Why Elon Musk is being called ‘Space Karen’ on Twitter

This nickname might stick.

Tesla TSLA, -0.75%   and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk went viral over the weekend for questioning the effectiveness of COVID-19 testing after he claimed that he tested both positive and negative for the virus multiple times in the same day.

“Something extremely bogus is going on,” tweeted Musk, who has repeatedly played down the virus during the pandemic, such as predicting there would be “close to zero” cases in the U.S. by April. In fact, more than 11 million Americans have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 246,000 have died.

Read: Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he tested both positive and negative for coronavirus in the same day

And a bioinformatics scientist — who specializes in analyzing complex biological data — hit back at Musk on Twitter TWTR, -1.44%  over the weekend with the perfect retort.

“Rapid antigen tests trade sensitivity for speed. They return a result in <30 minutes, but can only detect COVID-19 when you’re absolutely riddled with it,” explained Emma Bell, whose Twitter bio reads that she is doing postdoctoral work in Ontario, Canada. “What’s bogus is that Space Karen didn’t read up on the test before complaining to his millions of followers.”

Her “Space Karen” response has drawn more than 10,000 retweets and quote tweets since Saturday, and spurred more than 900 comments.

Musk’s new moniker plays on the stereotype of a white woman using her privilege to get her way, or “white-lady-with-a-bone-to-pick” syndrome. Karens are known for demanding to “speak to the manager,” and often commit racist micro-aggressions.

This is also what’s led “Space Karen” to trend on Twitter on Monday morning, and it spawned this photoshopped image of Musk with a feminine haircut — an asymmetrical bob with chunky blond highlights a lalate 2000s reality star Kate Gosselin — that also went viral.

The mockery came on a day that should be a big win for Musk, as the SpaceX Falcon rocket carrying four astronauts was expected to reach the International Space Station on Monday, marking a historic first full-fledged taxi flight for NASA by a private company.

Musk watched the rocket launch remotely on Sunday, however, tweeting he “most likely” had a moderate case of COVID-19.