Fear is a powerful emotion and very useful to propaganda.

Propaganda was developed by Sigmund Freuds nephew Edward Bernays who first employed  it to manipulate US antwar sentiment to enter WW1. That was so effective it inspired the official US department of propagaganda still very much in effect today.

When the MSM is involved, as it always is. Propaganda is an effective way to mislead people, with lies and emotion, to accept and adopt the desired behaviour.

The defence against it is to first recognize that we all are susceptible and then avoid emotional reactions to information. Be disciplined in discerning truth demanding evidence of logic and science and share it with others who can use it in their own defence.

Truth is the primary value. Fear can't change it.