Fans of author Dean Koontz are brewing up a conspiracy theory that the famous thriller author predicted the coronavirus outbreak back in 1981.
In his book "The Eyes of Darkness," Koontz wrote about an outbreak of a killer virus 'Wuhan-400' dubbed after the city that it originated in, Wuhan, China - the same city where the novel coronavirus was first reported.
In the novel, one of the characters mentions that the virus is called 'Wuhan-400' because it was developed at the RDNA labs outside Wuhan City.
Twitter user Nick Hinton, posted screenshots of the passage from the 1981 novel earlier this month claiming that Koontz knew about the virus almost 40 years ago.
Koontz is yet to respond to inquiries about his novel that went viral due to the purported prediction.
While the coronavirus was first confirmed in Wuhan, there has been no scientific consensus on when, where or how it jumped to humans. The main theory is that it jumped to humans when they came into contact with exotic animals in a wet market in Wuhan since it is no secret that there is black market trade of these animals in the city. Other theories even suggest that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Virology Laboratory, the only biosafety-level four facility in China.
However, aside from the origin city of Koontz's 'Wuhan-400' and the COVID-19 outbreak, there are very few similarities between the two viruses.
In "The Eye of Darkness," Wuhan-400 is a virus that was created as a bioweapon and has a fatality rate of 100% within 12 hours. In the book, it was explained that China intended the virus to be used in wiping out a country without the need of expensive decontamination.
The book also portrays the virus as the perfect weapon since it only afflicts human beings and cannot thrive without a living host for longer than a minute. This means the virus cannot contaminate objects permanently the way other virulent microorganisms or anthrax does.
On the other hand, the 2019 novel coronavirus which is the causative agent for COVID-19 only has an estimated mortality rate of two to three percent. It can survive on surfaces for longer than a minute, possibly even hours or days but scientists are still working on determining the precision of this.
The novel also portrayed that the virus attacks the brain as it migrates to the brainstem and then releases a toxin that eats away brain tissue, destroying the nervous system. While the coronavirus primarily affects the respiratory system which results in pneumonia in severe cases. The primary symptoms of coronavirus are flu-like including coughing, fever, and shortness of breath.
In the book, the virus' incubation period is just four hours while coronavirus takes up to two weeks to incubate.
Finally, the first edition of Koontz's thriller originally depicted that the virus came from Russia calling it 'Gorki-400', it was only in 1991 when the Soviet Union fell that he changed the story and made China the villain.
Today, COVID-19 continues to raise fear around the world with more than 83,000 cases and a death toll of more than 2,800.
