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| - Fact Check: Did Nostradamus predict the coronavirus pandemic in 16th century?
A viral post on social media claims 16th century French astrologer Nostradamus predicted the coronavirus pandemic. Several Facebook users have attributed a quote to Nostradamus and claimed it was mentioned in his book Les Prophéties (The Prophecies).
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India Today Fact Check
The book “Les Prophéties” has no such prophecy. There is no evidence that Nostradamus had predicted the coronavirus pandemic either.
A viral post on social media claims 16th century French astrologer Nostradamus predicted the coronavirus pandemic. Several Facebook users have attributed a quote to Nostradamus and claimed it was mentioned in his book Les Prophéties (The Prophecies).
The prophecy as mentioned in the viral post reads, "There will be a twin year (2020) from which will arise a queen (corona) who will come from the east (China) and will spread a plague (virus)in the darkness of night, on a country with 7 hills (Italy) and will transform the twilight of men into dust (death), to destroy, and ruin the world."
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The outbreak of Corona Virus were predicted some 500 years ago and was written under his popular book "Les Propheties".... Posted by Trivia & Facts on Sunday, March 22, 2020
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found no evidence of the prophecy being written by Nostradamus. There is no such prophecy in his book "Les Prophéties".
The archived versions of the posts can be seen here and here. Multiple Facebook users have posted the same content.
AFWA probe
"Les Prophéties" is written in quatrain style, i.e. a kind of poem consisting of four lines. But the viral prophecy is not written in the typical quatrain style. Nostradamus's quatrain poems can be seen here.
With the help of keyword searches, we could not find the viral text in any of Nostradamus's works.
Stéphane Gerson, professor of French studies and history at New York University told Reuters that the viral text "does?not?come?from?Nostradamus's?Prophecies" nor from other prognostications made by him.
Gerson has authored and co-authored a couple of books on Nostradamus. As per him, plagues were recurrent in 16th century Europe, during Nostradamus' lifetime. In fact, there were 35 references of "plagues" in his prophecies.
Gerson told Reuters that there is nothing surprising about the re-emergence of such false Nostradamian prophecies in the wake of a disaster.
"The same thing has happened for over 400 years: invented or altered predictions, endowed with the aura of Nostradamus, surface, again and again, part of an economy of forgery, mass media circulation, and yearnings for order and design each time an unforeseen event threatens our material well-being and our conceptual frameworks," he had said.
Hence, it can be concluded that French astrologer Nostradamus might have had spoken about plagues and other incidents in his prophecies, but this particular prophecy about the coronavirus pandemic cannot be attributed to him.
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