Fear overwhelms logical thought. Pointless activity replaces reason, and sensible advice is no longer heard. Sometimes whole nations are affected.
Parents lock up their children lest they be abducted.
No one eats beef, or eggs, or whatever is causing the latest panic. Previously sensible people see flashbacks of the aliens' green eyes. In the middle of a panic, what's needed is for everyone to calm down. And that's just the treatment Britain requires for the current panic over the drug ecstasy. Following the heart-rending deaths of several teenagers who were apparently trying ecstasy for the first time, it has become impossible to express any sensible opinion on the drug.