SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has paused his six month-long feud with Microsoft Corporation co-founder Bill Gates over COVID-19 and a coronavirus vaccine.

The feud apparently reached its high-point in July when Musk called Gates a "knucklehead" for criticizing his controversial points of view about COVID-19. Musk had given Gates enough ammunition for the latter to blast him, however.

On March 6, Musk derided fears about COVID-19 as "dumb" and falsely claimed children are "essentially immune" from COVID-19."

"The coronavirus panic is dumb," tweeted Musk to his more than 31 million followers.

When Musk made this tweet, California, the site of his Tesla Factory, had 66 confirmed cases and reported its first death from the virus on the same day. Across the United States, 245 people were infected and 14 people died from the disease.

As of September 29, the U.S. had 7.4 million cases and 210,000 deaths -- the highest in the world. In the six months since Musk made this statement, California's case count has skyrocketed to 816,000, which is the highest in the U.S. California also has 16,000 deaths, the fourth largest in the country.

All this points to Musk being mistaken in dismissing the severity of COVID-19. Gates called Musk's comments about COVID-19 "outrageous."

He said Musk doesn't know much about vaccines and hoped Musk "doesn't confuse areas he's not involved in too much."

"Elon's position is to maintain a high level of outrageous comments," said Gates on CNBC. "He's not much involved in vaccines. He makes a great electric car. And his rockets work well. So he's allowed to say these things. I hope that he doesn't confuse areas he's not too involved in too much."

Musk fired back, saying "Gates said something about me not knowing what I was doing," Musk told Swisher. "It's like, 'Hey, knucklehead, we actually make the vaccine machines for CureVac, that company you're invested in.'"

He was referring to the fact Tesla manufactures equipment for the German biopharmaceutical firm CureVac.

Musk then assailed Gates with a series of baffling tweets saying, "Billy G is not my lover" and "The rumor that Bill Gates & I are lovers is completely untrue."

Musk then doubled down on his virus skepticism by declaring neither he nor his family intend to be inoculated by any new vaccine against this disease.

Musk said he had no intention of getting a shot even if a vaccine -- close to 160 of which are being developed worldwide -- were readily available. It's an odd pronouncement from a tech titan who champions science and has used science to make him a billonaire.

His statement made Monday came on the same day the world recorded one million deaths from the disease and 33 million cases since the pandemic began in January.

"I'm not at risk, neither are my kids," said Musk during a podcast hosted by The New York Times.

During this rambling exchange of opinion, Musk again assailed the lockdowns in the United States as a "no-win situation" that has "diminished my faith in humanity."

Musk previously blasted as "unethical" the widespread quarantines implemented to control the spread of the disease. He also referred to quarantines as "de facto house arrest."

Musk has his own solution to broad pandemic lockdowns. He champions more targeted lockdowns where "anyone who is at risk" is "quarantined until the storm passes."

On the other hand, Gates is an expert on vaccines. He also founded GAVI, the global vaccine Alliance, two decades ago and pledged $1.6 billion last month for its continued work, including on distributing a COVID-19 vaccine. Gates has also donated hundreds of millions of dollars to COVID-19 relief efforts.