Twitter User’s Coronavirus Prediction In 2013 Has Gone Viral Again

In 2013 the Twitter user @Marco_Acortes on June 6 wrote the ominous tweet about the coming of the coronavirus. While the tweet could have been generally about the family of viruses, Twitter users have been pointing at a conspiracy theory.

The tweet from the dormant profile went viral last year when the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 put most of the world in a state of lockdown. The tweet has once more been trending due to the second wave in many countries making it relevant once more.

Acortes’ stint on Twitter between March 2013 and December 2016 saw many everyday posts. Nothing prophetic or conspiracy theory related seemed to be shared by the user. Most of his tweets appeared to be about how tired everyday life made him. He also shared his opinion on certain relevant issues of the time.

His tweet about the coronavirus read “Corona virus….its coming”.

The tweet, just like his other tweets did not get much attention when he posted it. His uneventful twitter journey seemingly came to an end on Dec. 10, 2016, when he posted a smiling face as his last tweet. The profile has since been dormant.

However, after COVID-19 became a pandemic, Twitter users stumbled upon this old tweet. It now has over 100k retweets and 200k likes. It has also been quoted over 70k times. Twitter users have had a plethora of responses to the old tweet.

Some used the tweet as meme fodder, turning it into a joke.

Others have asked Acortes to predict certain things.

Some like Scoop Whoop seem to have sprouted conspiracy theories around the tweet.

There have also been those who tried to point out the logical explanation behind this strange post. Coronavirus is a family of viruses including Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV). The world had been aware of the SARS as it had spread in the early 2000s, creating fear of a pandemic.

In 2013, Nature reported that MERS could also be spread by bats. Coronavirus, the animal-to-human transmitted virus, has always been a threat. The spread of coronavirus has been seen in the past as well. It is likely that Acortes had been referring to MERS instead of COVID-19. As the Twitter user has not resurfaced, it remains unknown what he has to say about his prediction coming true years later.