₦airaland Forum

Samakus:
No, Dean Koontz did not predict the coronavirus in a 1981 novel

By Harmeet Kaur, CNN



Author Dean Koontz wrote a novel called "The Eyes of Darkness" originally published in 1981, describing a killer virus that some claimed echoes the current coronavirus outbreak. The coronavirus is officially a global pandemic, so naturally, people are feeding their anxieties by voraciously consuming movies and books about other outbreaks.

Some of them bear eerie similarities to what's happening right now, prompting some people on the internet to claim that certain storytellers "predicted" the spread of coronavirus.

One particularly striking example comes from a thriller novel by Dean Koontz called "The Eyes of Darkness."


In a tweet that has since been widely shared, someone said that Koontz had predicted the coronavirus outbreak based on a screenshot of a page in the book. But to say that Koontz saw all this coming is a bit of a stretch. A novel is a work of fiction, after all.


So let's break it down.

In the book, the virus is a man-made weapon

In the screenshot page from the novel, a character named Dombey narrates a story about a Chinese scientist who brought a biological weapon called "Wuhan-400" to the United States:

"To understand that," Dombey said, "you have to go back twenty months. It was around then that a Chinese scientist named Li Chen defected to the United States, 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 four-hundredth viable strain of man-made microorganisms created at that research center."

First, it's worth pointing out that in the original 1981 edition of "The Eyes of Darkness," this biological weapon was called "Gorki-400," in reference to a Russian locality. The name of the weapon was changed to "Wuhan-400" when the book was released again in 1989, according to the South China Morning Post.

It's true that the current coronavirus outbreak began in Wuhan, China. But the idea that the virus was created in a lab is actually a conspiracy theory that originated from unverified social media accounts and has since been widely dismissed by scientists from both China and the West.

Experts are still trying to figure out the exact source of the virus, but research indicates that it likely originated in bats and was transmitted to an intermediate host before jumping to people -- just like its cousin that caused the 2003 SARS epidemic.

In the book, the virus has a 100% mortality rate

In a later paragraph, the character Dombey goes on to say that no one infected with virus survives:

"And Wuhan-400 has other, equally important advantages over most biological agents. For one thing, you can become an infectious carrier only four hours after coming into contact with the virus. That's an incredibly short gestation period. Once infected, no one lives more than twenty-four hours. Most die in twelve. Wuhan-400's kill rate is one hundred percent."

That's not the case with the coronavirus.


First off, people infected by the coronavirus tend to develop symptoms about five days after exposure, and almost always within two weeks, according to a recent study.

Secondly, the mortality rate for coronavirus is not even close to 100%.

While the virus can be fatal, it's mostly the elderly and those with a weakened immune system or other health conditions who face more serious risks.

Officials estimate the death rate for the virus to be around 3% to 4% globally, based on the information they have, though they expect that number to fall.

So while Koontz may be a captivating writer, he's no psychic.


Cc. Lalasticlala


https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/03/13/us/dean-koontz-novel-coronavirus-debunk-trnd/index.html

You might be very right though but he was precise to mention WUHAN which is the centre of the pandemic and he equally talk about a VIRUS which is very contiguous. Almost half of all what he said in the novel, if not more than half were true. To me I strongly believe he had information about the VIRUS long ago because for someone to sit down and start all those imagination is not ORDINARY, the format or how it suppose to happen might have change because of technology and other unforseen circumstances. I strongly believe the CORONA VIRUS is a laboratory fallout, I believe this is not the finished product and I also believe it will be more contagious than this and the mortality rate will be close to the 100% if the aim is achieved. There's no single person that can say what's really happening in the WUHAN LAB, and since China had been accused in so many ways they haven't deem it necessary to invite other scientists to inspect or investigate what's truly happening in the LAB. For Mr. Trump and other Congressmen to come out and accused China in public glare shows they have alot of information about this whole CORONA VIRUS saga. The author suppose to be interrogated to seem if he had information about it or the extent by which he know. They should please leave the peaceful BAT to rest. We had been eaten BAT since I was born and we are still eaten it till date. My father, grandfather, great grandfather, great great grandfathers had been eating BATS since time immemorial. Since when did BATS suddenly turned carrier to all killer diseases? OYIBO have so many questions to answer. People eat BATS in Nigeria everyday and they live around us and even lives in some of our houses. There has never been and pandemic in Nigeria cause by BATS.

Please anybody with Mr. A. A number? I wanted to find out where the son likely contract the virus, because I doubt if is within Nigeria or he brings it from outside the country.

MyVILLAGEpeople:
Oshiomole for president and Ganduje for vice 2023.

That won't work, from all indications you can see clearly where Osho belong. I strongly doubt if Osho have that amb in mind

Mikehot:
oshomole has more support base but his godfatherism stand is why more Edo people (Edo south, central) support obaseki in the two way contest.

Btw I thought you were against Adam high handdness when this was all playing out

The reason why Edo South is supporting Obaseki is because of the promised that he will make them governor after his tenure but I have been asking many of the Edo south a simple question. If really Obaseki mean his promise tell him to take somebody from Edo south as a running mate, because an outsider from Edo south cannot come and succeed him. He should please stop deceiving us.

MarrisManah:
I understand you though but I think it's beyond that now. Oshiomole is still important in Apc today is because of his office as chairman. If he lost that then he's no longer a threat and have no say on who becomes governor of Edo state. Obaseki will just have him conered at a place throughout the period of elections.
The simple logic is allow Obaseki have the party ticket, after 4 years, he'll be done. Or better still, allow him the ticket, support another candidate from a different party and try to use the court to finish work.

As it stand today is very difficult for anybody to remove Osho as the national chairman because he was duly elected and if you try to remove him through the back door litigation will cripple the party, from the little you see not quite long ago will gives that impression And again APC as a party is run by two blocks ie the Buhari block, that does not understanding politics and the Tinubu block that's a Maradona in politics. Osho belong to the Tinubu block and the Buhari group is busy controlling the government without complain. The Fayemi, Amaechi, Obaseki and Co are only just drowning and trying to weep up sentiment. They are too weak to really effect anything. Even the Obaseki APC in Edo state is not even recognised. Even if is happened that Obaseki is given the ticket today on which of the APC fraction?. Let's watch and see as event on fold. My take though.

Is totally impossible for Oba to be dethrone in Edo state , because in Edo Kingship is hereditary by birth, not choosing or appointed. In fact the governor or president have no role to play on it. Even if the governor decides otherwise and suspend the Oba, nobody in Edo will take the position and even if it means the Oba die on suspension, the next person to the throne must be the first son and if it happens he does not have son before his death it had to be his immediate younger brother. Nobody has the power to dethrone the Oba of Benin or any other king in Edo land.

festacman:
- As an adult, Chioma willingly cohabited with Davido.
- Davido openly declares his love for Chioma in a song titled "Assurance", asking water to carry him away if he jilts her. Eventually, Chioma became pregnant for Chioma.
- Subsequently, both Davido and Chioma's families have formally met and are fully aware that their children intend to marry.
- Davido not only witnessed the birth of Ifeanyi but signed his birth certificate as his father.
- Davido, in the presence of members of both his and Chioma's families, named his son David Ifeanyi Adeleke at a public event.
- Ever since the birth of Ifeanyi, Davido has assumed and performed all necessary paternal duties.
- Currently, Chioma still lives with Davido and gives her body freely to him.

In view of foregoing and given that since the birth of Ifeanyi, no man has surfaced to make any paternity claim, I hereby insist and affirm that Ifeanyi Adeleke is biologically and legally Davido Adeleke's son.

Is a bit more complicated than you thought. It all have to be a matter of culture and tradition. Yes Davido is wealthy he will be able to withstand all the push and resist anything throw at him but if they are able to take that child to ibo land and Chioma and her father agree that the said child is not for Davido, I believe that settle everything. because I had witnessed the same till today my friend family are still doing everything within their power to get the son back from and ibo lady and the father. They have exploit all available means but nothing good comes out. My friend dated and impregnated the ibo lady and had a son for him. Unfortunately my friend had and ghastly accident and died at the spot. The lady and the child live with him before this incident happened. This happened about 8yrs ago, till today nobody have see the little boy. I do see the lady, all what she's saying is her people have collected the child from her and my friend family had seen her parents severally to see if there's anything they needed to do to take the child all to no avail. They had involved litigation and mediation with full proof, nothing positive comes out. The son don't even have and ibo name. From what I realise, it is the tradition and culture of the land that will determine

julieme:
Pls how much is this corolla 2005-07 hatchback here in Nigeria?

If you are a dealer and you get a good one am interested

julieme:
Pls how much is this corolla 2005-07 hatchback here in Nigeria?

I used this same corolla before. Is almost same price with the regular corolla

Blindersoff:
Hmm I thought he was supposed to be a Muslim. Now we have a Christian doing this too?

This confirms my comment yesterday that until Christians and Muslims come together to stand against this scorge together as one, we will continue being fools

Were was it written that he is a Christian? You believe muslim don't bear those names? Well the last time I checked Paul Pogba is a muslim young dude who played football for Manchester United of England. Let's join hands together and condemn any act that's bad than being religious sentiment.

abeeee:
are you dumb.. oh you are....... if you are not you will understand from the post that am not a Muslim.........
and you will also see where I stated it that Christians slaughtered thousands during the Crusades......... and if you are not dumb too, you will see where talked about not supporting the acts....


read and understand before you comment ozwo

If you are not supporting the facts what are you trying to justify here with your goatish thinking. UKI

abeeee:
are you dumb.. oh you are....... if you are not you will understand from the post that am not a Muslim.........
and you will also see where I stated it that Christians slaughtered thousands during the Crusades......... and if you are not dumb too, you will see where talked about not supporting the acts....


read and understand before you comment ozwo

If really you are not a goat as you rightly prove yourself to be, you could have prove it where you got the Christian slaughter from and how you come up with social media to share your dead brain false story.

Slawormir:
Damnnnnn niggarrr
Obaseki anyday anytime twice on election day

I stay in Benin city
I can bet my balls obaseki is gonna fuckkk oshiomhole up anyday anytime twice on election Day

Edo people love obaseki
They call him " the wake and see governor"

The same way they cheer Ambode up to oblivion.

abeeee:
Extremism in religion has been expressed on the Christian side and we seem to look away from it maybe because it didn't happen in our time..... Don't support any form of extremism as it leads to chaos and violence.......but It doesn't just make sense that some persons or rather a lot of person accuse the whole religion of Islam instead of condemning the select few that commit these acts........ Islam has about 1.9 billion adherents....and not up to one percent are terrorists yet we are quick to call them so.......

Christians killed so many people then during the Crusades for not accepting Christ and for so many other dumb reason, even as far as killing persons who where practicing science and where trying to think with their mind...... But we forget that we forget about the millions of children and women and men slain in the hands of Christians.....do we now say that all Christians are killers or that Christianity is a religion of violence??............religions evolve.....as Christianity did so is Islam.......




All this are just problems that comes with it...(religion)

I am not supporting any religion here..... I am only trying to clear a wrong sense of reasoning...

Is that what your was taught in your Arabic school that Christians kill more than Muslims? Are you doing killing competition? Where do you get your facts from, about the Christians killing? Learn to conderm and shun any act that's not good. If everybody is tagging Islam as you said to be terrorism, do something different and proof to them they are wrong. Please don't try to justify human killing by comparison. Thanks

TheGiftedOne:
Young man, M/Benz and Toyota or Honda of the same year are not the same price. I repeat the Benz are always costlier. No come dey debate wetyn dey obvious!

Go and price a Camry/Corolla 2005 model and do same for the Benz equivalent, then come and tell us your observation.

Is almost the same price, there is no much difference. You can get tokunbo of those quoted cars between 1.5m to 2.0m. They are of the same price range. The major problem is the Nigeria mechanic, they are good in fixing Japanese cars compared to German cars, that's what makes the German depreciate faster in Nigeria compare to the Japanese cars. And almost all the mechanical parts in Toyota and Honda is readily available in the Nigeria market

Mynd44:
Dead case.

FG will kuku tell the court there is no Arabic insignias there since it is Ajami that is there

Which language is Ajami? Is it hausa, ibo, Yoruba or any other ethnic group inscribeted language in Nigeria?

SUPERPACK:
Yes, we should also ask them why we have " God" in the national pledge since Nigeria is a secular country and not a christian country.

Is God not English word? Or you want me to tell you what we call God is my own language? English is our adopted language in Nigeria and everything should on English for easy understanding or the three major ethnic language

Staro:
The Northern Youths Council of Nigeria on Thursday kicked against the formation of ‘Operation Amotekun’ in the Southwest geopolitical zone of the country.

According to the NYCN, the security outfit inaugurated in Ibadan on Thursday is the “military wing” of the Oodua Peoples Congress.

It added that the newly established security outfit is in the league of the proscribed Independent Peoples of Biafra.

National President of NYCN, Alhaji Isah Abubakar, in a statement issued in Kaduna, urged the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), not to allow what he described as “unconstitutionality” to prevail.

Abubakar said, “Amotekun Group in Southwest is OPC Military wing in disguise and in the same league with the proscribed IPOB. The President must not allow this unconstitutionality to prevail.

“The Southwest Governors must desist from backing nefarious groups such as this one.

“Amotekun is a threat to peace and national security and an attempt to jeorpadize Nigeria’s sovereignty.

“Amotekun is no different from Boko Haram and IPOB Movement in their formative stages.

“Nigerian Police, DSS and Army shouldn’t take this lightly with the governors of Southwest.

“The National Security Adviser should promptly take steps that will avert the looming threat to our national security that is about to be threatened by Southwest governors, OPC and others,” Abubakar said.


https://punchng.com/northern-youths-kick-against-amotekun-say-outfit-opc-military-wing/amp/

And you are very ok and fine with the SHARIA Law. Is the Nigeria law not sufficient with the Northerners? Please buy sense.

Op please are you a Muslim or a Christian? I want to know how to enlightened you on this argument.

I pray God heal your in the mighty name of Jesus

JasonScoolari:
Happening under the watchful eyes of "MR. INTEGRITY"

We are watching.

Just read it again and be very slow this time, I believe you will get it right. I slowly

Nwodosis:
Any death on side of the police is likely to be a friendly fire, there would have been more casualties on side of the police force if the shiites were actually armed as the police are trying to make us to believe just to give shiites a bad name.

You may not understand, i was an eyes witness. I had been supporting them for long but from today on am not longer on their side. I have come to realize what these people is upto. They almost kill me today. The police was very professional to the extent i was thinking some of the police are part of them. The protest turned violence for almost 20 minutes before the police could applied force. From all indications they are the one whom forced the police to respond. There were many police presence but only few of them was armed. I was surprised when they started setting anything they can learn their hands on ablaze, harassing people, block roads and trying to kill. My brother the scene wasn't a child play. But i blame the police for not responding fast because somehow their slow response could have cause a big havoc today and thank God for life.

alphaNomega:
You know when Amaechi (former Rivers state governor ) and Buhari threatened to make Nigeria ungovernable for GEJ, Amaechi even went as far as saying they will run a parallel government, Boko Haram was their end game.

Unfortunately for them, they won the elections and could no longer engage the armed militia they've prepped for destruction.

Now even low budget miscreants are cashing in on the chaos to make the country unsafe.

This is exactly fake news OBJ talked about in the letter. Is it Amaechi that form the BH? Was Amaechi even a governor when BH started?. If you don't no very well BH started in OBJ first tenure as president

dammylink5:
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, on Saturday said the administration of President Muhammadu read more

Atiku is a bigger thief than pmb

9jaown:
We are talking about rule of law..
Due process..
He was taking to court.. you understand.
He proved he can’t not be trail by the court,
Cus his the CJN.
Is that one his fault..
The president was once in London, he stayed there more than the days a president was suppose to be out of the country.
Was he impeached! “NO”
The CJN was taken to court..
he won them in court. Why suspend him again.
That’s why I said
Common sense is not common.
Common sense will tell you..
Baba is doing this cus of the coming election.
No body is a fool..
This government ve prove to me, that Nigeria can’t not be one..
let the president continue what his doing Favouring one part of the country..
funny a enough he appointed an Hausa m.
CJN Hausa
Inec Hausa
Service chief Hausa.
Nd common sense that is not common.
Will not let some peopl know
What’s the president plan

What happen in the coutt at last? He waa just praying games from the beginning

Alphafeezay:
I am from.Kogi state and very in touch with politics, Buhari can't win Kogi. Impossible!!!
Buhari can't win Nasarawa!!! Impossible!!!
Buhari can't win Benue, Plateau, Niger!!!

Is like am to good in Nigeria politics, Bros i hail oooooe

Yankiss:
Probe is good irrespective of the personalities involved especially where there is no political undertone or witch-hunt involved. I have always been very skeptical of the Buhari so-called fight against corruption. No APC stalwart has ever been convicted. Orji-Kalu looting Nig-limited and Akpabio AKS unlimited have left the newsstand. They are now saints. We need to seriously and diligently prosecute all yam eaters irrespective of political leaning. Nigerians should also learn to help functional governance by bringing their protest-pressure to bear on bad governance/ miss-probes.

Maybe Senator Dariye is a pdp?

aolawale025:
For INEC to evade inspection of its server, means there's something there they don't want the world to know

How can you grant access for inspection of what you don't have? Or Atiku told he both servers for inec?

JosEast:
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the “reckless dismissal” of the alarming spate of kidnapping in the country by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo further confirmed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration has no iota of concern towards the pain and suffering of Nigerians.

The opposition party in a statement on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, said by attempting to play down on the menace as not being “as massive as that”, Prof. Osinbajo demonstrated that the APC-led government are not connected with the people but only pretends towards them during electioneering.

“In dismissing the security problem, the Vice President is simply telling victims of kidnapping that as far as the APC and its administration are concerned, they have not suffered enough. “The PDP says that such anti-people disposition, as being witnessed under the APC, can only come from an uncaring and insensitive administration that does not have the mandate of the people.

“It is therefore unfortunate that instead of being remorseful and seeking solutions, Prof. Osinbajo is rather playing on the sensibility of Nigerians by attempting to justify his comment, which has been widely condemned by citizens from all walks of life. “Prof. Osinbajo has only succeeded in showcasing President Buhari’s incompetence and failure in securing the nation. “He has also ridiculed his office in the eye of the international community, who is well aware of the gravity of kidnapping and other security challenges confronting our nation.

“What has Prof. Osinbajo said to the families whose breadwinners have been killed by kidnappers and many more who are still languishing in kidnappers’ den? “When will the problem of kidnapping become “massive” for the APC administration when medical doctors, community heads, faith-based leaders, government officials and their relations, students, innocent school children, pregnant women and even expatriates are being kidnapped in various parts of the country? “While our party and indeed millions of Nigerians appreciate the efforts by our security operatives in fighting this menace, despite the operational challenges imposed on them by the incompetent APC administration, the PDP insists that President Buhari must bear the blame for the persistence of the security problems,” the PDP said.

Read more: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/kidnapping-buhari-apc-have-no-concern-for-nigerians-pdp.html

Hmmmmm, Nigeria, pdp has suddenly become a pain killer. I guess pdp is even one of the reasons why the VP gave that advice. I watched the VP's comment today on TVC and I was so shocked how the pdp spread fake news on social media. Please watch the comment on U tube before criticism because the pdp only picked a single line and tried to miss interpret to misinform the general public. Very bad.

tuniski:
Elections are mainly rigged at collation points. The introduction of e-transmission is to provide an audit trail of the result that will be brought in by the returning officers. If you have already transmitted real time the result, any manipulation becomes glaring and traceable.

This is what #teamAtiku is driving at. The server exist at least INEC has acknowledged that, the contention is Whether they banked the results there. That can only be proven by witnesses who participated in the collation processes. INEC ICT folks and ultimately and conclusively via server inspection.

Hope you understand inec statement well. They only experiment with the server for future uses pending when is admissible? Which means by every standards it was never use for this election. How can you be relying on something that was never part of the electioneering process? Why are they not demanding for the card readers which captured almost 80-90% of the total vote cast and relate it to the general vote. Am beginning to believe the issues of server is to continue to be relevant

tuniski:
They are all admissible in law. Cos you can regenerate the electronic alert from the bank when needed.

This is exactly why INEC must allow access to its server. If the atiku's claim is fake the server will conclusively prove so. Otherwise this govt is toying with legitimacy issue.

But according to inec there was no server? Or the server was used for presidential election alone? There are many other electoral cases in court regarding his party (pdp) and they have won and loose some, non of them have won or loose base on server.

buchai:
chinese are wasting their time information is power i don't know where and how they are going to take their chinese language to and that of their writing materials to?. Britain and America are millions miles ahead of them intense of research and good materials these people have conquered Asian long ago chinese are not the only country in Asian.

Are you serious about this your statement? You know where the biggest players in the I T industries come from? Outside Apple they are all from Asia. Samsung, Sony, LG, HUAWEI etc they are all from Asia