Any 'stories', these days, that are clearly trying to put folks into a state of fear or panic (like this article)... Is automatically a suspect for some kind of 'mind-manipulation game'. This is definitely not an unbiased report, when they use words like "your life may depend on it" and go into so much disaster visualizations.
I see that these kinds of 'fear-inducing' stories are quite common now these days... as the 'powers that were' are 'grasping at straws', as they feel their whole power-structure crumbling into the rising consciousness of the People (Us).