Yeah, I wouldn’t bet on it either.
The writer of this article, whose credentials are at the bottom of the article, seems to have not travelled to China and witnessed anything first hand.
The various links to western media film coverage show collections of people that do not seem all that closely packed together, and there are no aerial shots that could suggest the size of the crowds.
One thing very apparent is that on these video snippets, none of the faces are old people. The are all young.
Imagine that.