The Coronavirus outbreak which started in Wuhan, Hubei province, in China, has killed 361 people and has confirmed cases of about 17,205 cases. The US has 2 confirmed cases of the virus, a husband and wife in San Benito, California. The husband travelled to Wuhan, but the wife did not. The UK as well has 2 confirmed cases, the virus is spreading around like the plague. Did the famous seer Nostradamus predict this when he warned of a “great plague” some 500 years ago?
While the virus started in Wuhan, China, it has already spread to 22 countries, from people who came from Wuhan. Many countries have already imposed a ban on travellers from China. According to the World Health Organization, the first fatality outside China was found in the Philippines, a man from Wuhan who arrived last January 21 with a female companion. She is currently quarantined and under observation.
There are many who believe that Nostradamus predicted this virus, and that it will continue to kill people around the world. Nostradamus’ followers consider him to be a powerful seer and prophet whose many predictions have come true. Like the Great Fire of London in 1666 and the rise of Hitler in 1933. His predictions were written in a form of mystic passages known as quatrains. The bulk of his quatrains were published in 1555 in his magnum opus Les Propheties. One of them, could possibly be about the Coronavirus – Century 2:53. It reads: “The great plague of the maritime city, will not cease until there be avenged the death of the just blood, condemned for a price without crime, of the great lady outraged by pretence.”
Now there is a debate on how to interpret the quatrain, for example, Hubei province is a landlocked area of Eastern China, so it is not a maritime city. However, the virus stemmed from a seafood market in Wuhan, which could be the reference to the maritime city. Nostradamus has also predicted other plagues and disasters in other quatrains. But some experts believe that some of these quatrains are either misrepresented or understood wrongly.
Bria Dunning, author of Skeptoid podcast, explain that Nostradamus’ writings are not genuine forecasts of the future. “Nostradamus’ writings are exploited in a number of fallacious ways. Ambiguous and wrong translations, creative interpretations, hoax writings, fictional accounts, and the breaking of non-existent codes within his quatrains all contribute to a vast body of work, all of it wrong, and many times the size of everything Nostradamus ever actually wrote,” he mentions. He added, “ Michele de Nostredame was truly one of the brilliant lights of his day, but to subscribe to false stories and urban legends is to disrespect who the man really was. Appreciate his contributions to medicine, and Renaissance literature, and don’t trivialise his good works in favour of a pretended history of paranormal magic powers.”
Well, surely the Nostradamus fanatics will disagree with Mr. Dunning. Whatever the case may be, whether the Coronavirus was predicted by him or not, it is here, and it is not to be taken lightly. Many people from affected countries are using surgical masks for fear of getting contaminated. So take care wherever you are, and try not to schedule a trip to Wuhan any time soon.
