A passage from Sylvia Browne’s End of Days circulated during the COVID-19 pandemic because it described a worldwide respiratory illness around 2020. The timing and some of the description feel striking when read alongside what happened. Reading the rest of the passage gives a fuller picture.
What the 2008 book said
The publisher lists End of Days by Browne and Lindsay Harrison as a 2008 release. In the passage, the authors describe a severe pneumonia-like illness spreading globally around 2020. It also says the illness would suddenly vanish, return ten years later and then disappear completely.
What happened in 2019 and 2020
The World Health Organization’s overview identifies a novel coronavirus first detected in late 2019 and dates WHO’s characterization of the outbreak as a pandemic to March 2020. WHO tracked continued spread and ended the global health emergency in 2023. The passage gave neither the virus’s identity nor the actual course of the outbreak.
How to read a striking prediction
- Find the original source and publication date.
- Write down each part of the claim, including details a viral excerpt leaves out.
- Compare each part with events that can be checked independently.
- Leave predictions about future dates open until there is evidence to assess them.
Readers can find the resemblance memorable and still ask how much the original wording specified. See our review of predictions made for 2019 for another worked comparison.