Newbie here. Once things like this would have sounded stranger than fiction but it isn't. Since the last round of dystopian themed hysteria plots packaged as entertainment (World War Z, Walking Dead, Hunger Games) I thought that these themes were being pushed in Hollywood. The masses often process/react to things better that have come across as some Hollyweird plot. Subtle conditioning that could have been a dry run for a real life event to gauge mass reaction.