Taylor Swift fans dissect origins of 'Patient Zero' ahead of release

Taylor Swift just announced her new single, Patient Zero, and it's all the buzz on social media as Swifties try to trace back all the clues the pop icon has been setting up.

The 36-year-old performer has seemingly been dropping hints as far back as her New Heights episode where she announced her album, The Life of a Showgirl.

Eagle-eyed Swifties brought up an article published about Swift's then-budding relationship with Travis Kelce, which described her as “patient zero for emotional contagion” referring to the intense public scrutiny that they went through, and theorised that it could have been the inspiration behind the upcoming track.

Reacting to the theory, other Swifties flocked together and wrote, "patient zero is crazy but shes not wrong though the whole world caught that fever in real time."

Another added, "While one has to be careful not to jump to conclusions before the song/lyrics are actually released ,the fact that the term 'Patient Zero' was specifically used in the 1/4/24 LA Times article how Taylor & Travis' 'whirlwind romance is the love Story we've been waiting for'.."

A third chimed in, "Honestly.... that sounds like exactly what would have inspired her..... she picked that phrase and put it in her notes app and here we are lol," and "The Taylor and Travis era really showed how invested people can get in celebrities’ personal lives. The attention was bigger than the relationship itself sometimes," wrote another.

While one exclaimed, "she's got alot to SAYYYY."

Fans don't have to wait for long to find out whether their theory is right as Patient Zero will be released on September 25.