Fact Check: Did 'My Secret Terrius' episode 10 on Netflix predict coronavirus outbreak?

As soon as the outbreak of coronavirus became a global pandemic, there have been many posts and rumours flying in social media about moments in history, literature and entertainment that predicted that Coronavirus will be a part of 2020. In yet another such rumour, people on Twitter have now claimed that a Korean drama had predicted the coronavirus. This drama is called My Secret Terrius and was released in 2018. It is important to know whether this is fake news on real news. 

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Korean drama predicted Coronavirus?

Claim:

Twitterati came across a scene in the Korean drama My Secret Terrius where a character is being told about a coronavirus. In the scene, the character asks about the virus and the doctor says that it is a respiratory disease. She also said that it comes under the same gene information of MERS and SARS. While MERS had a mortality rate of 20%, this coronavirus has a mortality rate of 90%. Here is a tweet shared by a person that talks about the scene. It comes at My Secret Terrius episode 10 minute 53:

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Rating: Mixture

What is true: The show talks about a coronavirus. The doctor in the show also discusses that the virus is fatal. She says that it has no cure or vaccine.

What is false: There is no prediction about COVID-19 and that it will spread in 2020. The virus in the show is also man-made and genetically mutated. On the other hand, there is no evidence that COVID-19 was man-made. 

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Origin:

Tweets about the show My Secret Terrius, a Korean Drama, spread across all social media and claimed that it is predicting the coronavirus that is affecting the world now, COVID-19. The show, on the other hand, talks about the existence of a type of coronavirus, but it does not name this one in particular. There are several different kinds of coronaviruses in existence, out of which 7 affect humans. The show seems to be referring to a fictional variant.

The characters later come to know that this virus is used by an anti-humanity group to harm human beings. This conspiracy is also named as The Cors Project. One of the characters talks about how it is being used to have a biochemical terrorist attack on countries. The Corona disease in the show is a type of virus, but it is purely fictional. Coronavirus in the show is being used a bioweapon and it is a mutated virus which is man-made. COVID-19 has been proved to be a natural, not a man-made, virus. There is no proof that it is a bioweapon of any kind. The show also talks about how there is a 90% mortality rate because of the mutation and it attacks the lungs within 5 minutes of exposure. COVID-19, on the other hand, is reported by a leading British publication to likely have a mortality rate of 1 % or lower, according to the UK’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty. 

Since this rumour has started taking a seat on many social media portals, people have been on the internet, searching for the same. As per Google trends, there was a sudden spike in the searches on March 24 after 9.30 am. While this tumbled down soon enough, it again gained impetus further in the day. People also started searching about the show's availability in various countries and also about the episode.

Source: Google Trends

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