Sensationalist and irresponsible article claiming Nostradamus predicted the coronavirus!
[Review: “Big plague in the seaside town”: Nostradamus predicted the coronavirus, and here is the date when it will stop…]
Not a single major event in the world passes without Nostradamus and his predictions. Like many times before, the media succeeded in linking the coronavirus to Nostradamus, and the goal is one and only – to get as many clicks and readings of the texts as possible by using sensationalism.
Link to text: ”Big plague in the seaside town”: Nostradamus predicted the coronavirus, and here is the date when it will stop…
Date of publishing: 24 February 2020
Date of review: 28 February 2020
Reviewer: Simona Atanasova
We have repeatedly written on CriThink that Nostradamus’ prophecies are vaguely written, so it is impossible to link them directly to a particular event.
Nostradamus’ work is expressed in four-line stanzas, verses and puzzles, which are not chronologically arranged. In fact, most of Nostradamus’ prophecies are poorly translated and vaguely worded, and thus open to various readings and interpretations, which in turn leaves enough room for a lot of speculation.
There are many interpreters of Nostradamus, and most of them interpret one same verse about the future in different manners precisely because of the ambiguity of his writing.
This makes it impossible to claim that Nostradamus in his work was specifically referring to the coronavirus, which, despite the panic present among the public, is far less dangerous than the common flu which results in about 650.000 deaths yearly.
Social media posts have been used as sources of information in the text, with the phrase “somebody tweeted”. Anyone can post what they wish on social media, which does not mean that the story is true and should be republished in the media without further inspection, and intimidate the public by republishing articles that say “we will die soon”.
The title itself misinforms on two occasions. First, even Nostradamus truly predicted a “plague”, the title says that it is taking place in a seaside town. The coronavirus originated in the city of Wuhan in China, which is not a seaside town, which can be confirmed by a simple Google search.
The second manipulation of the public is in the final part of the headline that says “here is the date when it will stop”. This leads readers to click on the text, thinking that they will read when the virus will stop spreading. But there is no such information in the text.
It is irresponsible for an extra click to publish media articles full of sensationalism, misinformation and speculation related to the coronavirus that only exacerbates the panic that already exists in the public. The media should carefully and cautiously publish information related to coronavirus and focus more on educating the public on how to deal with the virus than on increasing readership through sensationalist reports.
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