In 1981, the famous suspense thriller writer from America Dean Koontz didn't know the spiral of coincidence he was weaving while writing the Eye of Darkness. The interesting read caught the attention of the netizens and hardcore Koontz fans when they pointed out one of the most important detail in the story. The chilling literary coincidence follows the outbreak of a deadly virus from Wuhan.
In the book, Koontz talks about a bioweapon that takes the lives of thousands and comes from the labs of Wuhan. The virus was called Wuhan-400 in the book and the Koontz readers were left speechless by the prediction made by the writer 39 years ago. The media wasn't too far behind in catching up with the Koontz fans.
The conspiracy theories are rounding up along with the search for answers by several people across the globe about the coronavirus in reality. One of the most discussed conspiracy theories out of the lot is about the virus being from a lab in China and not the animal market. It is being addressed as a bioweapon even though experts say that the virus does not display any of the characteristics of a biological weapon.
A simple sentence is trending on Twitter
The story follows a mother who goes in search of her son who had gone camping and was presumed dead after he goes missing. The mother believes that her son is alive because there was no explanation for the death of the members who went for the camping trip. The story ends with the mother finding her child in a lab after he was tested positive for the virus. The story is said to have made people stand on their toes in the 1980s.
The strong storyline has an uncanny resemblance to the new coronavirus. What caught the attention of the people while reading the book was a simple sentence:
The story talks about the virus as a perfect weapon that only affects humans. The story details a biological weapon built by Chinese scientists in their biological weapons program. One excerpt from the book defines what the disease is it talks about how the title of the book refers to what the disease is. The disease attacks motor functions in the brain and the scientists were not able to develop an antibody for the disease but the woman's son was able to survive the disease.
There are several coincident details that can be highlighted. Apart from the detail about the Wuhan-400, the novel talks about a lab in the city which comes into focus because of the virus. The strange thing is that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is just 32 kilometres from the epicentre of the virus in reality. It is the country's level four biosafety laboratory, the highest-level classification of labs that study deadly viruses.
There are several such details that made the story popular in the 80s and the present situation is bringing the thriller back.
Tweets on Koontz but no comments from the author himself
The cryptic message from the book was originally discovered by the Twitter account @DarrenPlymouth and has since trended on the internet with other users trying to bring out the storyline in detail.
People have been flooding Twitter with pictures of the book where there are parts that talk about the virus. The excitement over the book began days ago and several of the youth have started to discover who Koontz is.
Earlier on Sunday during an interview with Fox News, Senator Tom Cotton discussed without evidence that the virus was a bioweapon. But, under one such tweet posted by the Senator was a netizen's comment about the book. This has led to the internet to go back and read the 80s classic thriller.
Is it a biological weapon?
There have been several questions about the new virus being a weapon of mass destruction. One of the earliest uses of a biological weapon happened in 1347 by the Mongols. It was also common during the world wars.
During the Cold War, there was a large initiative that led to the signing of the Biological Weapons Convention. Even in the present day and age several countries work on bioweapons and are said to have an active R&D team for it. Along with this, there are rumours about bioterrorism as well.
The definition of bioweapon says that it is 'an item of material which projects, disperses, or disseminates a biological agent; including arthropod vectors'. The characteristics of the bioweapons detail that it has the ability to multiply in the body over time and actually increase its effect. Experts strongly believe that there are no links between the Covid-19 and bioweapons.
The COVID-19
Chen Qiushi was one of the first whistleblowers from China who recorded the sickness and deaths in the country even before the government talked about the spreading virus. Since then there has been a considerable amount of changes and attention brought by the virus. Presently The disease which began in December has led to the death of more than a thousand people and at least 70,000 people were infected by the virus.
