Such an emotional parabolic is characteristic of ignorance based hysteria. My sister invented a new word last night, she meant to say that something was growing “exponentially”, instead she said “excrementally”. That new word might apply to the growth of hysteria, in general to similar situations — like Katrina and the Gulf Oil Spill — and to this case here.
Excremental growth. I love it.
Tell your sister I said thanks.