Fans Potentially Figured Out What the Name of Taylor Swift’s New Song “Patient Zero” Means

Anyone else cancel their plans tonight to wait up patiently for Taylor Swift’s new single “Patient Zero”? Um, not to mention the rest of her The Life of a Showgirl: Encore songs, “Pink Clouding,” “Cleveland!” and “Babylon”? Very much same. There’s already a lot of debate about what these songs are about, and now fans think they’ve figured out the meaning behind “Patient Zero’s” name.Turns out the Los Angeles Times once referred to Taylor Swift as “patient zero for emotional contagion” while writing about her and Travis Kelce’s relationship. This was published in January 2024:And it looks like the Los Angeles Times is well aware that they might have been the inspiration for Taylor’s new single, because they went ahead and retweeted the article on September 22, along with a side-eye emoji.I mean, it’s definitely possible Taylor decided to write a song called “Patient Zero” for an entirely different reason, but either way, it looks like she’s had this planned for a while. “Patient for the Encore” was literally referenced in the “Opalite” music video:As for “Pink Clouding,” that phrase has a lot of interesting lore you can read about this way (fans already think the song is about Matty Healy and it hasn’t even dropped yet), and if “Cleveland!” isn’t about Taylor’s newly-minted husband Travis Kelce (who grew up in the Cleveland area) it will be a true shock.Reminder, The Life of a Showgirl: Encore (and its four brand-new songs) drop tonight at midnight (aka 12 a.m. ET on September 25).