Tech billionaire, Tesla CEO, and X owner Elon Musk has reignited the global debate around COVID-19 vaccine safety after sharing a deeply personal account of his experience with both the virus and its vaccine. In a post on X that has since garnered over 15 million views, Musk claimed that contracting the original Wuhan strain of COVID-19 felt no worse than a common cold or flu, but that his second vaccine shot left him feeling close to death, strong enough to make him question whether the dosage was too high. His remarks, posted on April 12, 2026, came in response to testimony by Dr. Helmut Sterz, a former Pfizer toxicologist, at a German parliamentary inquiry that discussed estimates of vaccine-related deaths. The post has since triggered a global conversation, with users sharing personal experiences while health authorities reiterate established scientific findings on vaccine safety.
