Published 15:29 IST, March 5th 2020
Readers claim Stephen King predicted coronavirus 16 years ago
Readers said the horror fantasy novel’s plot revolved around the outbreak of a super-flu named Captain Trips that bears striking similarities to coronavirus.
People believe that the acclaimed author Stephen King predicted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) 16 years ago in the famous book by the name The Stand. The iconic horror fantasy novel’s plot revolves around the outbreak of a super-flu nicknamed Captain Trips that bears striking similarities to coronavirus, they think.
Stephen King, the all-time fictional hit writer speaks about Captain Trips saying it is a virus that infects the global population and kills at least 3.3 percent population initially. The symptoms that he describes of the fictional virus are similar to pneumonia or seasonal flu as the virus gets transmitted physically human-to-human, exactly like the coronavirus.
Only, in the book version, he speaks of the virus outbreak as the struggle beyond good and evil amongst the survivors in America, he speaks about fate. He describes a state of panic as ordinary people suffer inexplicably from flu that eventually wipes out 99.4 percent of the world population. He further makes the readers explore the epidemic hit world from the point of view of the protagonist Randall Flagg, a man of many names like The Walking Dude, The Ageless Stranger, He Who Walks Behind The Rows, The Man In Black, etc.
Flagg, a man turned evil, walks in the biological weaponry hit decimated society nostalgic about his life before the virus had torn and collapsed the world. Interestingly the book speaks about an accidental leak of the disease strain in a lab of a country, that called the unnamed, unidentified virus Project Blue which was later termed as Captain Trips. Towards the end, the tensions mount and countries fight for resources amid widespread death and devastation.
Plot sparks a discussion
The readers have shared excerpts online and are talking about the plot’s eerie similarity to the coronavirus outbreak. This has surprised people across the social media who have come on board the discussion. A mini-series of the book was also aired on ABC in 1994, so those of whom who hadn't read the book were aware of the show. While some users joked about the discovery, the rest were shocked at author Stephen King’s vision of the world. Among the many talking about the book is an international author Kevin Kruse who shared the lines from the popular book on his official Twitter account.
Updated 15:29 IST, March 5th 2020