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Birdwatch Note

2025-08-25 11:41:45 UTC - MISINFORMED_OR_POTENTIALLY_MISLEADING

Dean Koontz never predicted COVID-19. His fictional ‘Wuhan-400’ bioweapon only shared a name with the city. The 2020 illness passage is from Sylvia Browne’s End of Days, not Koontz’s The Eyes of Darkness, & has little in common with the real coronavirus outbreak. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dean-koontz-predicted-coronavirus/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/02/fact-check-1981-dean-koontz-book-didnt-predict-covid-19/3124328001/ https://www.reuters.com/article/world/partly-false-claima-1981-book-predicted-the-coronavirus-2019-outbreak-idUSKCN20M18P/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/26/viral-image/book-end-days-described-illness-2020-not-wuhan-400/ https://www.altnews.in/no-dean-koontzs-1981-novel-did-not-predict-coronavirus-emerging-from-china/ https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3051619/china-wasnt-original-villain-book-predicting-coronavirus https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/a-novel-published-in-1981-did-not-predict-the-2019-coronavirus/ https://www.10news.com/news/fact-or-fiction/fact-or-fiction-dean-koontz-novel-predicted-coronavirus

Written by C9E1F0A7D1131563C3CC49A5ED4E9A43CB01A0A6DA8FA7EA9CA534F690A3DCE1
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• summary
• Dean Koontz never predicted COVID-19. His fictional ‘Wuhan-400’ bioweapon only shared a name with the city. The 2020 illness passage is from Sylvia Browne’s End of Days, not Koontz’s The Eyes of Darkness, & has little in common with the real coronavirus outbreak. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dean-koontz-predicted-coronavirus/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/02/fact-check-1981-dean-koontz-book-didnt-predict-covid-19/3124328001/ https://www.reuters.com/article/world/partly-false-claima-1981-book-predicted-the-coronavirus-2019-outbreak-idUSKCN20M18P/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/26/viral-image/book-end-days-described-illness-2020-not-wuhan-400/ https://www.altnews.in/no-dean-koontzs-1981-novel-did-not-predict-coronavirus-emerging-from-china/ https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3051619/china-wasnt-original-villain-book-predicting-coronavirus https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/a-novel-published-in-1981-did-not-predict-the-2019-coronavirus/ https://www.10news.com/news/fact-or-fiction/fact-or-fiction-dean-koontz-novel-predicted-coronavirus