You're spot on. Now add to it that coronavirus by definition is the flu. It's been around for a while. Everyone has had it. Except that we always called it the flu or the cold and not by it's medical name. That changed last year so when people got the normal seasonal flu, they ere told there was a deadly virus on the loose with the same symptoms. That's when fear took over, at which point the psychosomatic illnesses you speak of are quite possible.
The mind is powerful and the weak mind can be molded to the will of others.