It's a social contagion of panic. Blurry video clips trend on social media > local news talks about it > people report to state and local government > national

It's a social contagion of panic. Blurry video clips trend on social media > local news talks about it > people report to state and local government > national news talks about it > people report to national agencies > national agencies shrug > people say it must be aliens, Iranians, or the CIA. A few thousand people might have seen a drone, but a few million people saw a politician going on national television claiming there's an Iranian mothership off the coast.