Yes! especially your last point about occultism - studying occultism helps us in this, by developing our astral and mental capablities.

But I would add, in the case of covid, it wasn't only the "media" that people were listening to (although the media was the messenger), it was governments at all levels; there were a lot of administrative actions that were put in place by governments with which people had to comply. Yes the media did give out these messages, but I think many people were very much convinced by the fact that things like vaccine mandates, or masking requirements, or rules about how many people could be in a room at once, were "law" and must be complied with.