NewsBite

Nadia Bartel has shared a viral meme which predicted coronavirus ‘40 years ago’

Nadia Bartel has joined the likes of high profile celebrities such as Kim Kardashian in sharing a book passage that, decades ago, seems to have predicted the coronavirus.

Brownlow 2019 red carpet highlights

Instagram influencer and fashion blogger Nadia Bartel has shared a viral meme showing a passage of a book which appears to predict coronavirus - although it attributes the words to the wrong author.

Bartel, 34, posted the page to her Instagram Stories and captioned it: “This was written 40 years ago. Freaky!”

“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,” the page reads.

“Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it has arrived, attack again 10 years later, and then disappear completely.”

Nadia Bartel and the coronavirus prediction meme. Picture: Instagram
Nadia Bartel and the coronavirus prediction meme. Picture: Instagram

The meme gives credit to horror writer Dean Koontz, saying it comes from his 1981 novel The Eyes of Darkness.

The meme claimed incorrectly that the passage was written by author Dean Koontz. Picture: Instagram
The meme claimed incorrectly that the passage was written by author Dean Koontz. Picture: Instagram
Novelist Dean Koontz. Picture: Supplied
Novelist Dean Koontz. Picture: Supplied

However, it’s actually from late psychic Silvia Browne’s book, End of Days: Predictions and Prophecies About the End of the World, published in 2008 in the wake of the SARS outbreak, which is believed to have inspired the prediction.

Many high profile types including Kim Kardashian have shared the meme, with the eerie passage taking social media by storm.

Kim Kardashian. Picture: Getty
Kim Kardashian. Picture: Getty

Theorists have been drawing attention to Browne’s description of a “pneumonia-like illness” that attacks the “lungs and bronchial tubes” and claimed it matches that of the respiratory illness today.

Sylvia Browne was best known for writing more than 40 books and was a frequent guest on US talk shows, during which she would do psychic readings with guests or callers.

Silvia Browne, psychic who ‘predicted coronavirus’. Picture: Getty
Silvia Browne, psychic who ‘predicted coronavirus’. Picture: Getty

But she was nearly as infamous for her repeated false or discredited predictions.

She made numerous other significant errors while predicting the outcomes of abductions, and she even got the age she would die at wrong by 11 years.

Originally published as Nadia Bartel has shared a viral meme which predicted coronavirus ‘40 years ago’

Original URL: https://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/nadia-bartel-has-shared-a-viral-meme-which-predicted-coronavirus-40-years-ago-but-its-wrong/news-story/53ddd67fec8933b16b00d9dab4696df4