The health scare caused by the deadly coronavirus has gripped the world. More than 1,700 have died and over 70,000 people have been infected, mostly in China. Scientists across the world are trying to find vaccines to treat the disease. So far, it remains elusive.
Microbiologists involved the study say that the reason for the delay is because the coronavirus is new and has infected humans for the first time. So, it's taking time to understand the virus and control its spread.
Strangely, on Sunday, a person on Twitter posted a picture of a novel The Eyes of Darkness and a page from it that talks about a virus like a coronavirus called-Wuhan-400. The said novel was published 40 years ago!
The Twitter user with the handle @DarrenPlymouth wrote, "it's a strange world we live in".
Ringing an alarming bell, the eerie similarity between the fictitious virus name and the epicentre of the current outbreak of the coronavirus, made people on Twitter wonder if the novel predicted the breakout of the epidemic.
The text in the picture reads that the virus was developed at a lab outside of the city of Wuhan, and it was the four-hundredth viable stain of man-made microorganism at the research centre.
The commonality of certain aspects between a book of fiction and the ominous reality baffled many and they expressed their views on Twitter:
The Eyes of the Darkness is a suspense thriller novel written by author Dean Koontz in 1981.
The book focuses on a woman who sets out to find out if his son, who went out on a camping trip but didn't return, is dead or alive. She eventually tracks him down to a military facility where he is being held after being accidentally contaminated with man-made microorganism created at the research centre in Wuhan.
In a strange coincidence, the novel mentions the existence of a research laboratory where the virus wuhan-400 was developed-and in reality, there is the Wuhan Institute of Virology that studies the deadliest viruses, just 32 km away from the epicentre of current coronavirus outbreak.
There are some who are sceptical if the novel coronavirus is a man-made microorganism developed by China.
Congress minister Manish Tewari shared an excerpt from the book and wrote, "Is coronavirus is a biological weapon developed by the Chinese called wuhan-400? This book was published in 1081. Do read the excerpt".
However, the Wuhan Insititute if Virology has denied the rumours that the first person contracting the novel coronavirus (patient zero) came from the institute, according to a statement on its official website.
