The masters of the world in Silicon Valley, as always, think that they are excused from the rules that us mere mortals have to follow.<\/p>\n
In this case, they are ignoring the rules of basic biology<\/a>, because they believe that they can disrupt their way out of a pandemic:<\/p>\n Michael Saylor does not often send all-staff emails to the more than 2,000 employees at Microstrategy, a business intelligence firm headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. So the chief executive\u2019s 3,000-word missive on Monday afternoon with the subject line My Thoughts on Covid-19 got his employees\u2019 attention. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is soul-stealing and debilliating [sic] to embrace the notion of social distancing & economic hibernation,\u201d Saylor wrote in an impassioned argument against adopting the aggressive responses to the coronavirus pandemic that public health authorities are advising. \u201cIf we wish to maintain our productivity, we need to continue working in [our] offices.\u201d <\/p>\n As companies around the world adjust to the reality of the coronavirus pandemic, including by allowing their employees to work from home in compliance with the national guidelines of many governments, some executives are attempting to continue doing business as usual. The trend is notable in the tech industry, where computer-based work can generally be performed from anywhere, but where the culture has often rewarded innovative and \u201cdisruptive\u201d leaders who buck conventional wisdom. <\/p>\n Saylor argued that the \u201ceconomic damage\u201d of social distancing and quarantines was greater than \u201cthe theoretical benefit of slowing down a virus\u201d and suggested that it would make more sense to \u201cquarantine the 40 million elderly retired, immune compromised people who no longer need to work or get educated\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n Elon Musk, billionaire chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, prompted considerable consternation when he tweeted<\/a>, \u201cThe coronavirus panic is dumb\u201d to his 32.3 million followers on 6 March. Despite widespread criticism of his message, which flew in the face of public health efforts to convince the general population to take the spread of the virus seriously, Musk has continued to downplay the threat. <\/p>\n \u201cAs a basis for comparison, the risk of death from C19 is *vastly* less than the risk of death from driving your car home,\u201d Musk wrote in an email to SpaceX employees, according to BuzzFeed News<\/a>. \u201cThere are about 36 thousand automotive deaths per deaths [sic], as compared to 36 so far this year for C19.\u201d <\/p>\n On Tuesday, thousands of factory workers at Tesla\u2019s plant in the San Francisco Bay area reported to work, despite a \u201cshelter-in-place<\/a>\u201d order that was supposed to shutter all \u201cnon-essential\u201d businesses. Musk told factory employees to stay home \u201cif you feel the slightest bit ill or even uncomfortable\u201d, the Los Angeles Times<\/a> reported. By Tuesday afternoon, the local sheriff\u2019s office announced<\/a> that Tesla was not an essential business and could only maintain \u201cminimum basic operations\u201d. (As an aside here, Musk will get a multi BILLION<\/b> dollar payoff in the next few months if he manages to juice the stock price sufficiently)<\/span><\/p>\n \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n