By Maddison Pauly
The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has drawn people’s attention to internet conspiracy theories, or what people believe to be past ‘prophecies’ of the future. So, I thought I would take over Shane Dawson’s Conspiracy theories series and discuss some of the theories that are currently being talked about.
Firstly, a 1981 novel by Dean Koontz called “The Eyes of Darkness”, has recently been brought to the media’s attention, as in his novel he references a killer virus called “Wuhan-400”. This has people freaking out, as the first case of coronavirus was recognised in Wuhan, China, and that is where it is believed to have developed. However, in Koontz’s book this virus has a mortality rate of 100% and was developed in a lab as weapon, so it is a little different to Covid-19 but still, what are the chances?
Secondly, in 2008, psychic named Sylvia Browne published a book called “End of Days: Predictions and Prophecies About the End of the World”. In her book, she brings to attention "In around 2020, a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments”. Covid-19 has often been described as similar to pneumonia, and there is currently no cure to it either, making people believe that this book may have predicted our future. The scariest part about this coincidence is that it was written by a psychic who also later goes on saying "Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived, attack again ten years later, and then disappear completely”. This has people wondering if she really was psychic but unfortunately, we will never know the truth as the author sadly passed away in 2013.
Thirdly, a passage from the Bible was recently brought to our attention through Facebook. To be specific it was a passage in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land”. For those who may not understand the significance of this passage, “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain” people believe it is referring it to Australia’s drought and bushfires. “Command locusts to devour the land” is referring to the millions of locusts that are destroying and eating crops in East Africa. And of course, “Send a plague among my people” is referring to the coronavirus. This passage has led to many people freaking out and wondering if the Bible predicted the future, because what are the chances that all of these three events happened in the same year?
Fourthly, in the Disney animated film, Tangled, Rapunzel’s adoptive mother isolates Rapunzel from the rest of the world and especially the kingdom where she is originally from. The scary thing about this Disney movie is that Rapunzel was being isolated from the kingdom of Corona. Has Disney predicted this since 2010? One positive thing about this film is, if you listen to the song “When will my life begin?”, it might give you some ideas on what you should do during self-isolation (obviously while you’re not doing online school).
Lastly but not in the least shocking, is the film Contagion by Scott Z Burns, released in 2013. This movie is about a fictional illness called MEV-1, which becomes a global pandemic after a bat spread it to a pig who spread it to a person who didn’t wash his hands before shaking hands with another person. This film sounds very similar to the current situation of Covid-19 as it was believed to have first been developed through someone eating a bat from a Chinese market, and one of the main messages about preventing the spread is through washing your hands.
Whether or not coincidences or conspiracies, Covid-19 is a serious health problem that won’t be solved unless we all come together as a community (metaphorically). So please do your part in washing your hands, coughing and sneezing into your elbow, staying home and social distancing yourself from others. If we all do this together, as a connected community, maybe we can help slow down the spread of Covid-19 and return our lives back to semi-normal.