Yes but more than that.
When you read fiction and then you take it to heart and start to feel it has real meaning for the world, you’re at risk of believing a lie.
This is the method they used to butter up the public for the “covid” fraud.
With Hollywood movies about pandemics going back decades.
Everyone got scared and their plan almost worked.
Or it can spur you to do more research on your own, which is exactly what I did back then. That was in libraries mind you, LOL. What I found was that King did his homework. What I also found was that there were much worse things than what Kind described in the book. Shortly thereafter I read the Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton. He also did his homework. This disease came from space which is something I'd never before considered.
Anyway, they both led me into deep dives on viruses where I further scared myself. My previous scary research into thermonuclear war was nowhere near as frightening as viruses. Now you've made me miss my library days.
Yes. Kind of like the folks around here, LARPing along with the infotainment media they are watching on TV, pretending that people are dropping dead from the virus all around them. In reality, no one on the island has been hospitalized or evacuated for treatment for COVID. No one has even been seriously ill.
Not withstanding, some in local government (You know the type) have taken to heart the advice of Rahm Emanuel to "Never let a good crisis go to waste".