Opening Ceremony of 2012 Olympics Did Not Predict Pandemic

We concluded that there is no link between the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics and the coronavirus pandemic. The claim references a 12-minute segment of the ceremony that features nurses, hospital beds, and storybook characters. While many in the American press found the ceremony to be odd, there is a logical explanation to the display that has nothing to do with the pandemic.

According to the Olympic website, the portion of the ceremony under debate “paid tribute to Britain’s National Health Service and its amazing body of children’s literature.” More than 50 health workers and patients from London area hospitals took part in the show. The nurses and patients were meant to honor England’s popular National Health Service (NHS), its publicly funded healthcare system. 

As for the ominous-looking black hooded character, that was a 100-foot puppet of Voldemort from the Harry Potter series. The puppet was just one of several characters from British children’s literature that appeared in the ceremony. Other than Voldemort, Cruella de Vil, Mary Poppins, and the Queen of Hearts all took part to pay tribute to locally written children’s books. 

While reviews of the display were mixed, we can confidently say that the ceremony did not allude to a future global pandemic.