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What are the conspiracy theories around COVID-19?
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Novelist Dean Koontz predicted the COVID-19 in 1981

In his foreboding thriller 'The Eyes of Darkness', Koontz imagines a man-made virus called Wuhan created in its namesake city, sweeping the globe. The novel calls it the 'perfect weapon'.
China Conspiracy Coronavirus Dean Koontz Literature Misleading Politics
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Context

(ALERT: Visit the WHO for accurate information about the coronavirus pandemic)[1] Literature fans have spotted striking similarities between the coronavirus and a global epidemic described in Koontz's chilling literary classic.

The Argument

In 1981 the novelist Dean Koontz wrote 'The Eyes of Darkness, which foreshadows the COVID-19 pandemic with spooky accuracy. The similarities between the text and the current crisis, are too accurate to be coincidental, ranging from the named Chinese city of origin to global submission of an uncontainable virus.[2] In the book, a mother finds out her son has been locked up in a secret military facility. There, he has become a human experiment for the man-made mirco-organism Wuhan-400.[3] In Chapter 39, Koontz writes: “To understand it, you have to go back 20 months. “It was around then that a Chinese scientist named Li Chen defected to the US, carrying a diskette record of China’s most important and dangerous new biological weapon in a decade. “They call the stuff ‘Wuhan-400’ because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside the city of Wuhan and it was the 400th viable strain of man-made microorganisms created at that research centre." Later in the book, the similarities continue: “Wuhan-400 is the perfect weapon. “It afflicts human beings, no other living creature can carry it." “Just like syphilis, Wuhan-400 can’t survive outside a living body for longer than a minute, which means it can’t permanently contaminate objects or entire places the way anthrax and other virulent microorganisms can." “When the host expires, the Wuhan-400 within him perishes a short while later, as soon as the temperature of the corpse drops below 30C. They knew that the Chinese could use Wuhan-400 to wipe out a city or a country, and then there wouldn’t be any need to them to conduct tricky and expensive decontamination before they moved in and took over.” These labs could allude to Wuhan Institute of Virology. It is the sole level four biosafety complex in China, meaning it is where the country's deadliest viruses are studied. It is based just 20 miles from the Wuhan Seafood Market.

Counter arguments

There are several points of difference between the fictional virus and the COVID-19 outbreak. All evidence points to the coronavirus starting in Wuhan Seafood Market as a result of human to animal interactions. Yet, in 'Eyes of Darkness' the virus is being developed in a secret laboratory as a biological weapon. In the novel it is man made, not a natural occurrence.[4] The fictional virus does not affect animals - yet, scientific consensus is that the real virus started in them. Coronavirus has a relatively low mortality rate of 0.2%, compared to 100% in the novel.[5] In the book, the virus has a four hour incubation period. The actual virus' incubation period can be up to two weeks.

Premises

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
  2. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/coronavirus-dean-koontz-eyes-of-darkness-conspiracy-wuhan-china-symptoms-a9364386.html
  3. https://wmmr.com/2020/03/14/dean-koontz-did-he-predict-the-coronavirus-in-eyes-of-darkness-1981/
  4. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/13/us/dean-koontz-novel-coronavirus-debunk-trnd/index.html
  5. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-coronavirus-koontz-book/partly-false-claima-1981-book-predicted-the-coronavirus-2019-outbreak-idUSKCN20M19I
This page was last edited on Monday, 26 Oct 2020 at 13:18 UTC

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