The movie, Contagion. Photo Credit: Parade.com

By Raphael James

Could it be true that “Wuhan-400” Coronavirus is a “Bio Weapon” that has been worked on for years, until now that it is released to mankind? Or is it a coincidence that man or rather movie makers had predicted the coming of the virus after the 1918 Spanish Flu? I am asking because both ways someone is smiling to the bank as millions may die.

Dr. Raphael James

POINT ONE: 

Take a look at the novel “THE EYES OF DARKNESS” published in May 1981 by Leigh Nichols (Dean Koontz) in the United States.The author told us – readers in his 312 page suspense novel, about a Corona-virus and a Chinese military lab that creates a virus as part of its biological weapons research. He told readers that the lab is located in Wuhan, which lends the virus its name, Wuhan-400. This is because it was developed at their RDNA labs outside of the city of Wuhan, and it was the four-hundredth viable strain of man-made micro-organisms created at that centre.”

POINT TWO

Have you watched the following  movies: The 1971 thriller “The Andromeda Strain”, which was adapted from a novel by Michael Crichton. The movie shows how scientific and technological breakthroughs created existential threats to mankind. It was about a virus used against mankind.

You also need to see “12 Monkeys,” a 1995 science-fiction plot about using time travel to try to thwart a nascent plague that will wipe out most of humanity.

There is yet another movie “Outbreak,” in which an airborne virus gets inadvertently smuggled into the US from Africa, requiring a team of doctors (led by Dustin Hoffman) to race against time trying to save a town where the infection is spreading.

There is also “The Hot Zone,” which is a fact-based account by the National Geographic about the emergence of Ebola virus in 1989. It is also about how Army scientists reacted to potential exposure in the suburbs of Washington DC, via imported monkeys.

The movie “World War Z.” is another one worth watching. 

The one that may thrill you the more is “Contagion”, a 2011 movie about a pandemic with potential similarities like that of Coronavirus. They called that film ‘science fiction’. I will say nothing about it, until u see it.

If you see Contagion as directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Scott Z. Burns, you may not want to believe that it was acted in 2011, you will feel that it was acted in March 2020.

The bottom line here is that just like some people are making money from the killings of thousands of civilians and soldiers in the Boko Haram war in Nigeria, millions are being made from the sales of drugs on Coronavirus, as more people contract the sickness and are dying, someone is making more money into his or her bank account. 

The time to act fast is now, we don’t want a repeat of events of 1918-1920 in 2020. While we do our prayers, caution has to be taken. As I write Italy’s death toll has surpassed that of China with 3,405 dead as at March 19, 2020. In the United States, several members of the House of Representatives announced that they would voluntarily go into self-quarantine after two members of the House were tested positive. Nigeria has closed down schools. The United Kingdom has recorded 144 dead. Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria has recorded cases of the virus, with lots of speculations or unconfirmed report of death. As the Nigeria’s central bank works on creating a 50 billion naira ($163 million) fund to combat the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, let us act now and make hay while the sun shines.

-Dr. Raphael James is Director General, Center for Research, Information Management and Media Development, Lagos