The Morangos com Açúcar ("Strawberries with Sugar") Virus was an episode of mass hysteria that erupted in Portugal in May 2006. It was initiated by an episode of the popular Portuguese teen soap opera entitled "Morangos com Açúcar".
The television show, which first premiered in August 2003, follows the stories of a group of teenage kids and the dramaticized ups and downs that they encounter in their daily lives. In the episode, a terrible disease was introduced to the school attended by the characters in the series.
Only a few days after the episode aired, a few teens began to develop symptoms like rashes, breathing troubles, and severe dizziness. Before long, the "disease" had spread to more than 300 high school students in 14 different Portuguese schools. Some schools were actually forced to temporarily close because of the severity of the outbreak.
The Portuguese National Institute for Medical Emergency brushed the epidemic off, calling it a case of mass hysteria. Another doctor, Mario Almeidi, pronounced his disbelief in the disease, saying "I know of no disease which is so selective that it only attacks school children."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morangos_com_A%C3%A7%C3%BAcar_Virus
Tell everyone there is a deadly virus, sprinkle in some unemployment, no socialization and some extra indoor time and you van achieve some deaths.
There was also a weird dancing disease at some point in history. People couldn't stop dancing. Might have been Germany.
“The dog ate my homework” of 2021 is complicity in hysteria
It's called social contagion. https://uncommongroundmedia.com/six-impossible-beliefs-and-the-damage-they-have-done/