Terrifying Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory

[Trixietangerine]

Has anyone else seen this on facebook? Terrifying and actually really freaking me out. This book was written in 1981. I can't stop thinking about it....

Did old Nostradamus have anything to say on this one at all?...

Not really similar at all! Here are a few things this “prediction” gets wrong:

• In Koontz’s novel, “Wuhan-400” is a human-made weapon. The coronavirus, on the other hand, was not.
• In the novel, “Wuhan-400” has a 100% fatality rate. While researchers are still learning about the coronavirus, the current fatality rate sits at about 2%.
• The fictional “Wuhan-400” has an extremely quick incubation period of about four hours, compared to COVID-19 which has an incubation period between two and 14 days.
• In the book "Wuhan-400" only affects humans. Coronavirus started in animals and affects them too.

What nonsense!

What is more similar, and way more deadly than Coronavirus was Spanish flu at the end of the 1st World war. That killed 20-50 million people. These things happen.

I think it's a bit of a coincidence that there is a lab about 25 miles from the epicentre that deals with China's most dangerous virus. - DK may well have known about that lab and yes it's fiction

But

It's not beyond the realm of possibility that someone didn't decontaminate properly when leaving the lab or even that it was deliberately unleashed.

It's too much of a coincidence to be unrelated imo.

I do wonder about the idea that the virus started in a lab next to the meat market rather than at the meat market.
There is also the idea that this was unleashed by the Chinese because they thought only their economy would survive the crash hence isolating the rest of the country
But given the SImpsons called Trump's presidency it doesn't surprise me that Koontz felt it in his pen about Wuhan

Where is Nostradamus when we need him ?

Ye I saw that in the news. I never read his novels because I dislike fantasy. He's always a bestseller, but I reckon he'll never read to write a book after this one!

It's the funniest thing - people who don't believe in shit coming on here with 6 point arguments as to how the book is different to reality.

Nobody was saying that it precisely predicted the current situation lol.

OP, whatever you do, don't watch the film "Contagion".

It's too much of a coincidence to be unrelated imo.

Why? Coincidences undoubtedly do happen and, to be honest, as coincidences go it's not much of one as there are so many dissimilarities.

There was a book written about a ship that sank on its maiden voyage, after hitting an iceberg in the north Atlantic the book was called 'The wreck of the Titan' it was written 14 years before the Titanic was launched.

Another book tells of a ship sinking and there not being enough life boats, unfortunately the author was on the Titanic and didn't survive.

There are some fairly standard tropes in Sci Fi and a disease killing all or a majority of people is one of them, 48, H10 N1, The Stand.

If you want to really scare yourself have a look at the 'Spanish' Flu outbreak.

That started with countries covering up a disease, this is how it got its name, Spain was neutral in WW1, so reported the flu accurately, the USA, UK, Germany all under reported so the enemy wouldn't know how badly affected they were.

Healthy young people who in 24 hours were dead. 1/3 of the world's population were infected and estimates of death are from 17 - 55 million.

It makes sense that an author would use Wuhan as it has a virus lab there.
I don’t understand the conspiracy theory part though. How would Dean Koontz, author, know about a secret conspiracy to unleash a virus and then decide to write it in his book...

Or are we saying that the conspiracy is that it has been released from the lab? I think it’s more likely it was accidentally released from the lab if anything, if the global economy crashes, nobody wins

Even if a fiction writer did predict Corona virus - what does it prove exactly? Why is it spooky?

And can he predict the winning lottery numbers? (Oldest joke ever told on Mumsnet klaxon!)

I got rolls of tin foil going cheap, Aussie made, corona free.....

I think it's a bit of a coincidence that there is a lab about 25 miles from the epicentre that deals with China's most dangerous virus

Can everyone please stop trying to scare the shit out of themselves?

A "lab".

This is not a fucking film, it doesn't work like that.

If you want to really scare yourself have a look at the 'Spanish' Flu outbreak.

If you really want to scare yourself, read the stats on seasonal flu

No one heard of the Georgia Guidestones?

Ah we've reached the 'conspiracy theory' stage.

How would a fiction author be predicting Coronavirus? Or do you think Dean Koontz himself has unleashed this plague upon the world, in between penning his next book?
How many books are there in the world? And how many will contain things that have some vague resemblance to stuff that happens in the world?

If you're talking Conspiracy Theories, this guy must have predicted it!!!

I have this book, read it years ago,

It’s not a conspiracy theory is it? It’s a coincidence. It’s also two different books.

Read Stephen kings, The Stand, that is similar in some ways.

A conspiracy theory?? and you can't stop thinking about it, what a sad life you must lead

The Simpsons predicted Trump would be President. Sometimes spooky is just a lucky guess.

@Trixietangerine I think YABU, but I can see WHY you think it.

@purplerainred

I don’t really get the conspiracy theory. Science fiction writers make thousands of books every year. There are bound to be concepts in those books that vaguely become true.

This. ^ It's does seem daft, and nothing more than conspiracy theory. However it's odd that it's the exact same date, and situation, it seems virtually identical. Probably a massive coincidence, but weird and hugely coincidental nevertheless.

Some years ago, as a temp covering someone's maternity leave, the woman I worked with had an (adult) daughter who had the same first AND middle name as me, and this daughter had a daughter with the same name as mine (although different birthdates,) but we both had husbands called Steve, and THEY shared the same birthday (different years.)

Turns out we both went to Spain for the first time ever (in the same resort,) on the same week several years before, and probably passed on the street several times, and our fathers shared the same first name.

All huge coincidences, but still. very odd!

But yeah, I do think coincidence, and don't think Koontz knew anything was actually going to happen in 2020.