You're absolutely right that all the fear mongering has absolutely no grounding in reality when it comes to actual safety. I think at the end of the day, the average rural/suburban person would rather take a 50% chance of dying in a car instead of the 100% chance of sharing space with others
It's red meat for the people who hang their entire worldview on lies, folk wisdom, and urban legends. Despite living in NYC for over 20 years, people who live outside it think they know better. The thing about effective propaganda is that it doesn't need to be true in even the slightest sense