Certain topics allow media and politicians and others to manipulate people easily, like COVID-19/Coronavirus, global warming/climate change, dark matter/dark energy, etc. Other examples include new technology fears, crimes, and cults (messages by or about the cults).
These topics seem eerie, mysterious, threatening. They pique people's interest due to the vague threat. Most things that interest or threaten people are rare, which is a big part of why they interest or threaten people. Media and politicians need to pique people's interest or threaten people consistently to make sales or receive votes. So they turn to difficult-to-falsify threats that they can use however they want.
With these topics, you can produce an arbitrary stream of threats. New strain of COVID! Global warming threatens islands! Scientists have new theory of dark matter! You can write whatever you want. People can't quickly test these theories. If any evidence does eventually dismiss some stupid claim, you just write a new claim. Over time these topics become rebranded, e.g. Wuhan virus > Coronavirus > COVID-19 > Delta variant, etc. When people become comfortable with one threat, you make another.
Most people don't have the time or other resources to investigate any of these topics in depth. All they see is the scary headline. Politicians and media on the other hand make their living from this, so they can afford to spend the time and resources developing fake threats.
Often these manipulations occur without much conscious planning from the guilty politicians or media. Rather, it occurs through unconscious social processes. Different businesses or political entrepreneurs take their own approaches, and these vaguely scary ones work, whether the politicians or media intended the deception or not. Deliberate manipulation can also occur.
Not an easy fix for this situation, given that there are millions of people and more coming along regularly, so it's easy enough to invent another fake threat whenever you want. I guess just educate, learn, and manage! :)
And ignore politicians and the news.
