Was Coronavirus Predicted in a 1981 Dean Koontz Novel?







A speculative anticipation of a possibility is very different than a 'prediction.'







































							Mostly False
['Author Dean Koontz predicted the 2020 new coronavirus outbreak in his 1981 novel "The Eyes of Darkness."', 'An image shows a genuine page from Dean Koontz\'s novel "The Eyes of Darkness" containing the words "Wuhan-400."', 'Dean Koontz did not predict an outbreak of a new coronavirus. Other than the name, his fictional biological weapon had little in common with the virus that caused a real outbreak in 2020.', 'When readers first came across a biological weapon named “Wuhan-400” in Dean Koontz’s novel “The Eyes of Darkness,” we doubt anyone had the notion that the famous thriller author was “predicting” a real-world outbreak of COVID-19, coronavirus disease. But in February 2020, after such an outbreak had occurred, eagle-eyed Koontz fans shared this passage as if the famous thriller author was a prognosticator.', '', 'This is a genuine page from the novel “The Eyes of Darkness.” The passage can be seen in Amazon’s preview of a mass market paperback edition of this novel that was released in December 2008.', 'It’s true that Koontz named a fictional biological weapon “Wuhan-400” in this novel. It’s also true that Wuhan, China, is the city at the center of the 2020 coronavirus outbreak. However, that’s pretty much where the similarities end.', 'Here are a few things this “prediction” gets wrong:', 'But there’s more bad news for this prediction.', 'While the page from Koontz’s novel displayed above is genuine, other iterations of this book used a different name for the fictional biological weapon. In fact, when we searched a 1981 edition of this book available via Google Books we found no references to “Wuhan.” In that edition, this biological weapon is called “Gorki-400” after the Russian city where it was created.', '', 'We’re not entirely sure when or why this change occurred. From what we can tell, the biological weapon was originally called “Gorki-400” when this book was published in 1981. But by 2008, the name had been changed to “Wuhan-400.”', 'Regardless of when “Wuhan-400” made its way into Koontz’ novel, this is not a prediction. Koontz did not claim that the events that took place in his novel would later come to fruition, and the similarities between “Wuhan-400” and COVID-19 are minimal. Furthermore, readers only noticed this “prediction”\xa0after\xa0an outbreak of coronavirus was reported in Wuhan, China, which makes this “prediction” nothing more than a coincidence.', 'Another image supposedly showing a second page from Koontz’ novel “The Eyes of Darkness” was also circulated on social medias as further evidence that the author had “predicted” the COVID-19 pandemic:', '', 'This page does not come from Koontz’ novel “The Eyes of Darkness.” This actually comes from a book called “End of Days” by self-described psychic Sylvia Browne. You can read more about Browne’s “prediction” here.', 'Taylor, Chloe. \xa0 “Coronavirus is More Fatal in Men Than Women, Major Study Suggests.” \xa0 \xa0 CNBC. \xa0 18 February 2020.', 'Rumors about antifa plotting violence have coincided with the month of July and Gettysburg before.', 'A complete story is rarely told in a headline.', 'Social media rumors that two memorials in New York were vandalized proved misleading.', 'In August 2019, a 23-year-old unarmed Black man died after an encounter with police officers in Aurora, Colorado.', 'A chaotic scene in St. Louis sparked outrage, memes, and confusion.', 'Socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested on sex abuse charges connected to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.', 'The white supremacist group made frequent use of the slogan more recently embraced by President Donald Trump, though they did not, as some claim, invent it.', "The question of past arrests often surfaces among people who want to rationalize police officers' actions when Black men are killed in custody.", 'You can claim anything if you remove the barrier of evidence.', 'Rumors about antifa plotting violence have coincided with the month of July and Gettysburg before.', '© 1995 - 2020 by Snopes Media Group Inc.', 'This material may not be reproduced without permission.', 'Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com']
Was Coronavirus Predicted in a 1981 Dean Koontz Novel?