>>13191it's called mass hysteria
people these days live in an average state of sickness from lifestyle, eating foods humans did not evolve to eat, and a toxic environment, all of that added to the psychological effects of nocebo and Munchausen syndrome (factitious disorder imposed on self) causes mass hysteria where people flood places like hospitals
even Scrubs had an episode making fun of such phenomena way back, where they show the hordes of people showing up in the hospital the day after a huge public health scare was announced
meanwhile, in reality, pathogenic viruses don't exist, and there's no such thing as contagious disease at all, it's not how disease works, and never was, any such model has always been a ploy used by snake oil salesmen and authoritarians seeking more power