Nostradamus Death Anniversary: Did he Really Predict COVID-19 Pandemic?

Nostradamus, full name Michel de Nostradamus, was a 16th century French astrologer, physician, and prognosticator. In 1566, July 1 or 2, he passed away after predicting his death. Ever since, there is an intrigue, mystical aura that surrounds the name Nostradamus.

He was believed to possess psychic ability, and practice occult. His book ‘The Prophecies/ Les Prophéties’ is a compilation of his predictions of the future.

His prophecies are usually about dramatic events like- plagues, earthquakes, wars, floods, invasions, droughts, and battles.

Of late, the seer has been once again in the news prior to his death anniversary, owing to a viral social media post that suggests or rather claims Covid-19 pandemic was predicted by Nostradamus 500 years ago.

Here’s the quote that several Facebook users have been sharing attributing the source to Nostradamus’ book:

“There will be a twin year (2020) from which will arise a queen (corona) who will come from the east (China) and who 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. It will be the end of the world economy as you know it.”

So what’s the verdict on his prediction? Let’s find out:

1. As per reports by Reuters, Stephane Gerson, Professor of French Studies, and History at New York University, clarified that the viral text’s source is definitely not from Nostradamus’ ‘Prophecies’; and also does not stem from his other prognostications.

2. The viral text’ does not adhere to Nostradamus’ 942 collections of poetic quatrains (a style of poem that comprises 4 lines).

3. When searched online with keywords, none of his works matched with the text in his book.

4. Gerson’s book titled- “Nostradamus: How an Obscure Renaissance Astrologer Became the Modern Prophet of Doom” talks about how the man’s predictions are arcane and thereby bear the potential to ‘hint/suggest at anything’. Owing to their ambiguous nature, it becomes easier to deduce or make inferences of one’s own and spread false Nostradamian prophecies when something unforeseen takes place.

5. The vagueness, the lack of specificity in dates, time, in his writings give his predictions a more timeless appeal. There were around 35 plague references in his prophecies as during his time (16th century), plagues were very common in Europe.

6. Basically the urge to hold on to a conceptual framework and prevent it from shattering at the wake of anything unforeseen and disastrous, tends to drive people to look for a pattern or design in the scheme of things that pose a threat to well-being. Therefore such recurrence of fake-Nostradamus predictions are common during uncertain times.

Therefore, after several probes, it has been found that the post on Nostradamus Covid-19 prediction claim is false.

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