Some believe that Dean Koontz's 1981 novel The Eyes of Darkness predicted the 2020 coronavirus outbreak.
In the book The Eyes of Darkness (1981) the author describes biological weapon Wuhan-400. Some are convinced that the author predicted an outbreak with this COVID-19, i.e. the coronavirus that emerged in the city of Wuhan, China in December 2019. Below is an excerpt that caught the attention of readers. It is an authentic excerpt from the novel, which you can also see in a preview on Amazon.
Which of these is true, which is a blessing for conspiracy theorists?
It is true that the author Koontz describes in the book The Eyes of Darkness biological weapon Wuhan-400, it is also true that this is the name of the city in China where the virus first appeared. This is where the similarities more or less end, according to the fact-checking website Snopes.
- In Kootz's novel, there is Wuhan-400 man made, as we know, there is no coronavirus.
- He also has Wuhan-400 in the novel 100% mortality, researchers still researching the coronavirus currently put the death rate at 2 percent.
- The fictional Wuhan-400 has super fast incubation period – 4 hours. COVID-19 has an incubation period of 2 to 14 days.
But it doesn't end here. Although the passage above is true, authentic, there are other versions of the book that use a different name for this biological weapon. In the edition available at Google Books, there is no ghost or hearing about Wuhan. In this version, this weapon is called Gorky-400, after the Russian city of Gorki, where it was created.
It is unclear why the change occurred. From all this we can conclude that the original name of the biological weapon in 1981, when the novel was published, was Gorki-400. Until 2008, Mrs changed to Wuhan-400 at some point.
Regardless of the latter, this does not mean that Koontz has predicted coronavirus outbreak. Nor does he say in the novel that any of this will come true. That's why they are the similarities between Wuhan-400 and COVID-19 are minimal and "random".
