Many people do not recognize the fact that China closed down Shanghai for only about ten days, and Tesla has on-the-ground experience working in a country in a similar state. Working with a national administration that was making every effort to get the factory back in production.Elon's take on the pandemic is a bit unhinged and detached from reality, which to me is indicative of two things:
1) He's incredibly frustrated with Fremont shutdown - because while it doesn't matter in the long-term, it absolutely matters for Q2 and whether they can eek out S&P inclusion. I do believe this is important to Elon - he wants stability for shareholders.
2) His dealings with government officials regarding the factory have likely been underwhelming. I don't mean this in the sense that he didn't get the desired outcome. I think he has been speaking to people who cannot offer a clear, well-reasoned plan or vision moving forward, and instead resort to "We're government and the answer is NO." Unfortunately he's more likely to encounter such folks at the local level because these folks tend to be enforcers rather than thoughtful leaders. As others have pointed out, there has to be a middle ground where life can go on as safely as possible but the leadership to provide that path is in scarce supply.
Difference is that as much reticence as there is to believe China, they worked very effectively to control the virus. It worked. There are many videos available by long-time Westerner residents there. The US and Britain are both squandering the warnings they could have acted on. What is Musk supposed to think? 'Sure guys, take as long as you want to come to grips with what your (hated) global competition dealt with decisively and effectively and even warned you about'?
Musk is very angry about this, and he has a right to be. China is dismissed as a dictatorship. Whatever you call them, compare the results.