This is a quote from the Anthax book i'm working on - but it could fit here too.

BBC/SUSAN WATTS:

America's anthrax attack last autumn was second only to that on the Twin Towers in the degree of shock and anxiety it caused...Some even say the anthrax letters triggered sub-clinical hysteria in the American people...yet this, the first major act of biological terrorism the world has seen remains an unsolved crime...

As Dan pointed out, the mass psychosis we're seeing now is not hysteria exactly - it's conformity, hence formation - which involves mass-abrogation of personal responsibility.

But they're both examples of the mass-consciousness being captured, permanently altered, for corrupt reasons.