calling CNN out. He wrote, “What I find most surprising is that CNN still exists.”

Hours later, a CNN Business writer Jackie Wattles replied to Musk’s tweet (posted below), in defense of the publication’s claim that Musk’s promised ventilators weren’t delivered.

“I just wanted to weigh in to say that CNN reporters (including me) have reached out to Tesla multiple times to ask about ventilators over the past several weeks,” Wattles began, in her tweet. “…we never got a response. The latest story reports what Gov. Newsom said.”

While CNN, or California Gov. Newsom, may be misinformed, it seems CNN was reportedly following the governor’s lead, who has as of yet made no public comment on the matter.

Musk’s earlier tweet shows an email exchange between Omead Afshar, Tesla’s Project Director, and Phillip Franks, who is the Director of System Operations and Support Services at the Los Angeles Country Department of Health Services.