I suppose this problem is as old as the press itself, but I think they are one reason why many people (including me) didn't believe that Covid would be a very real issue.
Over the years, many papers told us there would be Armageddon from the Millennium Bug, immigration, swine flu, bird flu, foot and mouth, that we would all die from using our mobile phones, cancer from your pen top, to name but a few. And they love the word "misery": billboards will talk about commuter misery, strike misery, hot weather misery, snow misery, council tax misery, lockdown misery etc.
As a teenager, I sucked it up like a sponge, I believed everything I read, and used to get angry about things like over-zealous parking attendants, even though I didn't have a car. Twenty years later, whenever the media gets into a frenzy about anything, I just wave it away with "oh, more press hysteria". And with Covid, I did exactly that. At first, it looked no different from anything else the press might bay about. Even with the figures, I like the saying "80% of statistics are made up on the spot", and even if they're not, they can always be manipulated to suit the agenda of whoever is saying them, as I'm sure they are being right now. Also, when the media bears some shocking headline, my immediate thought is "what is the government trying to hide?".
Right now, I am taking it seriously, but reluctantly, because it feels like I'm dancing to the press's tune, which I've generally conditioned myself not to do.
My AIBU is: because the media like to cry wolf so much to sell papers, they've stored up a big problem, and have nothing left to make the cynics among us take things seriously, when it really matters?
YANBU - it's the media's fault
YABU - not the media's fault