Considering how 'The Simpsons' has been eerily prescient about a number of events, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it predicted the outbreak of coronavirus.
In recent months, a four-panel meme has circulated via social media and WhatsApp that claims 'The Simpsons' predicted COVID-19 as far back as 1993. Here's that image.
Three out of the four images come from a Season 4 episode, 'Marge In Chains', which sees Springfield in the grip of an outbreak of Osaka Flu, caused by a Japanese factory worker coughing into a package containing the Juice Loosener.
Homer, annoyed that he's been making orange juice by crushing oranges with his head for years, orders a Juice Loosener - as does Principal Skinner, which is where the third image clockwise comes from.
The fourth image, meanwhile, has been edited and the word 'coronavirus' pasted over the words 'Apocalypse Meow'. That image, meanwhile, comes from a Season 22 episode, 'The Fool Monty' and has nothing to do with viral outbreaks or anything remotely related to coronavirus.
That being said, the main episode in question did get a couple of things accurate about the outbreak of COVID-19. For one, Dr. Hibbert recommended that anyone with the Osaka Flu get bed rest and stay indoors, adding that any other recommendation would merely be a placebo. This, in turn, caused people to panic and look for placebos and caused them to overturn a nearby truck with bees.
Likewise, one of the symptoms of coronavirus is high temperature and fever, which Todd Flanders has a result of the Osaka Flu and causes him to go delirious, though Rod Flanders initially believes he's speaking in tongues.
Other than that, there are no similarities between the episode and the very real outbreak of coronavirus.
