Elon Musk says we're 'rapidly' moving toward reopening the US economy: 'It's going to happen extremely fast over the next few weeks'

• The US is "rapidly moving towards opening up the country... over the next few weeks" Elon Musk said in an interview with podcast host Joe Rogan on Thursday.
• The Tesla CEO also argued the debate around reopening the economy has been politicized by both sides of the aisle and that the country had gone "too far" in imposing lockdown orders.
• States from Georgia to California have begun loosening restrictions, while public health experts have warned that doing so prematurely risks sparking additional waves of outbreaks.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Elon Musk vented his frustrations about coronavirus lockdowns yet again on Thursday, this time predicting that the US is quickly on its way to reopening the economy in the near future.

"I think we're rapidly moving towards opening up the country," Musk said during an interview with podcast host Joe Rogan. "It's going to happen extremely fast over the next few weeks."

The Tesla CEO has repeatedly criticized states' requirements that residents stay home and non-essential businesses — including Tesla — halt operations, calling them "fascist" and "fundamentally a violation of the Constitution." Tesla has attempted to restart its operations several times recently despite public health orders prohibiting it from doing so.

Musk said the debate over how and when to reopen parts of the economy had been "politicized in both directions" and that the US has been too aggressive in imposing stay-at-home orders aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19.

"Where do civil liberties fit in this picture? What can the government make you do? What can they make you not do, and what's okay?" Musk asked, adding: "I think we went too far."

The criticism echoes similar sentiments voiced by President Trump, who recently announced that Musk would be one of his advisors for reopening the US economy.

Several states, including Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina — which all issued statewide stay-at-home-orders in April — have recently begun slowly reopening their economies in recent weeks, even as many are still seeing a rise in new COVID-19 cases. California also slightly relaxed its lockdowns this week.

Public health experts have warned that loosening stay-at-home orders prematurely could lead to a surge of cases this fall and winter. Several reopening plans, such as those laid out by the Trump administration and by researchers with Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said that a state should see a declining number of new cases for at least two weeks before reopening. It's a threshold that no state has hit yet, reported Business Insider's Lydia Ramsey.

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