America’s super rich throw parties and escape on private jets amid COVID-19

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America’s super rich are throwing parties where guests are offered 15-minute rapid COVID-19 tests and using their private jets to avoid having to stay in hotspots amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

While the US continues to battle the highest number of infections globally and 1,000 Americans are still dying each day, some say Silicon Valley’s elite have been carrying on with their lives and socializing as if ‘everything was normal’. 

Sources told Vanity Fair that the luxurious lifestyles of the country’s billionaires is no different to before the pandemic broke out when the majority of Americans were forced into quarantine. 

‘Coronavirus is a poor person’s virus,’ a doctor told the outlet. 

‘All these rich people can’t stop themselves,’ another person who has ties to tech CEOs and venture capitalists said.  

‘They just can’t stop themselves from throwing parties and going on their jets and socializing as if everything was normal.’ 

Sources say Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick is among those throwing parties at his home Los Angeles.

Kalanick’s parties, however, are much smaller in comparison to before the pandemic and are now held outside. 

Another unnamed billionaire has also been throwing lavish parties where guests have to have a 15-minute rapid fire COVID-19 test before they are allowed inside, according to the sources. 

Some investors in LA and Silicon Valley are also renting mansions in Palm Springs that cost about $50,000 a month just so they can host parties amid the pandemic. 

While some billionaires are throwing parties, others have opted to rent or use their own private jets so they can go on vacation. 

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was spotted last month riding a $12,000 electric surfboard during a vacation with his family in Hawaii.

The sources say billionaires have also been using their jets to go from COVID-19 safe zones as the outbreak spreads across the country. 

One investor was in Miami at the beginning of the pandemic before moving on to Los Angeles and now New York. 

He moved on from each city as coronavirus infections started to grow in each place. 

Some are even reportedly paying up to $2.6 million so they can secure international citizenship in foreign countries and escape the United States altogether. 

The demand for private jets has skyrocketed amid the pandemic with inquiries up 195 percent in June compared to last year and 60 percent in April, according to rental company NetJets.  

While more than 16.3 million are now unemployed in the US amid the pandemic, the wealth of America’s billionaires has only grown. 

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who is usually photographed vacationing in Europe or the Caribbean this time of year, recently purchased a $10 million Beverly Hills home located next door to the $165 million compound he purchased just six month ago. 

Data taken from mid-March to mid-May shows that US billionaires added $484 billion to their wealth despite the outbreak. 

Bezos, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison saw their wealth grow by a total of $75.5 billion – or 19 percent, according to the report carried out by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies’ Program for Inequality.

Zuckerberg’s wealth increased by $25 billion, Bezos made a gain of $34.6 billion and Tesla’s Elon Musk saw his net worth jump by 48 percent in the two months to $36 billion. 

It comes as California’s case toll from the coronavirus neared 600,000 on Friday.

The most populous US state now ranks fifth in the world behind the United States (5.2 million), Brazil (3.2 million), India (2.4 million) and Russia (910,000). 

The death toll in California has now reached 10,870, which is only third behind New York’s 32,805 and New Jersey’s 15,893. 

California’s cases, on average, have been trending upwards in the past week despite national infections being on the downward trajectory. 

The spike is due, in part, to a backlog of cases from a technical glitch in the state’s reporting of data that left COVID-19 infections undercounted during the recent summer surge.  

Cases have been declining nationally in recent weeks, which has been driven in part by a drop off in cases in the hotspot Sunbelt states where coronavirus surged throughout June and July. 

Deaths in these states, however, appear to be increasing slightly despite showing signs of a decline or at least a plateau earlier this month.  

Florida reported a record 277 deaths on Tuesday, while Arizona had a near-record spike of 148 deaths on Wednesday. The spikes could be a result of a weekend-delay in reporting given there is the same steep drop off each week.

Deaths across the country currently appear to be plateauing but are still averaging about 1,000 fatalities per day.  

Currently, the total number of infections in the US has now surpassed 5.2 million and more than 167,000 Americans have died from COVID-19. 

While the average daily death toll of 1,000 is still high, it remains below levels seen in April when an average of 2,000 people a day were dying from the virus. 

The average daily infection toll remains steady at about 53,000, which is down from the 66,000 daily cases being reported just last month.