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Billionaire David Geffen sparked an uproar after sending well-wishes on social media amid the coronavirus outbreak from his superyacht.
Geffen, founder of Geffen Records and co-founder of DreamWorks Pictures, took to Instagram on Saturday morning to post images from his luxury yacht, which Geffen bought for $590 million, according to Forbes.
“Sunset, last night,…isolated in the Grenadines avoiding the virus. I’m hoping everybody is staying safe,” Geffen wrote to his nearly 84,000 followers.
The images included two wide shots of the “Rising Sun” yacht, as well as one of the luxurious main deck.
Critics piled on the mogul for the tone-deaf Instagram post.
The AV Club published the headline, “Hey poors: David Geffen wants to show you his yacht.”
“The View” co-host Meghan McCain blasted Geffen, saying: “David Geffen is worth 8 billion dollars! For God’s sake help this country get ventilators, our health workers masks and the medical supplies they need! Or no, just stay on your f—ing yacht instagramming. This is just shameful and grotesque.”
“David Geffen riding out the virus in a yacht made of ventilators,” extremism expert Mark Pitcavage quipped.
“David Geffen could have donated that yacht to NYC to be used as a makeshift hospital,” New York Times columnist Wajahat Ali tweeted.
“David Geffen’s thought process: ‘Hey you know what, millions are losing their jobs, can’t pay their rent and they’re worried about a deadly pandemic, I bet they’d love to know how I’m doing. Fire up the copter so we can take some more pics of my yacht! They’ll love this!!!'” film producer Robby Starbuck reacted.
Geffen has since made his Instagram account private.
