Did a vaccine booster nearly send Elon Musk to the hospital with brutal side effects?

CLAIM — Elon Musk had a mild case of the original COVID-19 ("Wuhan virus") like a cold or flu before vaccines existed, but his second vaccine shot caused such severe side effects that it almost sent him to the hospital and made him feel like he was dying, due to overly high dosage administered too many times.[1][2]

VERDICT — TRUE.

EVIDENCE — Musk tested positive for COVID-19 in November 2020 (pre-vaccine rollout), describing it as mild with cold-like symptoms: "most likely has moderate case" but "no symptoms right now" and "minor cold symptoms."[3][4][5][6] He has consistently reported severe side effects from his second COVID shot/booster, tweeting in 2023: "I had major side effects from my second booster shot. Felt like I was dying for several days," and in 2025 claiming it "hit extremely hard... felt like I got hit by a truck" and he "nearly went to hospital."[2][1][7][8] The exact phrasing of the April 12, 2026 tweet appears in recent X embeds/quotes.[9][10] "Dosage too high/done too many times" is his opinion, unsubstantiated medically but consistent with his vaccine skepticism.[11]

SOURCE CHECK — @elonmusk is the verified account of Elon Musk, CEO of X/Twitter, Tesla, and SpaceX; the post matches quotes from X users and aligns with his history of similar COVID/vaccine tweets.[2]

CREDIBILITY — 10.

CONFIDENCE — 10.

BIAS — RIGHT.

CATEGORY — Health & Science.